X. Appendices

APPENDIX E - Letters of Support for the Project 

X-Sender: abbass.alkhafaji@rockmail.sru.edu 
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Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 20:48:05 -0400
To: David Boje <dboje@nmsu.edu>
From: "Abbass Alkhafaji" < abbass.alkhafaji@sru.edu  >
Subject: Re: for NIke Proposal

Dear Dave,
I examined your proposal, and it looks very promising. On behalf of the
International Academy of Business Disciplines, I would like to reiterate my
support. Our executive board will review the final proposal in April and
offer our comments. At this time, IABD has agreed to sponsor some of the expenses of
the research proposal. 

IABD invites the members of the study groups to present any preliminary results of the research proposal at the IABD annual meeting in Orlando, Florida this April. There is no obligation for study group members to publish their results in the Annual Business Research Yearbook.   http://www.iabd.org/ 

We at IABD have a special interest in this type of international research,
now and in the future. 

Sincerely
Dr. Abbass Alkhafaji
Executive Vice President, IABD

******************************************************************************
* Dr. ABBASS ALKHAFAJI *
******************************************************************************
* Professor and Chairperson *
* Dept. of Management and Marketing *
* Slippery Rock University Of Pennsylvania *
* Slippery Rock, PA 16057-1326 *
* E-mail: abbass.alkhafaji@sru.edu  *
* Office: (724) 738-2588 *
* Fax : (724) 738-2959 *
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From: AVANDEVEN@csom.umn.edu 
Subject: RE: AoM sponsorship of your research proposal
To: David Boje <dboje@nmsu.edu>
09/21/2000 12:15:17 AM


Dear David,

I enjoyed our phone conversation this evening about your proposal to
involve the social science community in undertaking and assessing research
on four questions by Nike-sponsored study groups on compliance to an
apparel code of conduct, determining a living wage, subcontracting to
sweatshops, and competition between monitoring organizations of labor
practices. As your proposal indicates, these are important social,
political and managerial questions requiring systematic interdisciplinary
study that advances scientific knowledge and separates the "wheat from the
chaff" among the hotly-contested views of many partisan groups. Of course,
there is always the possibility of scholars being seduced to take the
position of a partisan interest group, but we know and trust that you and
your interdisciplinary colleagues will implement the methods of scientific
discourse that prevent this from happening. Moreover, your proposal
provides wonderful learning opportunities for our academic colleagues to
explore what alternative research methodologies, designs and theoretical
perspectives provide the most traction for understanding the research
questions. Hence, I applaud and thank you for bringing such a rich set of
questions to address by our scientific community in general and our
Academy in particular!

As Jone Pearce indicates, as a policy the Board of Governors of the Academy
of Management does not sponsor or fund any specific programmatic research,
but the Academy does provide many venues for professional discourse on all
kinds of research topics with the aim of advancing the science and practice
of management. In our discussion I suggested several specific venues:

1. As chair-elect of the Research Methods Division, you might work with
your RM Division PDW chair to organize (and, if you like, seek other
divisions to co-sponsor) a set of workshops on the research questions in
your proposal. Your specific research questions provide wonderful
opportunities for professional development and training opportunities in
the application of research methods and theories.

2. You can also submit paper or symposium proposals for the regular program
of your RM (or any other) Division. For example, if you have some specific
proposals in response to your Call for research on your questions, you
might want to organize a symposium in which these proposal are presented,
discussed, and improved based on collegial feedback.

3. The role of governments is the Washington D.C. conference theme, and
this features prominently in some of your research questions. I would take
up Jone's invitation to submit an All-Academy symposium on the roles of
governments in these questions.

4. You could organize a Caucus to invite all people interested to meet and
talk about your proposal at the Washington D.C. conference.

5. Another thought, ask Nike corporation to sponsor and rent an Exhibitor's
booth in which you present literature, cases, and videos related to your
Call for participation in the Nike Corporation Study Groups.

I encourage you to take advantage of some of these venues to engage Academy
members in your proposal at the Washington D.C. conference. Not only will
your project provide great opportunities for learning and engagement of
Academy members, but I expect that the comments and ideas of professional
peers will significantly advance your project.

Thanks again for bringing this proposal to our attention.
Best personal regards,

Andy Van de Ven
President, Academy of Management

********************************************************************
Professor Andrew H. Van de Ven, Carlson School of Management
University of Minnesota, 321 - 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Telephone (612) 624-1864; Fax (612) 625-6822; E-mail avandeven@csom.umn.edu 
Web page: http://www.csom.umn.edu/wwwpages/faculty/vandeven/ahvhome.htm 
********************************************************************

From: sydow@wiwiss.fu-berlin.de 
Subject: Sweat Shop Research
To: David Boje <dboje@nmsu.edu>
X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Version 5.0.1 (Intl) 11. August 1999
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 12:58:09 +0200
X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on mailer/WiWiss/FU-Berlin/DE(Release 5.0.3 (Intl)|21
March 2000) at 09/21/2000 12:58:12 PM


Dear David,
A brilliant initiative, and congratulation for the initial success at Nike.
I have observed the critical discussion on global sweat shops for some
years now. I first noted it during my sabbatical in the US (1996/97) and
have collected material on several firms such as Disney, Nike and also some
German retailers/manufacturers since then.

I would like to propose (1) a possibly interesting research question and,
eventually, offer (2) an occasion to present the results of your research
project: (1): From the background of my main research interest (new
organizational forms, especially interfirm networks) I would argue that the
labor conditions in global sweat shops, though an outcome of global (out-)
sourcing, are more likely in classical market relationships than in
hierarchical or network forms. In contrast to the former, the latter allow
not only for (better) control but also enable the organization of (social)
responsibility. Perhaps there is a chance to include this question in your
grant proposal. 

(2): Being on the Board of the German Industrial Relations Association
(GIRA) I am organizing the 13th World Congress of the IIRA which is
scheduled for September 2003 and will be hosted by my University, the Free
University of Berlin. The theme of the congress will be "Beyond traditional
employment" and one track will deal with "Industrial relations and global
labor standards". I think the topic of global sweat shops from a research
perspective would nicely fit the programme and could make it to a
symposium. For more information on the congress please see: 
www.fu-berlin.de/iira2003

If you are interested, I am surely willing to provide you with more
information. Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
Joerg

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Professor Joerg Sydow
Free University of Berlin
Boltzmannstr. 20
D-14195 Berlin
Germany
TEL: ##49-30-83853782
FAX: ##49-30-83853783
http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/w3/w3sydow/ 
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