Linda Scott is DP World Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Scott is best known for her creation of the concept of the Double X Economy – a perspective which describes the global economy of women in both the developed and developing world, and the roles of women not only as consumers, but as investors, donors and workers.

Scott and her colleagues at Oxford are engaged in a range of projects including:
-  Examining how providing sanitary pads to poor girls in Africa helps them  remain in school, increasing their life chances and positively impacting the society, economy and environment in these poor nations.
-  Exploring how Procter & Gamble’s Pampers brand and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) formed a partnership to deliver life changing health programmes to some of the world’s poorest countries, whilst also achieving corporate goals. The research uncovered key lessons for corporations looking to partner with humanitarian organizations on similar initiatives.
-  Looking at how distribution systems like Avon and CARE Bangladesh help thousands of impoverished women achieve financial security through the delivery of important goods, such as clothes and soap, to rural communities. The research has important implications for both multinational corporations that want to access the large potential markets of rural communities and for NGOs whose work with the world’s poorest people might be significantly boosted by commercial partnerships of this type.

Scott’s Double X Economy research was recognised by Thinkers 50, which shortlisted her for its annual Breakthrough Thinker award. In addition, Scott was recently appointed to the U.S. Department of State’s International Council on Women’s Business Leadership (ICWBL) Subcommittee on Access to Markets.

In April 2012, Scott delivered her Inaugural Lecture as DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Saïd Business School. In her speech, titled The Double X Economy, Scott outlined a conceptual framework for the women's economy and discussed her research projects that explore the potential for market-based interventions to combat important social challenges.

In addition to her extensive work around women’s entrepreneurship, Scott is a leader in advertising research, particularly as it relates to consumer response to imagery and music.  For her work in this area, she was recently nominated for the Paul Converse Award for long-term contribution to marketing scholarship.  Scott remains active in the arena of advertising research, as Editor of Advertising and Society Review, a board member of the Advertising Educational Foundation and board member of the Consumer Culture Theory organization. She published a path-breaking article on consumer response to imagery in the Journal of Consumer Research in 2007 and has further work on this topic in review. 

Prior to joining the Saïd Business School in 2006, Scott held appointments in advertising, art, women's studies and communications at the University of Illinois. Her education includes bachelors and masters degrees in American literature and history, an MBA and a doctorate in mass communications.

Areas of expertise include:
- Women and markets
- Social entrepreneurship
- Women’s entrepreneurship
- Consumer culture
- History of advertising and consumption
- Images in advertising
- Religion and commerce

Linda Scott’s current research focuses on the potential for market-based approaches to provide economic empowerment and entrepreneurial opportunities for poor women in developing nations. She also conducts research related to consumer responses to imagery and music in advertising and the relationship between religion and commerce.

The Double X Economy
Through her concept of the Double X Economy, Scott emphasizes the ways in which the economic behaviours of women in the rich nations are increasingly channelled to benefit their less fortunate sisters in the world’s most deprived areas.

Scott explains: “While women have always engaged in economic behaviour, their activities and outcomes have usually gone unnoticed, unmeasured and unregulated. In particular, the fact that women in many cultures, past and present, have been precluded from participating in paid labour has meant their productive contributions have dropped beneath the radar.  The further tendency to focus on production without recognizing the role consumption plays has tended to obscure the power and reach of the women’s economy.”

Scott’s Double X Economy research was recognised by Thinkers 50, which shortlisted her for its annual Breakthrough Thinker award.

In her book Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism, Scott examines the exclusive nature of the feminist dress code and its destructive effect on the feminist movement.

Related publications:

Scott, L., Johnstone-Louis, M., Dolan, C., Sugden, K. and Wu, M. (2012) “Inequality and Enterprise:  A Study of Avon in Africa,” Entrepreneurship, Theory, and Practice.

Scott, L. (2011) “Beyond Poverty: Social Justice in a Global Marketplace,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

Scott, L. (2009) “Warring Images: Women and Fashion in World War II,” Advertising and Society Review, Volume 10, Issue 3.

View the Thinkers 50 interview with Linda Scott on the Double X Economy: http://www.thinkers50.com/video/80  

View Linda Scott’s Inaugural Lecture at Oxford University on the Double X Economy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_SHdzf4LWI  

Avon in Africa
Scott and her colleague, Catherine Dolan, conducted the first independent, empirical investigation of the Avon system’s ability to empower poor, black women of South Africa and lift them from poverty by selling Avon cosmetics. This three-year study was funded by the Economics and Social Science Research Council and the Department for International Development.

Related publications:
Scott, L., Johnstone-Louis, M., Dolan, C., Sugden, K. and Wu, M. (2012) “Inequality and Enterprise:  A Study of Avon in Africa,” Entrepreneurship, Theory, and Practice.

Dolan, C. and Scott, L. (2009) “Lipstick Evangelism: Avon Trading Circles and Gender Empowerment in South Africa,” Gender and Development, July, 203-218.

Scott, L. (2008) “Avon Calling South Africa,” Business at Oxford.

Download the Avon in Africa case study

CARE Bangladesh
Scott and her colleagues, Catherine Dolan and Mary Johnstone-Louis, spent three years researching an innovative, nationwide system that helps poor women living in rural communities in Bangladesh become entrepreneurs. The CARE Rural Sales Programme has trained and employed thousands of women in rural areas of Bangladesh, helping to lift them from poverty through participation in a vast distribution system that carries basic consumer products, medicines, food, apparel and agricultural items to remote villages at reasonable prices. Having studied the system from the perspective of the entrepreneurs since 2008, Scott is now seeking funding for research that will investigate the impact the consumer goods have had on the 80 districts in which the system is working.

Related publications:
Scott, L., Johnstone-Louis, M., Dolan, C. (2012) “Shampoo, saris and SIM cards: seeking entrepreneurial futures at the bottom of the pyramid,” Gender and Development.

Scott, L. (2011) “Sisters Doing it for Themselves,” Business at Oxford.

Download the CARE Bangladesh case study and teaching notes: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Documents/BoP/RSP_Case_2012_RN.PDF
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Documents/BoP/RSP_TN_2012_RN.PDF  

Pampers / UNICEF
Scott has researched the Pampers / UNICEF promotion that funds the purchase of vaccines to combat a common, but little known killer, maternal neonatal tetanus (MNT). Pampers and UNICEF joined forces in 2004 to work toward the elimination of MNT, an infection that kills mothers and babies in poor, remote areas when birth occurs in unclean environments. Through a promotion in which Procter & Gamble, the makers of Pampers, donated one vaccine for every pack of diapers purchased, enough money has now been raised to buy a vaccine for every woman who needs it worldwide.

Related publications:
Scott, L. (2011) “How Pampers and UNICEF Conquered a Deadly Disease,” Harvard Business Review.

Download the Pampers / UNICEF case study and teaching notes: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/corporate/pampersunicef/Pages/Pampers-UNICEFcasematerials.aspx  

Sanitary Care in Ghana and Uganda
Scott’s research into the potential for free sanitary pads to help teen girls in developing nations attend school has received a great deal of attention. In a study conducted in Ghana, Scott and her team demonstrated that this simple product, one the Western world takes for granted, can have a life-changing impact on young women.

Now, the same team is taking up the question in Uganda, in a longer and larger study funded by the Economics and Social Science Research Council and the Department for International Development. The team is also beginning an exploratory study of alternative methods for solving the sanitary care issue, with special emphasis on environmentally-friendly solutions.

Related publications:
Scott, L., Ryus, C. Dolan, C., Dopson, S., and Montgomery, P. “The Power of Ordinary Objects:  Investigating Sanitary Care in Ghana,” Working paper. 
 
Scott, L. “Impact of providing sanitary pads to poor girls in Africa,” Working paper.

Download the Sanitary Pads in Ghana case study: http://www.doublexeconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/CASE-Sanitary-Pads-in-Ghana.pdf  

Images and Music in Advertising
For more than two decades Scott has studied consumer responses to images and music in advertising. She has authored numerous academic articles and a book on the subject and was nominated for the Paul Converse Award for long-term contribution to marketing scholarship for her work.

Scott’s current research in this area demonstrates that consumers read pictures as if they are a form of writing, inferring specific and detailed messages from the styles in which objects are represented.

Related publications:
Linda M. Scott (2008), “Theoretical Realism: Culture and Politics in Commercial Imagery,” Consumer Culture Theory, John Sherry and Eileen Fisher, eds., London: Routledge.

Scott, L. and Vargas, P. (2007) “Writing with Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Images,” Journal of Consumer Research.

Religion and Commerce
Scott is currently studying ‘new age’ religion and the marketplace in Glastonbury, England with a particular interest in the interface between more feminine visions of the sacred and commercial activity in the town. Scott’s latest book – Consumption and Spirituality – examines the consumption of spiritual products, services, experiences, and places through a collection of articles by leading and emerging scholars.

In addition, Scott has conducted research on the Halal industry for the Malaysian government. This work was undertaken in collaboration with universities in Malaysia to evaluate various industries as potential growth areas for Malaysian SMEs under a broad ‘halal’ definition. 

Download the Halal case studies: Halal - Case 1, Halal - Case 2

Related publications:
Maclaran, P., Rinallo, D., and Scott, L., eds. (2012) Consumption and Spirituality (in production at Routledge). 

Scott, L. (2009) Halal Industry Report, Commissioned by the Malaysian government.

For a full listing of Scott’s publications, please see her curriculum vitae: http://www.doublexeconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ScottVita2012.pdf 

Linda Scott’s MBA teaching focuses on the role of culture in the management of global markets for consumer goods, as well as branding and communication.  In those classes, she uses an eclectic mix of examples, illustrated with images and music, and brings in industry experts to share their experiences. In addition to her courses for the MBA programme, Scott teaches on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship Certificate Programme. This programme, launched in Hangzhou, Eastern China in 2009, provides 100 underserved high-potential female entrepreneurs with business and management education at Zhejiang University. Scott has developed two teaching cases for the programme.

Scott’s teaching cases include:
- Avon in Africa – this case looks at the cultural and historical milieu in which Avon and its products have grown to prominence and highlights the questions that arise about selling cosmetics among poor Africans.
- CARE Bangladesh – this case charts the development of CARE International’s Rural Sales Programme in Bangladesh and examines many of the critical issues which arise in such Bottom of the Pyramid schemes.
- Pampers-UNICEF – this case illustrates how Pampers and UNICEF worked together to eliminate maternal neonatal tetanus (MNT) and details the challenges these two organizations faced in delivering the MNT vaccine to women in need of the drug.
- Sanitary Pads in Ghana – this case addresses the questions of why and how Scott and her research team introduced sanitary pads to poor girls in Ghana.
- Halal One and Two – these cases look at the Halal goods industry, exploring the potential for, and path to, making Malaysia a ‘Halal Hub’.
- Ning Du Products – this case, developed for the Goldman 10,000 Women Programme, explores the challenges of operating and growing a small business in a crowded retail market and is intended to be a basic lesson in the functions of branding.
- Bingo Bagel – this case, developed for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Programme, looks at how to successfully launch and expand a retail business and is intended to teach a core marketing concept – positioning.
- Avon in Africa

Linda Scott teaches:
- Culture and Global Markets (MBA)
- Branding and Communications (MBA)
- Islamic Branding (Executive Education)
- The Women’s Economy (Doctoral level)
- Interpretation of Markets (Doctoral level)

In the course of her research, Linda Scott has engaged with thousands of women and girls, as well as government officials, corporate managers, educators, shopkeepers and public health nurses, to help improve the living conditions for women in developing countries. She has worked with Procter & Gamble, Avon, CARE International, UNICEF and many local NGOs and companies on the implementation of programmes that assist women and children in some of the world’s poorest regions.  Through this extensive work, Scott has established herself as a leading expert on women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment in emerging markets.

Scott was recently appointed to the U.S. Department of State’s International Council on Women’s Business Leadership (ICWBL) Subcommittee on Access to Markets. As a member of this Subcommittee, she will support the development of projects and policies that will empower women with the tools and resources necessary to thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy.

She is on the board of the Advertising Educational Foundation in New York and is the editor of Advertising & Society Review. She is also on the advisory boards for G23, Omnicom Group’s women’s consultancy, the Organization for Women in International Trade, the Internationalist’s Awards for Innovation in Media and the Saïd Foundation’s Inspiring Women in Leadership & Learning (iwill) initiative.

Scott is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, universities and events. She has recently discussed her work at the 2011 Interbrand Conference on the ‘New Age of Corporate Citizenship’ at Harvard University, a Procter & Gamble dinner for the Clinton Global Initiative, the American Marketing Association Summer Educators’ Conference and the Global Forum on Women’s Entrepreneurship at Zhejiang University, among others.

Scott’s Double X Economy research was recognised by Thinkers 50, which shortlisted her for its annual Breakthrough Thinker award. In addition, Scott was nominated for the Paul D. Converse Award for long-term contribution to scholarship in marketing for her work around consumer response to advertisements.

Scott is an active member of the Association for Consumer Research. In addition to having chaired the main ACR conference (ACR Montreal 1998), she has chaired the ACR Gender Conference and will chair the Consumer Culture Theory Conference in Oxford in August 2012.

For more on Scott’s current research, interests and engagement, visit her blog at http://www.doublexeconomy.com/blog/