Welcome to Transforming Business!

Transforming Business is a new research and development project in the University of Cambridge.

Enterprise-based Solutions to Poverty

The focus of Transforming Business is on enterprise solutions to poverty.

We are interested in practical solutions – "what works?"

In finding answers to this question, we pay particular attention to the role of social capital – the institutional, relational, moral and spiritual aspects of society.

We believe that social capital is a fundamental, though often overlooked, dimension, both of successful business enterprise and economic development.

Through innovative research and quality instruction we aim to channel the rising concern about global poverty in fresh directions that will deliver tangible improvement and genuine opportunities for people in poverty.

We will use robust, creative, and multi-disciplinary thinking, along with practical models and case studies, to discover and disseminate the most effective means of escaping from poverty through enterprise.

The project is based in Cambridge University's Faculty of Divinity and has close links with the university's Judge Business School and with the real world of business, both locally and globally.

The aims of the project are summarized in the adjacent column.

Our Aims

The project aims to examine and disseminate:

• the role of enterprise in the alleviation of poverty;
• the factors that stimulate 'the spirit of enterprise';
• the contribution of social capital to transformative business;
• ethical frameworks that promote successful business;
• case studies and practical models that inform, motivate and multiply poverty-reducing enterprise.