Leonard Seabrooke International Business in the International System Week 3 Eleni Tsingou

Theories: Government – studies of state rivalries Governance – studies of non-state coordination Markets – studies of the grounds for behaviour within markets All are relevant for the contexts and cases. They ask us to specify the different actors and forms of authority, control, and market influence

Actors: Exploring the role of professional elites. Understanding professional actors in public administration and private institutions. Tracing the impact of global professional actors and their ideas at the ‘core’ and the ‘periphery’. Considering the importance of professional corporate actors outside the confines of the firm.

Actors and Markets: Marion Fourcade (2006) ‘The Construction of a Global Profession: The Transnationalization of Economics’, American Journal of Sociology 112(1): Frank Dobbin and Dick Zorn (2005) ‘Corporate Malfeasance and the Myth of Shareholder Value’, Political Power and Social Theory, Volume 17, pp Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy (2007) ‘Moral Views of Market Society’, Annual Review of Sociology Volume 33, pp. 285–311.

The Construction of a Global Profession: The Transnationalisation of Economics, Fourcade : Sociology of professions: internationalisation and transformation of local practices. Economics: internationalisation feeds into the intellectual and professional dynamics of economics. Institutional, not occupational, licensing is the real source of professional power: IOs, public administrations and businesses hire US or UK trained economists.

The Construction of a Global Profession (2) : ‘Isomorphism’ and ‘diffusability’. Intraprofessional and interprofessional conflicts (Abbott). National societies and national economies and the centrality of economics to the nation state. Scientific communities at the ‘core’ and the ‘periphery’, and the diffusion of a model of professional legitimacy. Scholarly and economic policy networks directly constructed at the international level.

Professional elites: Importance of training and ‘economic science’ in the recruitment policies and the activities of International Organisations and public administration bodies (Momani, Chwieroth). Links to literature on ‘epistemic communities’ (Haas). Links to literature on policy networks (Stone).

Corporate Malfeasance and The Myth of Shareholder Value: Dobbin and Zorn: Rise of business professionals (MBAs, CPAs in financial institutions) in the corporate power structure. Focus on 3 groups in understanding practices linked to ‘shareholder value’: – Managers of hostile takeover firms; – Institutional investors; – Securities analysts.

The Myth of Shareholder Value (2): Business strategy no longer originates within the firm – rather, it is articulated by professional groups in financial markets (who are the key beneficiaries of the shareholder value system). Earnings management: short-termism, meeting analyst expectations and benefiting from stock option remuneration practices. Strategy has moved from being in the hands of corporate employees to being guided by knowledge workers.

Discussion: Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy (2007) ‘Moral Views of Market Society’, Annual Review of Sociology Volume 33, pp. 285–311. Fourcade and Healy walk us through Albert Hirschmann’s view of markets as civilizing, destructive, or feeble. They then discuss their own moralized markets perspective. What are the key points of contrast for Hirschmann? And what cases can we think of when considering the view that markets are moral and scientific projects?

From Class Discussion: Work Context vs. Work Content Pathologies within institutional environments Role of policy ‘wonks’ linked to academia and business Groupthink and/or ‘Best Practice’.