Brent D. Beal

Rethinking the Market Metaphor: School Choice, the Common Good, and the National Football League

School choice advocates often assume that market-like competition will create a dynamic K–12 educational environment that will result in improved outcomes. We critically examine this assumption and draw on the literature on market failure and social dilemmas to demonstrate that the market metaphor in a public schooling context has limited utility. We then compare K–12 education to an unlikely context—the National Football League (NFL). We use this comparison to generate a number of insights into how parental choice might be leveraged within the K–12 education system to improve outcomes.

Assessing the Impact of School-Based Marketing Efforts: A Case Study of a Foreign Language Immersion Program in a School-Choice Environment

The marketization of K–12 education has led to an increase in school-based marketing efforts. Relatively little research, however, has examined how public schools market themselves, who is involved in marketing, and how these marketing efforts impact key stakeholders, including school administrators, teachers, students, and parents. We explore these questions in this qualitative study of school-based marketing efforts at South Boulevard,1 Because of the long and public history of desegregation litigation associated with the school and with the school district, we use real place names throughout the paper. Thus, we disclose both the schools name—South Boulevard Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet—and the name of the city in which the school is located—Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in order to maintain the authenticity of the case and the findings. a foreign language immersion magnet elementary school in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Analysis of data from participant observation and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders reveals that administrators, teachers, parents, and students actively participated in marketing and recruiting, and that these efforts were associated with a number of implicit and explicit costs. Introducing two concepts from the business literature—business-level strategy and brand communities—yields a number of observations and policy questions. Finally, the shifting role of parents and administrators in an increasingly market-like school-choice environment is discussed.

Ripple effects on family firms from an externally induced crisis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of family business owners in an externally induced crisis from a resource-based perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a qualitative case study approach involving 22 firms. Findings – In the aftermath of the BP oil spill, a series of ripple effects impacted family firms both negatively and positively. The paper outlines five ways that family firms may improve company performance in crisis situations. Research limitations/implications – Although our study is rich in qualitative detail, it is important to recognize that the BP oil spill represents a unique crisis context and caution should be exercised in generalizing the studys findings. Practical implications – While ripple effects may be powerful at the industry and industry sub-group level, the paper provides evidence that family firms may overcome these external effects using one or more of five strategic initiatives: strong networking relationships, idiosyncratic ...

The changing paradigm of fair trade social entrepreneurship in the United States

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine why social entrepreneurs in the USA choose to operate an entirely fair trade business and the factors that affect fair trade social entrepreneurship. Fair trade seeks to benefit producers in developing countries by providing a market for their goods in developed countries. Fair trade enables all parties in the supply chain to make living wages and/or a profit. Design/methodology/approach – Using a qualitative multiple case study approach of social entrepreneurs in 35 US fair trade companies, the authors develop a model and nine propositions to explain the findings. Findings – The authors identify three primary motivational factors (ethical belief, religious faith, and business values), four contributory factors that strengthen fair trade engagement (family member involvement, the trend toward for profit status, industry professionalism, and consumer education), and three negative factors that work to discourage involvement (loss of identity, lack of indust...

Chasing Rainbows: A Comment on School Choice and the National Football League

We are pleased to see our article, “Rethinking the Market Metaphor: School Choice, the Common Good, and the National Football League,” appear in the Journal of School Choice (Beal & Olson Beal, this issue). We are also pleased that the journal’s editor (John Merrifield, Professor of Economics at The University of Texas at San Antonio), a member of the journal’s editorial board (Joseph Viteritti, the Thomas Hunter Professor of Public Policy and Chair of the Urban Affairs & Planning Department at Hunter College) and several other individuals (Joseph L. Bast, President and CEO of The Heartland Institute; Andrew Coulson, Director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute; Eric A. Houck, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) have commented on our article (see Merrifield, this issue; Viteritti, this issue; Bast, this issue; Coulson, this issue; Houck, this issue). Comment-and-response dialogues can prompt participants to reexamine their assumptions, consider alternative viewpoints, and more carefully articulate their positions. They can also easily devolve into tiresome and ineffectual exercises in which participants waste considerable energy calling each other names, talking past each other, and defending their own intellectual territory. We hope to steer this dialogue in a positive direction by starting with a brief discussion of rainbows.

Predictors of Opposition to and Support for the Ordination of Women: Insights from the LDS Church

Female ordination is an important component of gender equality in Christian religious communities. While prior research has examined societal, institutional, and organisational factors that predict changes in ordination policies in Christian denominations, there is very little research examining individuals’ attitudes regarding the ordination of women. In this research, we use data from two surveys of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) to examine the factors that predict attitudes towards the ordination of women using two polity-specific measures of support or opposition. Results indicate greater support for the ordination of women when framed in a way that takes into account LDS church governance. While several demographic variables predict attitudes towards ordination, the strongest correlate is perceptions of inequality.

Harmonious and obsessive Internet passion, competence, and self-worth

This study uses a dualistic model of passion to examine the relationships between Internet passion and perceptions of competence and general self-worth among high school students in the United States and Russia. Indirect relationships between harmonious and obsessive Internet passion and general self-worth, and the mediating roles of cognitive and social competence were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The majority of the findings were identical in both the U.S. and Russian samples. Harmonious Internet passion was found to be positively related to cognitive and social competence, and general self-worth, while obsessive Internet passion was negatively related to the three constructs. Culture-specific findings include the mediating role of social competence on the relationship between harmonious and obsessive Internet passion and general self-worth in the United States, but not in Russia. This research contributes to the ongoing debate about whether excessive Internet use is good or bad by demonstrating that it can be both depending on the type of passion involved. This study provides direction for high school administrators and parents about how to effectively capitalize on the benefits of Internet use by encouraging harmonious passion and discouraging obsessive passion. Harmonious Internet passion positively links to cognitive, social competence, and self-worth.Obsessive Internet passion negatively links to the three constructs.The above relationships are found in both the U.S. and Russia.Social competence mediates the passionself-worth relationships in the U.S., but not in Russia.