Designing Interventions for Social Impact
(Spring semester, Lecture + Exercises)
Objective:
Solving today's most urgent global challenges often requires not only effective technological or behavioral solutions, but also ensuring their widespread adoption and lasting societal impact. This course examines how to design interventions that enable the large-scale adoption of innovations that deliver positive societal benefits.
Students will be guided through the three main steps involved in the design and implementation of interventions for social impact: (1) mapping the social and behavioral context of the target population; (2) selecting context-appropriate interventions by means of behavioral and social network models; (3) implementing the selected interventions in real-world settings, including ethical considerations.
Students will gain hands-on experience by designing surveys, implementing simulations of behavioral change, and analyzing data from real-world field experiments. Drawing on
insights from marketing, behavioral economics, network science, and complexity theory, this interdisciplinary course provides students with the tools to design and evaluate
impactful social impact strategies.
Learning outcome:
Students will gain both theoretical and practical skills in designing and evaluating social change interventions.
Theoretical competencies:
- Understanding the key concepts and mechanisms underlying social change interventions
- Identifying key factors for the design of social change interventions
- Navigating ethical challenges in social change interventions
Practical skills:
- Programming in R or Python
- Designing and conducting surveys (e.g., conjoint analysis)
- Analyzing data from surveys and field experiments
- Building and running simulations of behavioral change.
Requirements:
No advanced technical background is required beyond basic familiarity with statistics and with programming in R or Python (such as writing loops, using "if-else" statements and writing own functions).
Syllabus: forthcoming
Instructors:
Radu Tanase
Manuel Sebastian Mariani
René Algesheimer
Contact:
market-research@business.uzh.ch
Type:
Lecture + Exercises
Target audience:
Master level students assigned to "Wahlpflichtbereich Marketing (BWL4)" or "Wahlbereich WWF"
Frequency:
18.2., 18.3., 15.4., 6.5., 20.5.2026: 14:00-18:00, Final exam: 10.6. 2026, 14:15-14:45
AP(ECTS)-points:
3
Language:
English
Course material:
All learning resources will be provided as part of the course.
Grading:
The following components comprise the final grade:
- Assignments (40%): 4 assignments, each 10%.
- Final exam (50%): on-site, written examination, multiple choice format.
- Participation (10%)
Registration:
UZH module booking (no place restriction)
Note:
This information supports the official information in the electronic university calendar (VVZ – Vorlesungsverzeichnis). In case of doubt, the official information at the VVZ is valid.
