Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are a burgeoning, though relatively recent, phenomenon in global environmental governance (Richter 2002). Today, most UN agencies, regardless of their mandates, have set up a special unit to secure partnerships with the private sector (Bull et al. 2004).Whereas the existing literature now recognizes international organizations (IOs) as partnership entrepreneurs, it focuses largely on the policy effectiveness of the resulting PPPs. But it leaves unexamined the specific normative underpinnings of these partnerships and whether IOs have turned from partnership entrepreneurs into norm entrepreneurs.In this paper, I argue that PPPs arise as a policy instrument of market-based environmentalism, within a normative context that has been labeled “the compromise of liberal environmentalism” (Bernstein 2001). However, this liberal environmentalist norm is not uncontested. We can juxtapose it to at least two competing norms, that of “green governmentality,” which involves a top-down, regulatory approach to environmental governance, and “civic environmentalism” which aims at redefining governance towards environmental equity (Backstrand 2007). This sets up the question of what is the role of IOs in promoting particular norms of global environmental governance. This is an important step towards uncovering whether IOs are emerging as promoters of a hegemonic, market-based norm or are simply reflecting global consensus on how to best govern the global commons. The paper is organized in three parts: I examine the normative underpinnings of PPPs; develop a theoretical framework to analyze how IOs shift roles in multilateral governance, from policy entrepreneurs into norm entrepreneurs; and apply the framework to UNDP’s Division for Business Partnerships, and the World Bank’s Business Partnership and Outreach Group.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Few ideas saturate academic and popular discourse, and are in more need of continuous social science investigation than the problems African Americans have creating and managing viable firms. However despite this fact, contemporary research on the entrepreneurial experiences of African Americans remains prosaic and problematic. Through a critique of Ivan Light�s Ethnic Enterprise in America, this paper argues that a rethinking is necessary in the ways that we analyze this population in with regards to race, culture, and the impact of segregation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Where do innovations in the social service and social welfare sectors come from? Once defined, what are some of the determinants of the supply of social services? This paper explores the role of social movements, segments of professions and policy entrepreneurs in the definition of social service products. The basic proposition is that social movements make a major contribution to the definition of needs and to the definition of categories of persons deserving services. They do so through several inter-related processes, direct and indirect. Directly, they define problems demanding organizational solutions. Indirectly, they contribute to the growth of new professional segments and the reorientation of professions already responsible or connected to specific social service delivery industries. They also influence the orientation of policy entrepreneur's who help shape the governmental and non-profit agenda.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: While membership in a business group can enhance performance, existing studies have been inconsistent in demonstrating benefits. One reason, we argue, is that the effect of business group membership on performance is heterogeneous within groups: whether benefits will accrue varies based on the opportunity and ability of individual group members to contribute to and benefit from the group�s social capital. In the setting of Gujarati-owned hotels, a large business group of immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States, we find that group member hotels possessing resources contribute to benefits that are enjoyed by other members in the vicinity who lack resources of their own.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There is disagreement, particularly in the case of late-industrializing countries, about the exact impact of capitalist development and regime loyalties of entrepreneurs on democratic institutions. While, some suggest that business can be a democratizing force, others believe that it is ambivalent at best. My study of an elite business association in Turkey, based on extensive interviews with some of its key members, reveals that economic liberalization increases autonomy from an arbitrary state and creates a need to increasingly stay competitive; these in turn lead the economic elite to press for reform. In doing so, this paper contributes to the literature by outlining factors that shape the regime loyalties of entrepreneurs and one key mechanism behind the relationship between capitalism and democratization.