Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy: Contrasting Values of Women Academics in Australia and the U.S.

1. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy: Contrasting Values of Women Academics in Australia and the U.S. Janet Spitz School of Business, The College of Saint Rose spitzj@strose.edu 518 454 2032 For Presentation at the Allied Social Science Assoc Meeting, IAFFE / URPE joint session January 5, 2010

2. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • This research explores attitudes toward Social Provisioning in the context of Global Trade Gone Wrong • Ricardo’s Comparative Advantage predicts that both participants benefit through specialization and trade, but  less developed nations benefit more than industrialized nations as capital investment equalizes through trade.

3. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz World Trade is now 27% of World Product (WTO, 2008) and 87% in the Asia-Pacific region • Ricardo asserts that this will “very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities, and therefore the sum of enjoyments” (Ricardo, 1821 p. 72) Empirically, while trade has grown over 65-70 years, the structure of the World Trade Web has remained remarkably constant, as has the distribution of global wealth (Spitz & Kastelle, 2009; World Bank, 2009).

4. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • Since the idea that poorer nations will gain from trade more rapidly than industrialized nations is a key theoretical support for the liberalization of trade (World Bank, 2002), and • Empirical data do not support that notion (Milanovic, 2002) The Question arises:  What does drive the support that this trade liberalization policy enjoys?

5. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • One possibility, which is investigated here, is that trade liberalization support without specific wealth distribution or social provisioning, is driven and maintained by aspects of Academe, which affect Academic Identity and views. In particular, Is it the case that Academics in fields more strongly associated with trade liberalization (ie, Business) support social provisioning less than do Academics in other fields? And, how does this academic field identity impact Gender and other identities that academics hold, with respect to their views about social provisioning aspects of Business Globalization Activity?

6. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • For ex, Nelson (1996) suggests that masculine-based “detached” notions of what is valuable and legitimate in economics, dominates the holistic view where particular aspects are embedded in material life. • Detachment then defines academics, becoming part of both the social construction (Berger & Luckmann 1966) and the institutional structures in which are organized the milieux of everyday lives (C. Wright Mills, 1958) • Mills viewed this type of constructionist struggle as a contest for which type of humanity might prevail.

7. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • Now, there is a “moment” of attention to sustainability and social provisioning, both from • Climate Awareness more generally, and from • eco-political movements emerging from global power shifts • EU rise with its stronger social provisioning focus including the Precautionary Principle which powerfully illustrates a different balance; • Pink Shift in Latin America; • Somewhat shifted administration in the U.S. • That moment of attention may permit Eisenstein’s (1994) rethreading the fabric of democratic discourse with a new thread of the concept of rights.

8. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz In this context, Academics who are understood to significantly influence both current policy and future generations of leaders, are asked their views about social provisioning in ways abstract (detached) and embedded: • Support for social goals as an appropriate concern of business, as an idea • Wage levels adequate to produce a reasonable standard of living, including medical care • Sustainability as not accepting the inevitability of hazardous materials production as part of business • Social provision of a sustainably humane society without coercive domination from business employment of private military and suppressing dissent through elections influence.

9. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz Predictors include • Academic Field (Business or other) • National identity (AU or US), and • Gender (both as a 1, 0 toggle and in a deeper second analysis of women academics) Control variables include - age - years spent living in other nations, and - skin color (darkness on a scale of 4 – 1)

10. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz Hypotheses are that 1. Working in the academic field of Business will negatively impact social provisioning views 2. Australian National identity (compared to the US) will positively predict social provisioning support, and 3. Academic Women will support social provisioning to a greater extent than will equivalent academic men.

11. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • Sample: 2008-2009 Academic Year, hardcopy anonymous surveys were sent with return envelopes to academics in three waves • To several thousand academics in all departments in seven major U.S. universities (5.8% response) • To a purchased mailing list from the Academy of Management, International Business and Strategy divisions, to oversample of business academics (12.8% response rate) • To academics in two major Australian universities, sent through campus mail, with return envelopes (18.7% response rate) • Response Rate: 12.55% overall; no reminders except in my dept at UQ (34% response rate). • 1,290 AU & US responses sufficiently complete to be used in this run.

14. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz In the Full sample of Academics across all departments in Australia and the U. S. • Gender was the most robust (positive) predictor of support for all four measures of Social Provisioning, abstract and embedded • Business field positively predicted detached support for social provisioning, but negatively predicted materially embedded social provisioning as decent Wages & Medical Care, and a sustainably democratic society; no effect on HazMat. • Australian academics were more in support of decent wages and medical care, and of a sustainably democratic society, than were U.S. academics  Beta Values shown on next slide…

16. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • In fact, Women were so consistently in support of Social Provisioning, both in the abstract detached sense, and in particular ways embedded materially in everyday life, • That in the Restricted Sample of Women Academics Only, little else mattered: • Australia vs U.S. residency mattered not at all • Business Field mattered only in opposition to Wages & Medical Care, and in opposition to relinquishing the coercive tactics of hiring their own military, and corrupting public elections.

17. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz So, what can we learn from this? • There is a contest of identities, of what type of humanity will prevail • In that contest, the social & institutional construction of a milieu within which everyday life unfolds, matters. • That milieu has multiple factors • Among them, gender identity emerges powerfully and consistently. • It is also the case, that what is defined as legitimate within a field, cannot be ignored  in particular, the everyday milieu of working in a Business School

18. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • In a follow-up analysis (not shown) segmenting the sample into Australians and those living in the U.S., only in the U.S. did any of the predictors or control variables matter in 3 of the 4 Social Provisioning analyses • In predicting whether academics believed that Hazardous waste is an unavoidable result of business production, in the Australian sample only Women Academics said no.

19. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • What’s interesting here, is that the types of humanity that are in the contest are A) Women, which is interesting because within gender research there is quite an argument about whether women are “different” than men along a variety of intellectual and value-driven dimensions B) The U.S., and within the U.S., C) Business, at least Business Academics.

20. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • If we are in a moment of attention, that moment may permit (in Eisenstein’s terms) rethreading the fabric of discourse with a new thread of the concept of rights, measured here as Social Provisioning. • Power (2004) suggests that aspects of social provisioning are becoming essential to measure economic success, including • Measures of well-being • Social processes and power relations, and • Inclusion of ethical goals and values.

21. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz • This research suggests that • to the extent U.S. influence may be mitigated by other nations, and • to the extent that women increasingly occupy positions in Academia (and especially in Business, which they do very little), • Well-Being as well as a more reasonable set of power relations and ethical goals, may improve.

22. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz References: • Berger, P.L. and T. Luckmann (1966). The Social Construction of Reality. NY: Anchor. • Eisenstein, Z. (1994) The Color of Gender: Reimagining Democracy. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press. • Milanovic, B. (2002) “The two Faces of Globalization: Against Globalization as we Know It” World Bank Working Paper, Development Research Group. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=320287 • Mills, C. Wright (1958) “Psychology and Social Science” Monthly Review October 1958; December 2009 reprint vol 61(7): 47-52. • Nelson, J. A. (1996). Feminism, Objectivity and Economics. London: Routledge. • Power, M. (2004) “Social Provisioning as a Starting Point for Feminist Economics” Feminist Economics 10(3): 3-19. • Ricardo, D. (1821) Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 3rd ed. London. Reprinted as J. R. McCulloch (ed) The Works of David Ricardo, 1888. Contemporary reprint: Honolulu: The University Press of the Pacific, 2002. • Spitz, J. and T. Kastelle (2009). “Gains from Trade? A complex network analysis of impact of international trade on economic convergence” ANZIBA Conference Proceedings. (Australian New Zealand International Business Assoc.) April 17, 2009 Brisbane, Australia. • World Bank. (2002) Development, Trade and the WTO: A Handbook, Washington, DC: World Bank. • World Bank (2009) “Key Development Data and Statistics” http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/DATASTATISTICS/0,,contentMDK:20535285~menuPK:1390200~pagePK:64133150~piPK:64133175~theSitePK:239419,00.html • WTO (2008) World Trade Organization World Trade Report 2008: Trade in a Globalizing World. http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/anrep_e/world_trade_report08_e.pdf

23. Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy J. Spitz Thank you. … Questions / comments / thoughts?