social provisioning in a globalized business economy: contrasting values of women academics in...

Social Provisioning in a Globalized Business Economy:

Contrasting Values of Women Academics in Australia and the U.S.

Janet SpitzSchool of Business, The College of Saint Rose

[email protected] 454 2032

For Presentation at the Allied Social Science Assoc Meeting,IAFFE / URPE joint session

January 5, 2010

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.


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).


• 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?


• 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?


• 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.


• 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.


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:1) Support for social goals as an appropriate concern of

business, as an idea2) Wage levels adequate to produce a reasonable standard

of living, including medical care3) Sustainability as not accepting the inevitability of

hazardous materials production as part of business4) Social provision of a sustainably humane society without

coercive domination from business employment of private military and suppressing dissent through elections influence.


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)


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.


• 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.

Table 3. OLS Regression Results, Identity and Social Provisioning, Full Sample

predictors: 1 2 3 4

constant 1.707 4.201 1.754 3.813

Business 0.145** -.517** -0.04 -0.222**s.e. 0.045 0.074 0.051 0.08

Australian 0.096~ .224** -0.053 .416**s.e. 0.053 0.087 0.06 0.093

Female 0.149** .398** .355** .324**

s.e. 0.047 0.076 0.052 0.082

Age 0.006** 0.003 .004* .008**s.e. 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003

Live Int'l 0.007 .047* .038** .055**s.e. 0.012 0.019 0.013 0.021

Skin Dark -0.044 0.076 -0.003 -0.058s.e. 0.029 0.047 0.033 0.051

F 5.04** 21.31** 9.27** 13.24**R-sq 0.025 0.098 0.045 0.063

** p<.01, two tail*p<.05, two tail~p<.05, one tail

Social Goals Are a Concern

of Business

Businesses Should Pay Good Wages with Medical Care

Haz Mat NOT a necessary part of Bus Prod'n

Reasonable Society: no Business Military or Election Influence

Table 4. OLS Regression Results, Identity and Social Provisioning: Australian and U.S. Academic Women Only

predictors: 1 2 3 4

constant - 4.553 2.147 3.696

Business - -.700** -0.113 -.273*s.e. - 0.128 0.084 0.134

Australian - -0.049 0.019 0.206

s.e. - 0.138 0.092 0.144

Age - 0.005 0.003 .018**s.e. - 0.005 0.003 0.005

Live Int'l - .084* .085** .099*s.e. - 0.039 0.026 0.041

Skin Dark - .145~ -0.056 -0.002s.e. - 0.088 0.058 0.091

F 1.35 8.94** 3.46** 6.11**R-sq 0.018 0.108 0.044 0.077



of Business





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…

OLS Regression Results, Identity and Social Provisioning: Beta Weights

1 2 3 4

Business 0.099 -0.208 -0.085

Australian 0.058 0.08 0.14

Female 0.095 0.15 0.2 0.116

Age ** * **

Live Int'l * ** **

Skin Dark

F 5.04** 21.31** 9.27** 13.24**R-sq 0.025 0.098 0.045 0.063



of Business





• 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.


So, what can we learn from this?1. There is a contest of identities, of what type of

humanity will prevail2. In that contest, the social & institutional construction

of a milieu within which everyday life unfolds, matters.3. That milieu has multiple factors4. Among them, gender identity emerges powerfully and

consistently. 5. 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


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


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

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=320287



http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/anrep_e/world_trade_report08_e.pdf


Thank you.

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