Teamwork and problem-solving skills have frequently been identified by business leaders as being key competencies; thus, teaching methods such as problem-based learning and team-based learning have been developed. However, the focus of these methods has been on teaching one skill or the other. A key argument for teaching the skills concurrently is that the ability to solve an unstructured real-world problem within teams is what is needed outside the classroom and that this requires the use of both sets of skills simultaneously. Thus, the authors describe the design and implementation of a group problem-solving skills course for undergraduates, in which they engage in real creative problem-solving work together over a semester while learning and developing skills appropriate to their current stages in the team development and problem-solving processes. This method offers the potential to address criticisms by business leaders that new graduates often are technically proficient yet ill prepared to solve everyday organizational problems.

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In tro duc tion E-Com merce plays an im por tant role in to day's busi ness en vi ron ment, and that role will con tinue to grow each year. eMarketer pre dicts that by "2004, world wide e-com merce rev enues are ex pected to to tal USD 2.7 tril lion. 1 " E-com merce con tin ues to grow in the United States. "The Cen sus Bu reau of the De part ment of Com merce an nounced to day that the es timate of U.S. re tail e-com merce sales for the first quar ter of 2004, not ad justed for sea sonal, hol i day, and trad ing-day dif fer ences, was $15.5 bil lion, an in crease of 28.1 per cent (±2.9%) from the first quar ter of 2003. 2 " "Ac cord ing to a new study by RoperASW and AOL Time Warner, Eu ro pe ans spent on av er age EUR430 on line be tween Au gust and Oc to ber 2002." This com pares with an av er age spend of EUR543 per head in the US over the same pe riod. 3 One of the stra te gic im pera tives for an or gani za tion is to seek new mar kets. As a domes tic mar ket ma tures, it is in creas ingly dif fi cult to gen er ate high reve nue and profit growth. It is a natu ral ex ten sion that e-commerce then has be come one of the ma jor methods that busi nesses use to ex pand their mar kets and sell prod ucts and serv ices around the world. This pa per will ad dress the prob lem that by en gag ing in e-commerce a busi ness person faces un known le gal risks due to the lack of a com pre hen sive and uni form set of le gal rules that ap ply. Af ter ad dress ing each of the le gal is sues there will be an at tempt to pro vide pro phy lac tic de vices that a busi ness per son may use to re duce some of those le gal risks. These pro phy lac tics will not pro vide one hun dred per cent pro tec tion from the un pre dictable le gal en vi ron ment of cy ber space, but their use will re duce and con trol some of the risk.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the choices social enterprises in the USA have about the legal formation of their business. Recently, new legal forms have been developed in the USA to ensure social goals are legally embedded into the firm. While the development of these new alternative supports social missions, organizations should be aware of both the benefits and drawbacks, which are outlined in this paper. Additionally, we draw on the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case to illustrate how social enterprises can embed their social mission into their legal foundation using traditional legal structures, accomplishing the same purpose as the new socially oriented alternatives. Design/methodology/approach The authors provide a detailed assessment of the social-oriented legal forms of business based on precedent set in the US Supreme Court Hobby Lobby case. Findings Based on precedent in the Hobby Lobby case, the authors’ view is that traditional US legal business structures can be as effective as alternative socially oriented legal forms in the US as a method to legally prevent mission drift by legally embedding social goals into the legal structure of the firm. Practical implications By highlighting how social enterprises can use traditional US legal business forms to ensure their social mission as part of the organizational goals, the authors provide another legal avenue, and so US-based social enterprises can continue to focus on addressing social issues without worrying about mission drift from legal pressures. Social implications There is quite a lot of hype surrounding the development and adoption of socially oriented legal business forms in the USA with little discussion about the actual need for these new forms. The alternative perspective by the authors informs social enterprises how they can operate within the traditional US legal system while still focusing on their social mission. Originality/value The authors are one of the first to argue, based on precedent in the Hobby Lobby case, that US social enterprises need to critically examine which type of legal form is right for their business and what will offer them most benefit to their social mission in the long run.