Overview

Epoka Cluster on Social Business and Sustainable Systems (ECOSSS) is the first and only cluster in Western Balkans fully dedicated to education and learning, fundamental and applied research, and to the development of social businesses as defined by the Noble Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. In addition, the cluster strictly relies on the principles of sustainability and social responsibility.

The mission of ECOSSS is to research and promote social businesses, especially to build sustainable and developed social systems. The ECOSSS establishes social business models and strategies aimed at solving global issues (poverty, youth unemployment, health, environment, energy, education, natural disasters, etc.) by way of value co-creation with local and international partners.

Because the ECOSSS is an interdepartmental research cluster, the following are the different research areas:

Needs and Opportunities

The present cluster simultaneously fulfils several needs. First of all, there are some unfulfilled community needs like poverty and a high rate of youth unemployment in Albania and Western Balkans that can be satisfied by promoting the creation and development of social businesses. In substance, there is a call for action to build the culture and the philosophy of the social business. Why? The answer resides in the fact that the social business creates the conditions of self-employment and the employment of others by serving both the interests of the entrepreneur and the community. Yet, in order to create this culture among the young generation, the knowledge of social businesses must be disseminated through academic institutions. Therefore, the ECOSSS can serve as a hub between students and the market to satisfy students’ and market needs. Furthermore, by offering trainings and workshops in collaboration with Yunus Social Business Balkans on how to build and develop social businesses strategically, the ECOSSS will serve society and social businesses. This is fundamental for Epoka University since it advances its mission statement, vision, goals and values.

Social businesses are a cutting-edge sector for investment, policy, and research. A number of prestigious universities around the world have shown interest in studying and promoting social businesses in partnership with Yunus Social Business. Epoka University is pioneering this movement in Western Balkans by creating the ECOSSS, which serves the cause of promoting social business and growing in parallel with it. The best slogan that describes this contingency is: growing together.

There is another opportunity to be mentioned: Albania is one of the seven countries of the world that has the representation of Yunus Social Business. Given the success shown in Albania, actually the YSB Albania has been extended to YSB Balkans (the incubator is still located in Tirana). Thus, the ECOSSS with the support of YSB Balkans can offer several mentoring and internships opportunities for students of the Business Administration Department.

Recently, the Municipality of Tirana has shown interest on social businesses by dedicating a budget of 10 million lek that will go to “employment promotion project to help youth create social business”. This means that the goals of Epoka University will be aligned with the National Government and the Municipality of Tirana. This is a partnership opportunity to offer through the cluster, research, training and strategies for making social businesses more successful.

Finally, from the research perspective the cluster offers new horizons to students and professors for performing their master and PhD theses. The professors will develop their core competencies and will have a competitive advantage by focusing in this new emerging trend. They will have also the possibility to collaborate with other colleagues in different social business clusters around the world. These initiatives will be translated in a higher research quality.