For this first conversation, we are joined by Prof. Kai Hockerts, one of the leading scholars in social entrepreneurship research and the initiator of the MSCA seizmic network.

Together, we go back to the early days of the field and the moment when the idea emerged to build a dedicated research community around social entrepreneurship. At a time when the topic was still quite niche, with only a small number of researchers working on related questions, creating a network of like-minded people became essential, not only to exchange academically, but also to connect socially.

In this episode, Kai shares personal reflections on what motivated him to move from individual research interests towards building something more collective, how the seizmic doctoral network took shape, and why community-building continues to matter for advancing research and scaling social impact.