Support the birth of a new economic paradigm.

This project illuminates invisible resources that play a vital but largely unrecognized role in our economy. The objective is to develop a comprehensive typology of capitals, akin to a periodic table of elements for economics. It also seeks to explain what activates and transforms these resources to produce sustainable organizational success and community well-being.

Integral Implications: Peter Drucker predicted the nonprofit sector would help capitalism escape from its zero-sum game by providing a new economic paradigm. My research offers a potential starting point for this transformation. The outcome will be an actionable framework that serves as a toolkit for sustainable business model development in all sectors (private, nonprofit, public, and social enterprise) by employing multiple types of capitals, for example, relationships (social capital), knowledge (intellectual capital), and brand (reputational capital). The findings from this research will have global impact now and for future generations by changing the way people think about economics, shifting its focus from scarcity/diminishing returns to a new narrative of resource creation and mutualism.

What: Through the development of a case study, this investigation examines how a formal collaboration of 29 nonprofit arts and culture organizations creates, mobilizes, and converts a variety of resources (e.g., social, intellectual, reputational, and creative capital). Preliminary analysis suggests that the collaboration grows multiple forms of intangible capital through strategic program design, converting these resources into financial capital to sustain the partnership.

Why it Matters: The privileging of a single form of capital (financial) turns an economic means into an end. The action logic becomes resource conservation, expressed as a focus on efficiency (cost minimization), short-term outlook (next quarter's earnings statement), and risk transfer (externalizing costs and negative impacts onto others). Further, this logic promotes artificial creation of scarcity by intentionally limiting supply of goods that are not truly scarce to generate higher prices (e.g., through cartels) and can lead to a resource extraction mentality that fosters gaming of the system for personal gain.

Beyond a Balance Sheet: In contrast, just as energy can change forms (e.g., mechanical to electrical), capital can also be converted (a quality known as fungibility). Because intangible capital is largely nonrivalrous (like a lighthouse, one person's use does not leave less light for others) and can be intentionally grown (e.g., convening people to create community, aka social capital), intangible capital may offer a logical pathway for the creation and regeneration of resources. This project will produce an empirically supported explanation for the phenomenon of increasing returns (Krugman, 1979; Arthur, 1996), effectively transitioning economics from an action logic of efficiency (resource conservation) to an action logic of value creation by building capacity to generate increasing returns through resource creation, conversion, and re-circulation of capitals. This new paradigm, Integral Economics, paves the way for repair of the world by reintegrating the political, financial, and social economies.

Purpose/Amount Requested: This application requests support for research and refinement of a multi-capital typology; the empirical testing of this typology through an exploratory qualitative study of 29 nonprofit organizations; the development of a case study to document resource flows and transformations among the collaborating organizations; and dissemination of research results to stakeholders. The $6,000 will be used to fund professional transcription of the recorded interviews, enabling me to conduct more interviews (30 instead of 15), and to disseminate my findings so they can be acted upon. The University of San Diego has committed research space, computer equipment, software, and faculty guidance. I will invest approximately 800 hours of my own time to conduct this project.

There are thousands of organizations doing good work. I've decided to support the MetaIntegral Foundation because they are making a real IMPACT in the world through the projects they fund. I invite you to join me in supporting their social change projects that are having transformative impact.

Your donation in any amount will support the birth of a new paradigm for economics. Thank you!