Categories
Culture, Society & Family Learning & Education Researcher news

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center awards first research grants to shape economic, migration policies

Research findings will be presented at the second annual Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Symposium to be held in Mexico City April 6, 2018.

The Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center at SMU has awarded grants to four scholars from both sides of the border who aim to support the Center’s goal of providing policy-relevant, action-oriented research on the dynamic relationship between Texas and Mexico.

Findings from each of the four projects, selected by the Texas-Mexico Center’s Faculty Advisory Board, will be shared this spring, says Luisa del Rosal, executive director of the Center.

“This is a tremendous benefit to Dedman College, where so many faculty members research and teach about Texas and Mexico,” says SMU Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dean Thomas DiPiero. “This will help strengthen the social, economic and cultural ties between the two regions.”

The four projects are:

  • “Migration, Inequality & Public Policies in Mexico and the United States”
    Lead researcher: Colegio de Mexico President Silvia Giorguli, Mexico City
  • “Are Mexican and U.S. Workers Complements or Substitutes?”
    Lead researcher: Raymond Robertson, Helen and Roy Ryu Chair in Economics
    & Government, Texas A&M Bush School of Government & Public Service, College Station
  • “Institutions, Trade and Economic Prosperity: An Examination of the U.S. and Mexican States”
    Lead researcher: Dean Stansel, associate professor, O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom, SMU Cox School of Business
  • “Slowdown in Mexico-U.S. Migration: Why is Texas Different?”
    Lead researcher: Colegio Tlaxcala President Alfredo Cuecuecha, Tlaxcala, Mexico

Grant recipient Stansel said his team will focus on the potential economic damage from a possible new regime of trade restrictions in the U.S.

“By examining the interconnected relationships between trade policy, trade volume and economic prosperity in the U.S. and Mexico,” he said, “we hope to provide insights into the importance of maintaining a system of relatively free trade.”

Research findings will be presented at the second annual Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Symposium to be held in Mexico City April 6, 2018.

Three dozen applicants applied for the grants, which was “more than we expected for the first year,” says Javier Velez, vice-chair of the Texas-Mexico Center Executive Advisory Board and CEO of Mission Foods’ U.S. headquarters in Dallas.

“It was pleasing for us how much interest there is in effectively promoting and facilitating a better understanding of the relation between Texas and Mexico,” Velez said.

The Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center at SMU is dedicated to improving relations between Texas and Mexico through dialogue and research. It works to encourage greater cross-border integration and cross-sector collaboration in academia, government, non-governmental organizations and business. The Center strives to enhance a political dialogue to reshape the policies that govern the relationship between Texas and Mexico, focusing on five areas: trade and investment, energy, human capital and education, border issues and migration. — Denise Gee, SMU

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Feature Researcher news

Joint Study on Gender Disparity in Art Museum Directorships Shows Gap Persists Despite Gains

While incremental gains were observed, a new study shows that women still hold fewer than 50% of directorships, earn less than male counterparts, and typically lead institutions with smaller budgets

The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the National Center for Arts Research (NCAR) at Southern Methodist University in Dallas today released findings from the second iteration of their gender gap study, which was designed to deepen understanding of the gender disparity in art museum directorships to help AAMD member institutions advance towards greater gender equity.

Through a combination of quantitative analysis of 2016 data collected from AAMD member institutions and interviews with female museum directors and executive search consultants who specialize in recruitment for art museums, NCAR and AAMD researchers – led by Zannie Voss, director, NCAR, and Christine Anagnos, executive director, AAMD – examined the ongoing and historical factors of the gender gap in art museum directorships, and compared their findings to those of the previous study, conducted in 2013.

While incremental gains have been observed in the last three years, the study found that the gender gap persists: women still hold fewer than 50% of directorships and, on average, earn less than their male counterparts. The study also found that museum type and budget size were influential factors on representation and salary differentials.

In 2016, AAMD conducted a survey of its members, collecting data from 210 respondents that included each institution’s operating budget, endowment, the salary of the director (or top leader), the director’s gender, and the self-reported museum type (e.g. encyclopedic, contemporary, etc.). Of these 210 museums, 181 also participated in the 2013 survey, allowing for examination of trends. The study sought to answer three main questions: What is the current state of women in art museum directorships? How has the gender gap in art museum directorships shifted in the past three years? What are some factors that may drive the gender gap? The NCAR and AAMD study had several key findings:

  • While men continue to outnumber women in director roles, there has been a 5% increase in female directorships from 2013: women represented 48% of art museum directorships in 2016 (compared to 43% in 2013).
  • There are clear disparities in gender representation depending on operating budget size: the majority of museums with budgets of less than $15 million are run by a female, rather than a male, director. The reverse is true for museums with budgets of over $15 million, where female representation decreases as budget size increases.
  • Women are at a salary disadvantage: on average, female directors earned 73 cents for every dollar that male directors earned.
  • When segmented by operating budget, the gender disparities are more nuanced:

    For museums with a budget of over $15 million—roughly the top quarter of museums—female directors earned 75 cents for every dollar a male earned, an improvement from 2013, when women earned only 70 cents per dollar earned by a man.
    For the other three-quarters of member museums (those with budgets of less than $15 million), female directors on average earned 98 cents to every dollar earned by a man. This represents a reversal from three years ago, when female directors at these same museums earned an average of $1.01 for each dollar earned by their male counterparts.

  • Women hold the majority of directorships in College/University museums (60%) and Culturally Specific museums (57%). Men hold the majority of directorships at Single Artist (67%), Encyclopedic (59%) and Contemporary (54%) museums.
  • Museum types, which are also tied to budget size, also help reveal salary dynamics at play: some museum types with higher average budgets have less of a salary gap as compared to some museums with lower average budget size. The biggest pay disparity is at Encyclopedic museums, where female directors average only 69 cents for every $1 of their male counterparts, while the smallest gap is at Culturally Specific institutions, where women earn 91 cents for every dollar a male director earns.

Drawing from interviews with executive search consultants and female museum directors, the report also includes a qualitative analysis that examines the personal as well as the institutional barriers in achieving gender equality in the field. Overall, interviewees observed that while progress is incremental, the needle is moving, with changes accomplished through cultural shifts within the field and in broader society, and with the emergence of a new generation of leaders.

In addition to Voss and Anagnos, co-authors of the study are Veronica Treviño, SMU MA/MBA Class of 2017, and Alison D. Wade, Chief Administrator, Association of Art Museum Directors. The authors gratefully acknowledge and thank the members of the Association of Art Museum Directors and, specifically, the following art museum directors and executive search consultants for their perspective: Gretchen Dietrich (Utah Museum of Fine Arts), Madeleine Grynsztejn (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), Sarah James (Phillips Oppenheim), Laurie Nash (Russell Reynold Associates), Lisa Phillips (New Museum), Kimerly Rorschach (Seattle Art Museum), Sally M. Sterling (Spencer Stuart), and Belinda Tate (Kalamazoo Institute of Arts).

About AAMD
The Association of Art Museum Directors advances the profession by cultivating leadership capabilities of directors, advocating for the field, and fostering excellence in art museums. An agile, issues-driven organization, AAMD has three desired outcomes: engagement, leadership, and shared learning. Further information about AAMD’s professional practice guidelines and position papers is available at aamd.org.

About NCAR
In 2012, the Meadows School of the Arts and Cox School of Business at SMU launched the National Center for Arts Research (NCAR). The vision of NCAR is to act as a catalyst for the transformation and sustainability of the national arts and cultural community. The goals of the Center are to unlock insights on: 1) arts attendance and patronage; 2) understanding how managerial decisions, arts attendance, and patronage affect one another; and 3) fiscal trends and fiscal stability of the arts in the U.S., and to create an in-depth assessment of the industry that allows arts and cultural leaders to make more informed decisions and improve the health of their organizations. More information about NCAR and its reports, white papers, and tools can be found at smu.edu/artsresearch.

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

Science Magazine: Research identifies keys to managing scientists, engineers

Leaders who understand how to manage their employees’ commitment to both their organizations and professions may be the most successful at motivating and retaining innovators

Science Magazine covered the research of SMU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Steven Currall, also professor of management and organization at SMU’s Cox School of Business. Currall is co-author on research about how leaders can manage innovators to motivate and retain them in their organization.

Study co-authors include Sara Perry, assistant professor of management in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, and Emily Hunter, associate professor of management at Hankamer.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Science Magazine
A new study from Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business helps leaders better understand how to manage innovators, specifically scientists and engineers.

“Our study suggests that leaders who understand how to manage their employees’ commitment to both their organizations and professions may be the most successful at motivating and retaining innovators,” said the study’s lead author, Sara Perry, Ph.D., assistant professor of management in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business. “Innovators represent a highly valued workforce.”

The study, Managing the Innovators: Organizational and Professional Commitment Among Scientists and Engineers, which is published in the journal Research Policy, identifies highly innovative individuals as “typically higher performers (who) are rated as more creative and proactive by their supervisors than their less-innovatively oriented peers.”

For this project, researchers surveyed 255 academic science and engineering professionals working in 22 National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Engineering Research Centers. The study centered on “dual allegiance” among these innovators – their loyalties to their professions versus their commitment to their organizations.

A general assumption, Perry said, is that these are always in conflict, but research shows that is not necessarily the case.

Read the full story.

Follow SMU Research on Twitter, @smuresearch.

For more SMU research see www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information, www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Categories
Culture, Society & Family

Six new cities added to the Top 20 lists of arts-vibrant cities in the U.S. — data-driven assessment ranks cities by arts and cultural assets

SMU’s National Center for Arts Research (NCAR) releases Second Annual Arts Vibrancy Index

Double click to open and explore interactive heat map.
Double click to open and explore interactive heat map.

SMU’s National Center for Arts Research (NCAR) today released its second annual Arts Vibrancy Index, which ranks more than 900 communities across the country, examining the level of supply, demand, and government support for the arts in each city. This year, the report features six new communities, with three states – Hawaii, Oregon and Texas – appearing in the index for the first time. The new cities featured on the lists are Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Kansas City, Missouri, in the top 20 large cities list; and Maui, Hawaii; St. Cloud, Minnesota; and Medford, Oregon, in the top 20 small and medium cities list. NCAR provides rank scores on all measures for every U.S. county on its interactive heat map.

“Each community in the report has a unique story and cultural landscape – this report is designed to help us understand what makes a city vibrant in the arts and the different elements that come into play to foster that vibrancy,” said Zannie Giraud Voss director of NCAR, and chair and professor of arts management and arts entrepreneurship in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts and Cox School of Business. “The data helps illustrate how vibrancy varies between cities and what arts vibrancy looks like for different communities around the nation.”

The overall index is composed of three dimensions. Supply is assessed by the total number of arts providers in the community, including the number of arts organizations, independent artists, and arts, culture, and entertainment employees. Demand is gauged by the total nonprofit arts dollars in the community, including program revenue, contributed revenue, total expenses, and total compensation. Lastly, the level of government support is based on state arts dollars and grants and federal arts dollars and grants.

Geographically, the rankings utilize Micro- and Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), which are delineated geographic areas consisting of one or more counties that have high social and economic integration with an urban core as defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). By focusing on MSAs, the index captures the network of suburbs that rise up around a city or town rather than considering each separately. Where the OMB breaks down very large MSAs into Metropolitan Divisions, this report does, too.

Among cities with populations of 1 million or more, the five most vibrant arts communities are as follows:

  • Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
  • Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN
  • New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ
  • San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA
  • Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA

Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Kansas City, Missouri joined the top 20 list this year, ranked 17, 18, and 19, respectively. Compared to 2015, there was little movement between the highest-ranking cities in both the larger and smaller markets, and the top three cities remain the same as last year, with some repositioning between them. In the top five rankings among large cities, the biggest mover was Los Angeles, which moved up to fifth place from its position in ninth place last year; San Francisco moved up to fourth place (from fifth); and Boston dropped down two positions to sixth place.

For medium and small cities, with populations under 1 million, the top five cities are all in the West. Jackson, Wyoming, which ranked third in last year’s index, has moved to the top of the list from its former position in third place, causing Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, to drop down one position to second and third respectively:

  • Jackson, WY-ID
  • Glenwood Springs, CO
  • Santa Fe, NM
  • Breckenridge, CO
  • Edwards, CO

Three new cities appear in the top 20 medium and small cities list: Maui, Hawaii; St. Cloud, Minnesota; and Medford, Oregon, ranked at 14, 16, and 20, respectively. The full top 20 lists are available on the NCAR website, including scores on each of the three dimensions (supply, demand, and government support).

Beyond the specific rankings, select key findings in the Arts Vibrancy Index include:

  • Every region of the country is represented on both lists: no region has cornered the market on arts vibrancy. Cities large and small from every region appear in the top 40 cities, although there is high representation from Western and Midwestern communities in the set of medium-small cities.
  • Arts vibrancy takes many shapes and forms. Some cities have impressive financial resources invested in nonprofit arts and cultural institutions, others are filled with many smaller organizations and venues, some are tourist destinations, and still others are artist colonies. Some cities are strong in numerous arts sectors while others are capitals of a particular art form.
  • Vibrancy in very large cities takes two distinct forms: some cities feature a strong concentration of arts vibrancy in the urban core with less happening in the surrounding areas, while others feature an even distribution of vibrancy across their metropolitan areas.
    The majority of arts-vibrant cities have a population either under 300,000 or between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000.

About NCAR
In 2012, the Meadows School of the Arts and Cox School of Business at SMU launched the National Center for Arts Research (NCAR). The Center, the first of its kind in the nation, analyzes the largest database of arts research ever assembled; investigates important issues in arts management and patronage; and makes its findings available to arts leaders, funders, policymakers, researchers and the general public.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Economics & Statistics

Charity, social justice and earth-friendly activism replace big houses, diamond rings and ostentatious living for status seekers

conspicuous conservation, new aristocrats, ryan murphy, smu, Cox

Keeping up with the Joneses has taken on a whole new meaning, according to new research by a professor in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

Rich people traditionally flaunted their wealth with ostentatious living, designer clothing, big houses, fast cars and grand parties. But times have changed says Ryan Murphy, a research assistant professor in Cox’s O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom.

In a review of the research literature on modern conspicuous consumption, Murphy found that flashing a lavish lifestyle to signal one’s high-income status is losing favor.

In his briefing, “The New Aristocrats: A cultural and economic analysis of the new status signaling,” Murphy says “conspicuous consumption” has become outmoded.

Taking its place is a new-found interest in high-profile gestures by the social elite, who on the surface pursue moral aims but in reality signal status, he says.

“I still believe the rich are signaling status, but doing so in ways that are on the surface moral, especially ways that demonstrate a rejection of globalization and capitalism,” Murphy says. “But the social and intellectual elite who once bought fast cars and oversized houses to demonstrate where they are in the social pecking order are now buying Priuses.”

The briefing paper was published by Adam Smith Institute. The U.K.-based policy institute, dedicated to free market policies, noted that the paper describes “Why nobody’s keeping up with the Joneses anymore.”

“Signaling status” is a common exercise for the wealthy, but today’s “new aristocrats” focus their energies on signaling their virtue and avoiding simple crass consumerism, Murphy says.

This new class of high-dollar do-gooders differentiate themselves from classic aristocrats of the past who acquired useless skills, such as fencing, and from those described as having old-money, who made ostentatious displays of frivolous spending.

Instead the trend is toward “conspicuous conservation,” as wealthy people attempt to signal a lack of interest in status games.

This may mean they are also less amenable to policies such as luxury taxes, Murphy says, as the relationship between status goods and raw financial cost is much weaker than it once was.

Murphy, in SMU’s O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom, is an expert in institutional economics, public policy and macroeconomics.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.