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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rationale for supplier diversity, constituent elements of each case study programme, actual performance of the initiatives and key challenges involved in implementing supplier diversity programmes.

This paper goes beyond armchair accounts of the “American experience”, and presents evidence from three exemplars of supplier diversity in the USA – Ford Motor Company, JPMorgan Chase, and Unisys. Semi‐structured interviews with supplier diversity teams within these three case study firms were conducted to understand the rationale, drivers and challenges to implementing supplier diversity programmes.

The case studies highlight the importance of the “business case” in explaining corporate receptiveness to supplier diversity. This has particular force in light of the progressive “browning” of the USA. However, the role of the government as catalyst is not to be understated; a number of respondents identified governmental pressure as an important influence on the approach to supplier diversity. Sophisticated monitoring of supply chains and intense out‐reach activities with minority business enterprises were important features of the case study firm and provide a sharp contrast with the position in the UK.

The paper concludes by assessing the key elements of successful supplier diversity initiatives, and reflecting on the lessons that could be learned for the UK.

Recent statistics indicate that the number of minority-owned and women-owned firms in the United States continues to rise. Indeed, the number has risen substantially since the last census count; from 2.3 million minority businesses in 1992 to over 3 million in 1997 – a 30 percent increase. During this same period, the receipts of minority businesses increased 60 percent – from $369 billion to $591 billion. At the same time, the number of firms in which women held majority ownership (51 percent or more) increased 16 percent – from 6.4 million to 7.4 million. The receipts of predominantly women-owned firms increased 33 percent – from $1.2 trillion to $1.6 trillion (when data are adjusted for comparability of 1992 and 1997 statistics – see U.S. Department of Commerce, 1992a, b, 1997a, b, c).

As firms consider initiatives to enhance their social sustainability performance, supplier diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become significantly more important. As such, the purpose of this study is to theorize, operationalize and develop an empirical scale to measure supplier DEI.

The following three-phase scale development method was used: first, identification of scale items from the literature; second, a qualitative component involving interviews with expert panels; and third, a psychometric evaluation through two survey rounds with 327 managers from multiple areas of supply chain management.

Although not necessarily a new concept, this study provides a more complete understanding of supplier DEI beyond traditional aspects of supplier diversity (e.g. women and minority-owned suppliers) to feature additional considerations (e.g. LGBTQIAP+) and reflect broader societal considerations, such as human rights. Therefore, validated items for the three dimensions (i.e. diversity, equity [human rights] and inclusion) were identified.

This study provides systematically validated scales to measure supplier DEI based on three dimensions. Each dimension can be developed separately from the others, but they are intertwined, which reinforces the contribution to both scholars and practitioners.

The case should be introduced after students have been exposed to the following topics: the practice of entrepreneurship, opportunity recognition, market segmentation and minority business enterprise.

The names of the companies and individuals in this descriptive case have not been disguised, with the exception of the solar company representative and his company affiliation. Information was obtained from interviews (i.e. first-hand accounts) with Nikita Floyd, President and Owner of Green Forever Landscaping and Design, Inc., and secondary sources cited.

Nikita, a 50-year old, African American male, had grown his business from a one-person seasonal landscaping business to a year-round landscaping and design business with full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees and an array of services and customer segments. To his delight, he was able to unite his avocation with his vocation. With over 30 years of experience in landscaping and landscape design Nikita was always scanning the landscape for new business opportunities that would align with his company’s mission statement and help sustain Green Forever’s core business.

This case is most appropriate for introductory undergraduate and graduate level courses in entrepreneurship.

Contemporary studies of ethnic entrepreneurs are split into two types of discussions. On one hand they are considered as part of an underserved minority population that needs business assistance to guide venture launch and development. In fact, the term venture would specifically not be used because of the connotation of ethnic entrepreneur as small business owner. On the other hand, some models of entrepreneurial approaches by certain ethnic groups are not only lauded, but adopted for trial by other types of communities, whether those communities be natural or artificially created. The tension between these two approaches may best be attributed to a lack of clarity in two areas. First, to whom does the designation ethnic entrepreneur actually apply? Second, what resources do ethnic entrepreneurs really use in the activities of starting and growing a business.

What do purchasing officers and policy theorists have to offer one another? Policy frameworks could help purchasing officers anticipate or predict change and respond to those changes earlier and more effectively. Likewise, purchasing officers and the study of the governmental purchasing systems they operate could contribute a great deal to the development of policy theories or frameworks. This paper outlines the central features of two important policy frameworks; institutional analysis and development (IAD) within the tradition of institutional rational choice (Ostrom, 1999), and the advocacy-coalition framework (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1999) and applies those frameworks to the government purchasing arena.

Close to half of all privately held companies in the USA are owned by baby boomers, meaning 2.7m American businesses are owned by someone age 55 or older. In the coming decades, all of these businesses will either change owners or disappear. The median state has 34,000 businesses approaching an ownership transition. The effects of this generational shift will be felt in cities, small towns and rural areas. At the same time, state governments are struggling with the challenge of preserving jobs and stimulating local economies buffeted by larger economic trends. States currently spend an estimated $45bn to $70bn a year on efforts to attract and retain jobs. If even a fraction of these exiting owners pursued an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) as their business exit strategy, the potential positive impact on workers, communities and state economies would be substantial. Yet, many business owners are not even aware of ESOPs as an option. In light of this knowledge gap, many of these businesses will instead shut down or sell to outside investors who may not be interested in preserving and growing local jobs. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Review of state information and statistics on employee ownership.

Currently, there are around 6,660 ESOPs in the USA holding total assets of nearly $1.4 trillion. These plans cover 14.2m participants. The Midwest is home to the greatest number of ESOPs, followed by the South. There is a least one ESOP headquartered in 4,131 distinct zip codes.

In order to increase the effectiveness and penetration of local outreach and education, states can: create an office of employee ownership with a dedicated staff person. The office could exist within a state agency or as a nonprofit receiving state funding; provide grants to one or more nonprofits to run an outreach program; hold seminars statewide in conjunction with professional, business, and trade publications and organizations; publish and disseminate brochures and other material; and work with the media to encourage stories on local ESOP companies. In order to promote ESOPs as an attractive alternative to private equity, outside competitors, and other potential purchasers of the business, ESOP outreach should: focus on business owners who are approaching retirement or a liquidity event, as opposed to start-ups or businesses who are interested in progressive management. Focus on the human side and emotional impact of employee ownership. Videos and other personal testimonials contrasting the storylines of a company that becomes employee-owned vs one that becomes owned by an outside investor can be powerful. Take advantage of the ESOP community by facilitating peer-to-peer connections, where company leaders talk with their peers who have sold to an ESOP. These connections are usually fostered based on location or industry. Take care to ensure that the center is seen as providing objective information as opposed to being perceived as trying to “sell” owners on the idea.

This is the first published review of ESOPs in the states.

One of the most significant events that took place during the period under review was the recent symposium on economics bibliography held in July 1975 under the auspices of the International Economics Association. It met at the famous Institut fur Weltwirtschaft, University of Kiel, West Germany. The theme of the symposium was the “Organization and Retrieval of Economic Knowledge.” The papers presented there covered recent trends in data and bibliographic organization, the emerging library characteristics of many specific economic subfields, the emerging solutions to the library cost problem and the boundaries of methodologies of economics. At its conclusion the Symposium issued a statement identifying some concerns about the future of economics libraries and data retrieval. Pending the forthcoming publication of the entire transcript, interested readers may find a summary of the symposium in the Journal of Economic Literature (December 1975: 1320–1321). While it is not entirely appropriate for this survey, I would be remiss if I did not mention another significant occasion: the bicentennial of the publication of the great Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in honor of which the Clardendon Press has issued a special reprint.

Socially responsible procurement is increasingly attracting public attention, but little is known about the use of social requirements in public procurement process in developing countries. This study explores the use of social criteria in public procurement in Nigeria. Data was collected from two websites being used for advertising public sector contract opportunities in Nigeria and by means of a questionnaire. Results show that public procurement is mostly used to promote a range of government policies and programmes. Based on the findings from this study, it cannot be concluded that a milestone has been reached in the use of public procurement to drive social benefits in Nigeria. The extent to which the findings of this study could be generalised is limited, because the findings are based on analysis of tender documents and a smallsized convenience sample of public procurement experts. A larger sample size may lead to improved accuracy or dissimilar results. Nevertheless, the research offers some baseline data against which future studies on social procurement can be conducted and evaluated.

Given the previous research on the disparities of lending rates and their relationship with lending institutions for women-owned and minority-owned businesses, the study poses the research question: How much Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding was distributed to women-owned and minority-owned businesses in comparison to other firms? Additionally, as the purpose of the PPP funding was to assist small businesses in retaining their workforce, the authors pose a second research question: Of those who received PPP funding, how many jobs on average were retained? And importantly related to our first research question, are there differences across gender and race in the average number of jobs retained?

This is one of the first empirical studies with an initial sample size of 661,218 loans from July 2020 that examines whether the United States PPP had the intended impact to save jobs in small businesses and to examine any reported differences across gender and race in loans issued and jobs saved.

The authors find that significant differences exist between women- and men-owned businesses across all five loan categories, with male-owned firms receiving over 80% of PPP loans. However, women-owned firms saved more jobs on average across all but the largest loan category. Significant differences were also found between minority- and White-owned businesses with minority-owned businesses generally saving more jobs on average across most loan categories.

A limitation of this study pertains to certain missing data that were not reported by participants. While a participant may have included their gender, they may not have included their race. Therefore, the varying sets of data may not be a reflection of the same individuals. Additionally, the industries were not included in this analysis, which may shed light on the job creation differences across gender and race.

Many of the industries that have been significantly impacted have been the tourism, restaurant and hospitality sectors, and knowing “where the money was allocated” can assist policymakers in allocating additional funds to those businesses, especially those who did not receive funding in the initial first waves of PPP.

This is one of the first empirical studies that examine over 600,000 loans and found that women-owned firms saved more jobs across all loan categories except the largest loans. Significant differences were also found between minority- and White-owned businesses with minority-owned businesses generally saving more jobs on average across most loan categories.