
Yunus Social Business Centre, King’s College is the center for Social Entrepreneurship at King’s college. It facilitates the growth of Social Entrepreneurship through various programs to have the exposure and interest on Social Entrepreneurship.
Yunus Social Business Centre acts as a research hub for Social Business guided by the principles of founder Professor Muhammad Yunus. The objective of the Centre is to spread the ideology of Prof. Yunus, by creating a social business which can solve the problems in the society in a sustainable and ethical way through university students. So, in order to increase awareness about Social Business, the center has set up a library where books, magazines, journals, and articles from various publications are made available.
Professor. Mohammad Yunus
Prof. Mohammed Yunus, born in 28th June 1940, is a Bangladeshi Economist and the father of social business and microcredit, who received Novel Peace Prize in 2006. He was the founder of Yunus Centre, Grameen Bank and many other social ventures in Bangladesh. Prof. Yunus felt that the traditional banking system was excluding the poor and forcing them to use loan-shark. These loan-sharks had set very high-interest rates so that poor people wouldn’t be able to repay, which would put them back into the vicious cycle of poverty. Understanding the problem, Dr. Yunus established Grameen Bikas Bank in 1983, which provided micro-credits to the poor without collateral to start a business, solve social problems or for their personal use. This initiative was helpful in uplifting the lives of people living in poverty in Bangladesh, which was later replicated through Yunus Social Business Centres to rest of the world. To commemorate his contribution in uplifting the poor and marginalized, who had been excluded by the costly banking system, Prof. Yunus and along with Grameen Bank was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Prof. Yunus is also a recipient of 55 honorary degrees, 112 awards and 10 state honors from different countries some of which includes Novel Peace Prize (2006), Ramon Magasaysay Award (1984), World Food Prize (1998), The Prince of Asturias Award for Concord (1998), Sydney Peace Prize (1998) and the Seoul Peace Prize (2006), President’s Award (Bangladesh, 1978), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom and the United States Congressional Gold Medal. Forbes Magazine had listed Prof. Yunus as “60 years of Asian Heroes” in 2006. He has also been mentioned in different magazines around the globe.
What is a Social Business?
Social business is a cause-oriented business where investments are made to achieve some social objectives. Social businesses must incline with their objectives of facilitating health care, housing, drinking water, renewable resources, financial services, and nutrition for underprivileged or needed people. In such business, monetary claim is only liable up to the amount of investment as investors cannot desire for personal gains. The impact of social businesses is counted on the basis of contribution made towards people and environment rather than the profit made through such accomplishments. Social businesses are allowed to make profits only if they can ascertain the profits will remain inside the company and not outside their philanthropic objectives.
Principles of Social Business
- Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization
- Financial and economic sustainability
- Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money
- When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement
- Environmentally conscious
- Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions
- …do it with joy
Social Business Institutes, Centres and Programmes at various Universities around the world
- Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center (SBRC); Kyushu University Fukuoka, Japan, 2011
- Social Venture Lab at National University of Singapore; Singapore 2011
- Yunus Social Business Centre, University of Florence (YSBCUF); Florence, Italy, 2011
- Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University; Glasgow, 2010
- Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business, European Business School; Germany, 2010
- YunusCenter at Asian Institute of Technology; Bangkok, Thailand, 2009
- Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair, HEC Paris; France, 2008
- Yunus Social Business Centre, National University of Malaysia, U.K.M., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Centre for Social Business University of Salford; Salford, Manchester, UK, 2013
- Yunus Social Business Institute, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Warsaw, Poland, 2013
- ESPM Social Business Centre, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2013
- California Institute for Social Business (CISB), California State University; Channel Islands, California, USA
- Yunus Social Business Centre’s, National Central University, Taiwan, 2014
- Yunus Social Business Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Yunus Social Business Centre, Yunnan Normal University, China
- Yunus Social Business Centre, Becker College, USA
- Yunus Social Business Centre, La Trobe University, Australia
- Yunus Centre at Sen Yet-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, 2012
- Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microcredit and Social Business, Okan University; Istanbul, Turkey, 2011
- Yunus Social Business Centre , Renmin university of China
- Yunus Social Business Centre, University of Malaysia Sains
- Yunus Social Business Centre, Kasetsart Business School, KasetsartUniversity, Bangkhen Bangkok 10900, Thailand
- Yunus Social Business Centre , SSM Institutions engineering and Technology, Tamil Nadu, India
- Yunus Social Business Centre , Universitat Abad Oliva, Barcelona
- Yunus Social Business Centre , Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC), Istiqlaliyyat Street, 6, Baku, Azerbaijan
