Aspen Institute Research Articles

Introduction to the Special Section on Stakeholder Marketing

Traditional marketing strategy tends to be predomi nantly firm centric , with profit maximization as the primary objective; scant attention is paid to the myriad social actors who (intentionally or otherwise) influence and are influenced by companies’ actions. However, recent realities such as climate change, obesity crises , and human rights violations , among others, as well as pressure from various stakeholders , including employees, investors , regu lators , and activists , are prompting companies to look beyond customers as the sole target of marketing activities and firms as the primary intended beneficiary. To better understand the full impact of marketing on society, there is an urgent need for new research that adopts a broader and more inclusive stakeholder orientation. Sensing this trend, with support from Boston University and the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, I started the “Stakeholder Marketing Consortium, ” an ongo ing convening of academics and practitioners whose goal is to draw the research community’s attention to a host of new questions about the design, implementation , and evaluation of marketing initiatives so as to maximally benefit all stake holders —customers, employees, and shareholders who operate in the business domain as well as cause beneficia ries, nonprofits, the environment , and society in general. Although stakeholder theory (Freeman 1984) has been around for a while and is an extremely useful starting point, it is my belief that marketing, more than any other business discipline , is uniquely poised to help both companies and the broad spectrum of stakeholders benefit from this move ment toward a more symbiotic relationship between busi ness and society.

Your Nest Egg on Auto Pilot

The Obama administration has proposed bold new policies to expand retirement savings. Through a program of Automatic IRAs, the approximately 78 million American workers not currently covered by a plan at work would be able to save through workplace-based individual retirement accounts. As important as money flowing into the Automatic IRA is, the central test of the Automatic IRA policy will be how much money will be available to flow out at retirement. How can the Automatic IRA insure that significant assets are built for retirement? To that end, the investment menu will be critical because it is the engine that grows contributions into retirement assets. The Initiative on Financial Security at the Aspen Institute has designed an investment vehicle suitable for use as the default investment for the Automatic IRA. Real Savings Plus offers an automatic, inexpensive blend of TIPS and a market index to provide savers with a guaranteed return of their contributions along with the likelihood of upside potential through equity investing. Real Savings Plus thus protects the value of each dollar saved from the most likely risks to retirement income while offering the opportunity for significant growth as well. We demonstrate in this brief that Real Savings Plus is highly likely to outperform the “R-Bond”, another proposed default investment for the Automatic IRA, in building financial assets for retirement. At the same time we show that Real Savings Plus, like the R-bond, is able to guarantee the full return of a saver’s contributions adjusted for inflation even under the worst imaginable economic circumstances. Finally, we briefly describe other benefits of Real Savings Plus beyond investment performance, such as its low-cost structure, automatic asset allocation, and potentially wide availability throughout the financial services industry.

Redefining the US Infrastructure Challenge

This article was excerpted from a report of the Aspen Institute's Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure in the United States. In 2008 and 2009, the Aspen Institute convened a multistakeholder dialogue to provide clarity and promote leadership on maintaining and replacing pipes, treatment plants, and other critical infrastructure. The article focuses on shared values and differing positions that led to new thinking about an expanded definition of water infrastructure, and investments that are needed to provide a more holistic approach to sustainable water infrastructure. The article provides an insert on elements for a sustainable path to 21st century water infrastructure, that discusses principles that urban utilities or storm water agencies should strive to achieve in each of 20 areas deemed critical to financial and environmental sustainability.

Real Savings Plus: An Automatic Investment Option for the Automatic IRA

The Obama administration has proposed bold new policies to expand retirement savings. Through a program of Automatic IRAs, the approximately 78 million, largely lower-income, American workers not currently covered by a plan at work would be able to save through automatic individual retirement accounts. The Administration also plans to simplify and expand the Saver’s Credit to give eligible lower-income savers a 50 per cent “match” on contributions of up to $1,000 to qualified retirement accounts. Together, these proposals promise to enhance the retirement security of millions of Americans. They provide both the savings vehicle and the savings incentive to enable more low- and moderate-income households to arrive at retirement with significant financial assets to supplement Social Security. In this paper, the Initiative on Financial Security at the Aspen Institute proposes an investment option for the Automatic IRA: Real Savings (RS). RS combines two widely traded and highly liquid assets – Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) and a broad-based equity market index – to provide savers with a personalized, automatic target date investment option. RS ensures the preservation of the purchasing power of contributions while at the same time offering the significant – and important – upside potential of market participation. RS thus provides low- and moderate-income savers with the opportunity for both growth and safety for their savings. Through an automatic, inexpensive blend of TIPS and the market index, RS protects all savers from the three most likely risks to retirement income – inflation, default by the bond issuer, and falling stock prices. By design, RS fully protects every dollar saved against economic cycles, market declines and loss of purchasing power.

Using Social Power to Balance Soft Power: Venezuela's Foreign Policy

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has achieved what no other Latin American leader has since the end of the Cold War: bringing security concerns in the Western Hemisphere back to U.S. foreign policy. Might Venezuela provoke a war against neighboring Colombia, spread weapons among insurgents abroad, disrupt oil sales to the United States, provide financial support to Hezbollah, al Qaeda or other fundamentalist movements, offer safe havens for drug dealers, invite Russia to open a military base on its territory, or even acquire nuclear weapons? 1 These security concerns did not exist less than a decade ago, but today they occupy the attention of U.S. officials. Attention to these conventional security issues, however, carries the risk of ignoring what thus far has been Venezuela's most effective foreign policy tool in challenging the United States: the use of generous handouts abroad, peppered with a pro-poor, distribution-prone discourse. While the U.S. debate revolves around ''hard power'' and ''soft power,'' 2 this other form can be called ''social power diplomacy.'' Similar to hard power and soft power, social power diplomacy allows the projecting nation to attract allies but through different means. With social power diplomacy, other nations are not necessarily cajoled into bowing to the economic or military might of the projecting nation, as is the case in the realm of traditional hard power politics. Also, nations are not necessarily attracted to the magnetic appeal of the projecting nation's ideology and values, as is the case with the realm of soft power politics. Instead, social power diplomacy attracts allies because it provides governments with far more latitude in domestic spending than is the case

Mind over Matter

According to an established and oft-quoted definition from Aspen Institute Report of National Leadership Conference on Literacy in 1989, media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, communicate and produce media in a variety of forms. Even more comprehensive definitions have arisen since, such as this from New Mexico Literacy Project, highlighting production aspect: the ability to create media, including understanding 'text' (surface content) and 'subtext' (hidden meanings) in messages received from: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, signs, packaging, marketing materials, video games, recorded music, Internet, and other While definitions have changed, media literacy scholars, researchers, educators, and activists agree on import of such endeavors, whether it be for purposes of enhancing critical thinking skills, raising consciousness, creating more active and prepared civic participants or some combination of these and other practical and ideological intents. After an initial period focused on a protectionist stance (and a recent resurgence of interest in its tenets due to advent and pervasive growth of internet), field of media literacy has seen numerous more balanced and personal approaches to addressing issue of media effects on youth and general citizenry gain precedence. majority of contemporary-scholars are aligned with movement that rejects protectionist theories and efforts to inoculate media consumers (especially youth) against disease of mainstream media. They decry limiting protectionist practices, countering a dogma that asserts that media is a harmful entity from which people need to be protected; instead, they work from assumption that much media production offers positive effects and that an informed practice of critical literacy may enhance enjoyment of this media. Despite historical differences between ideological camps, there is general agreement on this point from international scholars and researchers in field from David Buckingham to Len Masterman to W. James Potter to Renee Hobbs. Dougles Kellner and Jeff Share write of protectionist tactic, [W]e take issue with this approach because of its decontextualization and anti-media bias [that] over-simplifies complexity of our relationship with media and takes away potential for empowerment that critical pedagogy and alternative media production offer. (1) Buckingham concurs, writing of a new paradigm where [m]edia education is seen not as a form of protection, but as a form of preparation (2) (emphasis original). They advocate for a pedagogy that provides skills that individuals can apply to their inevitable deep engagement with media and Potter reminds us that [m]edia literacy is a process, not a product. (3) This process of empowerment comes from both critical and creative engagement with media. As Kellner and Share write, [C]hanges in technology, media, and society require development of critical media literacy to empower students and citizens to adequately read media messages and produce media themselves in order to be active participants in a democratic society. (4) Buckingham agrees that this approach is wholly necessary, writing, Media education ... aims to develop both critical understanding and active participation. It enables young people to interpret and make informed judgements as consumers of media; but it also enables them to become producers of media in their own right. education is about developing young people's critical and creative abilities. (5) And as Hobbs writes, The ability to communicate messages is at heart of traditional meaning of literacy. (6) authors, educators, and researchers who have contributed to this issue offer a passionate and multiperspectival approach in their unmitigated engagement with media literacy, sharing here their expertise in theory, pedagogy, practice, and policy. …

Exploring Stakeholder Engagement in Impact Evaluation Planning in Educational Development Work

This article presents a case study of engaging stakeholders in the early stages of an impact evaluation of educational development work in a UK university. The rationale for undertaking participative impact evaluation is outlined in relation to the national and local context. The aim is to contribute to wider knowledge about appropriate methodology to lead to a better understanding of change processes in learning and teaching. We outline how stakeholder engagement in evaluation in this context has been influenced by the Aspen Institute's `Theories of Change' approach, and how we interpreted and applied it in the context of a grant scheme for educational development work. Our experience is discussed in relation to previous learning about the application of the approach, in particular in the health sector. This has highlighted implications for future work, not least that it should be informed by a more appropriate theoretical framework for exploring the complexity of evaluation in this context.

Rejoinder to “Muslimwoman” Responses

Rejoinder to “Muslimwoman” Responses Miriam Cooke (bio) There are many situations, conditions, and identities that we recognize but cannot name. The lack of a name does not matter until it does; at that point, it becomes urgent to articulate succinctly what before had been dimly felt and poorly expressed. The process of naming is fraught: Does the name really explain anything? Does it have analytical value? Is it worth the effort of adopting a new name for what had long been nameless? Neologisms are routinely distrusted because they compel a rethinking of the familiar. Once coined, however, the name expands understanding and allows for new discursive structures. Take, for example, the designation of countries with sizeable Muslim populations or a history shaped by Muslims as Islamic. The term highlights religion at the expense of other factors. Tackling the problem linguistically, world historian [End Page 116] Marshall Hodgson invented a new word—Islamicate—that would question the centrality of religion in the identification of such societies but would not eliminate it. In so doing, he separated religious from cultural and social effects even while holding on to their imbrication with one another. Hodgson’s neologism enabled an epistemic shift; it redefined the ways in which knowledge about Muslim societies might be produced.1 In an attempt to make sense of a growing problem confronting Muslim women, I too have coined a neologism—Muslimwoman. My concern was to find a way to draw attention to the post–9/11 collapse of religion and gender into a singular and imposed political category. I wanted to highlight the ways in which non-Muslims and Muslim religious extremists alike deploy this newly entwined religious and gendered identification. The Muslimwoman is useful also for those Muslim women who recognize a strategic utility to this essentialist identity. The test of the effectiveness of neologisms like Islamicate and Muslim-woman is that they are so relevant that they impose themselves. My goal in combining Muslim and woman into one was to emphasize how these two words have collapsed into each other. Muslimwoman is both a noun and an adjective that refers to an imposed identification the individual may, but generally does not choose for herself. In the Derridean sense, it is an iteration whose repetition does not simply “produce a replica of the first original usage and its intended meaning: rather every repetition is a form of variation, . . . a linguistic, legal, cultural and political repetition-in-transformation.”2 The Muslimwoman is not an “archetype”; nor is it an “ontological status,” as Zine asserts. It is not a description of any kind of reality that should be inflected by class or ethnicity; it is the ascription of a label that deliberately and strategically reduces all diversity to a single image, generally that of the veiled woman. The veil, real or imagined (because the unveiled woman is often thought to be the exception that proves the rule that all Muslim women are veiled), functions like race, a marker of essential difference that many women in both Muslim-majority and -minority societies find hard to escape. Although Badran questions my claim that 9/11 had a significant impact beyond the West, I maintain that it did. The tragedy of 9/11 and the catastrophic “war on terror” it unleashed have reached Muslim populations from the Middle East to Central, South, and Southeast Asia. It was 9/11 that allowed Western states to other their Muslims so that many now live in their birth nations as guests at best and parasites at worst. In the United States and Europe, the surge in Islamophobia since 9/11 has redrawn boundaries of citizenship. Second- and third-generation Muslims find themselves having to justify belonging to places and communities into which they were born. [End Page 117] “I am as American as you are,” said one of the panelists at last summer’s Aspen Institute seminar on Muslim women. The white audience smiled indulgently: “How articulate she is! How smart these Muslim women are!” When I pinpointed 9/11 as a turning point in attitudes toward Muslim women, my intention was not to claim that their stigmatization is new. Not at all. The point, rather...

The 20th Aspen Cancer Conference: Mechanisms of Toxicity, Carcinogenesis, Cancer Prevention, and Cancer Therapy 2005

The 20th Aspen Cancer Conference on Mechanisms of Toxicity, Carcinogenesis, Cancer Prevention, and Cancer Therapy was held from July 24 to 28, 2005 in Aspen, Colorado. Recognizing the importance of a 20-year history of excellence, the 2005 Aspen Cancer Conference included an extended scientific program as well as several special presentations and events. The scientific program, developed by a Scientific Advisory Committee co-chaired by Benjamin F. Trump (AMC Cancer Center) and Curtis C. Harris (National Cancer Institute, NIH), featured an extra day of seminars by former Aspen Cancer Conference Keynote Speakers. The returning keynote speakers included J. Michael Bishop, Douglas Hanahan, Thea Tlsty, Tony Hunter, and Scott Lowe. In a special public Conference Session held at the Aspen Institute, former NIH director Harold Varmus lectured on Oncogenes and the Future of Cancer Therapy, Ms. Karen Allred presented a piano recital, and former Ambassador to the Netherlands K. Terry Dornbush described A Survivor’s Story, cancer from the perspective of a two-time prostate cancer survivor. Other special programming in acknowledgement of the 20th year of the Aspen Cancer Conference included a whole day devoted to drug discovery with presentations from Cecil Pickett (Schering-Plough Research Institute), James Doroshow (National Cancer Institute), and Carl Barrett (Novartis) a review of the history of the Aspen Cancer Conference in the context of the history of Aspen, Colorado presented by Donald King (National Library of Medicine), and an awards ceremony honoring sustained contribution to the Aspen Cancer Conference by Theodore Puck, Benjamin J. Trump, and Donald King. The goals of the Aspen Cancer Conference are: to understand the mechanisms of toxicity and carcinogenesis, to understand and minimize cancer risk, to assess the public-health impact of cancer risk, and to develop the scientific basis for improving the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of toxic and neoplastic disease. The Aspen Cancer Conference fosters intense interaction, discussion, and collaboration among key stakeholders in cancer research. One of the strengths of the Conference is the sustained participation in and support of the Conference by leaders in cancer research from government, academic, and industry sectors. Because of its unusual qualities, the Aspen Cancer Conference provides an environment that is uniquely conducive to generating novel insights related to current issues in cancer prevention, intervention, and therapy. The 20th Aspen Cancer Conference included seven Conference Sessions, a Poster Session by Aspen Cancer Conference Fellows and numerous informal discussions. Session topics included Progress in Drug Development, Metastasis, Inflammation and Cancer, Stress and Cancer, Risk Assessment, Technology Innovations and Apoptosis. At the close of the 2005 Conference, the Scientific Advisory Committee met to select topics for the 21st Aspen Cancer Conference which will held from July 16 to 18, 2006. This meeting summary concisely describes the content of each of the Conference Sessions and the scientific portions of the Special Sessions.

Italy and the Greater Middle East: A Need for Resolute Patience

Massimo D'Alema is deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Italy. This article draws on a speech Minister D'Alema gave at the Aspen Institute Italia, Rome, 1 October 2006.

Savings for Life: A Pathway to Financial Security for All Americans

The US savings system consists of a confusing patchwork of plans, most of them income-based programs that rely on tax subsidies to generate retirement savings. These subsidies, which now total more than $300 billion a year, disproportionately favor those who already fall into higher income brackets and need no government help to save. The U.S. needs a sensible savings system that allows all Americans to save, invest and own at every stage of life. The government must step up to the challenge by building durable on-ramps to the savings system for low- and moderate-income citizens. What is needed is the right nexus to bring the financial services sector and low- and moderate-income Americans together. Today, nearly half of the nation's households have virtually no connection to the financial services industry. And the business community has not adequately engaged them because it has not perceived their full potential as new consumers. Given the right savings vehicles with the right incentives for both individual savers and the financial services industry, more Americans can access the pathway to greater savings. The Initiative on Financial Security at the Aspen Institute has developed a package of four complementary savings vehicles that can significantly improve the savings options for all Americans across the lifespan: - Child Accounts to build savings from the beginning of life. The government would give a beginning endowment to a market-based, retail-sold account, giving all children a financial jump start in life and helping to build financial literacy in families. - Home Accounts to be used for a down payment on a home. These FDIC-insured accounts would enable more low- and moderate-income families to become homeowners by providing a modest government match on their savings. - America's IRA, to build retirement savings among Americans who do not have access to an employer plan at work. These simple Individual Retirement Accounts would feature a government match and a one-time account opening incentive for low- and moderate-income savers. - Security Plus Annuities to provide an additional layer of lifetime, guaranteed income in retirement. This program would partner the familiar and universal Social Security program with the private market to provide many of the 80 million soon-to-retire baby boomers with a simple, low-cost annuity product that protects them from outliving their savings or losing them in a market downturn.

Spectrum Sharing and Spectrum Efficiency

This policy paper for an Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy identifies obstacles to spectrum efficiency and policy changes that would increase efficiency and sharing of wireless resources.

A War against What?

Research Article| March 01 2007 A War against What? Roberto Toscano Roberto Toscano Roberto Toscano is the Italian ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Portions of this article appeared in a different form in the journal of the Aspen Institute, Italia. A graduate of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Toscano entered the diplomatic corps in 1969 and has been posted to Chile, the Soviet Union, Spain, the United States, and Geneva (UN). Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google World Policy Journal (2007) 24 (1): 40–43. https://doi.org/10.1162/wopj.2007.24.1.40 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Roberto Toscano; A War against What?. World Policy Journal 1 March 2007; 24 (1): 40–43. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/wopj.2007.24.1.40 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsWorld Policy Journal Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2007 World Policy Institute2007World Policy Institute Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Developing Leaders for a Sustainable Global Society: A New Model for Leadership Development

Asking business leaders to make decisions that produce superior financials and simultaneously contribute to social progress while protecting environmental quality is a tall order. Nancy McGaw, deputy director at the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program, shares the results of its research into leadership development with representatives from firms around the world.

The Value of Corporate Values

Corporate values are in vogue - but what does the fashion tell us about enduring corporate practice, as it is and as it could be? Increasingly, companies around the world have adopted formal statements of corporate values, and senior executives now routinely identify ethical behavior, honesty, integrity, and social concerns as top issues on their companies' agendas. The meaning of this new emphasis on values, however, is less obvious than the trend itself. So to explore how deeply these values are embedded in organizations and to examine the role that values are playing, in 2004 Booz Allen Hamilton and the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan forum focused on values-based leadership and public policy, conducted a global study of corporations in 30 countries and five regions.

The State of Affairs for Management Education And Social Responsibility

Keynote address to the AACSB International Deans Conference by Judith Samuelson, Founder and Executive Director of The Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program.1 Written by Mary C. Gentile and Judith Samuelson. Delivered February 10, 2003 and will be forthcoming in Academy of Management Learning and Education.

Leadership and Values: Moving Beyond the Ethics Debate

Presented to the Corporate Contributions Council of the Conference Board by Judith Samuelson, Founder and Executive Director of The Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program. Delivered September 22, 2003.

Recessions and Tax-Cuts: Economic Cycles’ Impact on Individual Giving, Philanthropy, and Higher Education

Few researchers have examined how individual giving to higher education is effected by the economy, specifically during downturns and periodic changes in tax laws. Further understanding the relationship between the economy's cycles and philanthropic giving, including the correlation of tax cuts to donations, will help colleges and universities better prepare for future sustained downturns. Using data from the American Association of Fundraising Counsel's Giving USA annual reports on philanthropy from 1960 through 2005, the Council for the Aid to Education's Voluntary Support of Education database, and reports from Moody's Investors Services and the Aspen Institute, this paper investigates the relationship between recessions and voluntary giving to higher education. Finally, this paper explores how federal tax policy, specifically the tax cuts in 1986 and 2001, affects giving to higher education.

The New Rigor: Beyond the Right Answer

In today's business environment, characterized by complex questions without clear, black and white answers, business success requires something more of MBA education. Based on nearly 10 years of observation and deep involvement with MBA change efforts, we at the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program believe nothing short of a new definition of rigor is needed. This new rigor would equip managers with the analytical and conceptual skills to think far outside the gate rather than at the enterprise level, to see new connections between social and environmental challenges on the one hand and firm-level growth and innovation on the other, and to plan far beyond the quarter and into the future. Further, the new rigor would be characterized by a commitment to inquiry, by the opportunity to challenge key assumptions of the MBA canon, and by teaching students how to effectively voice personal and institutional values. While much innovation is currently underway in MBA education, there is enormous potential for courageous faculty to do even more to explore this new rigor in research—and in the classroom.

Developing leaders for a sustainable global society

Asking business leaders to make decisions that produce superior financials and simultaneously contribute to social progress while protecting environmental quality is a tall order. Nancy McGaw, deputy director at the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, shares the results of its research into leadership development with representatives from firms around the world.