Global Governance
Faculty Coordinator: Stephen Smith
email: ssmith@gwu.edu

In most parts of the world government policy has become much more business friendly, but at the same time local competition is steeper, a newly powerful civil society must be negotiated, and government ability to set the rules of the game is often in question. In response, governance models are changing. Some government regulatory frameworks are loosening, but other regulatory frameworks including formal and informal rules for economic activity are being introduced in many parts of the world. Civil society has expanded its scope and reach, a new force that business must reckon with throughout the world. Corporate social responsibility is increasingly expected and accepted as business is increasingly called upon to participate in governance. With a billion people in extreme poverty, business solutions, in partnership with other emerging actors, offer socially useful and ultimately profitable opportunities, as business moves toward serving market segments ever closer to the base of the economic pyramid.

New governance structures promise challenges as well as opportunities. U.S. firms increasingly debate the appropriateness of their governance role. The participation of many different kinds of actors can lead to competing regulations, elevating uncertainty and making it hard for companies to evaluate risk. U.S. firms are clearly trying to adapt and respond appropriately to local norms throughout the world, but are only beginning to understand the scope and nature of these changes and challenges related to the governance of organizations, within economies, and of society at large.

The GW-CIBER addresses these gaps in knowledge, teaching and business training through its program on Global Governance. An overarching theme is to better understand and find effective responses to the appropriate roles for business, government and civil society, particularly in the developing world, where five billion people are redefining the future of the world economy in which American firms operate. This research, teaching initiative, and outreach program builds on well-established expertise at GW, such as in the activities of GW-INGOT (the GW International NGO Team of faculty and doctoral students from across the university) which has researched the shifting organizational comparative advantages of these three sectors in creating economic and social value throughout the world.

The focal program on global governance includes the following issues:

• charting the variety of actors that govern on global issues and conceptualizing their various roles
• examining the degree to which formal and informal institutions encourage or constrain international business initiatives and expansion within base-of-the-pyramid business models and activities
• examining how formal and informal institutions including legal systems, voluntary codes and compliance frameworks, and capital market design function to promote or impede U.S. business performance in global markets
• assessing the conditions under which U.S. corporate governance models are relevant when operating overseas; where modifications are required, assessing the corporate performance implications for U.S. based multinational firms.
• investigating and validating methods and practices to promote mutually beneficial collaboration between firms, governments and civil society overseas
• creating institutions and strategies to promote environmental and social development and sustainability to secure access to vital resources and markets for U.S. business interests in the future
• identifying policy initiatives that best promote U.S. economic development at various levels through enhanced engagement in overseas markets and interaction with foreign actors, including foreign investors/employers in the U.S.