"The Price of Dreams- an Examination of the Market for Thoroughbred Yearlings."

This paper examines how status and market signals influence sale price at auction in the marketplace for Thoroughbred Yearlings.  Theories from economics, sociology, and marketing are integrated to provide a more thorough examination of the marketplace and the participants in the buying and selling of yearlings.  A model of price prediction is built using both yearling and buyer specific variables, and the results from that model are then assessed with seller specific variables, providing a comprehensive look at the variables that drive sales price.  A sample of 300 horses from the 2007 Keeneland September Yearling sale was used.  Results show strong effects for marketplace reaction to signals of status, quality, and reputation by both buyers and sellers.  Buyers are willing to pay more for horses that provide stronger signals of quality, while sellers are able to obtain higher quality yearlings for sale based on sellers past record of performance.

Study Buddies: An analysis of the social networks of academics in university settings

Since Gouldner’s 1957 Cosmopolitans and Locals study the relationships of academics in a university setting has been the subject of empirical research.  Social Network Analysis (SNA) offers exciting possibilities in looking at how and why academics form certain networks.  Recent research has hypothesized that social capital in organizations can lead to the development of good ideas.  This paper analyzes the social networks of graduate students, faculty, and staff occupying an office building floor at a moderate sized public university.  This analysis explores social capital, friendship ties, professional advice, social activity, and trust ties amongst academics.  This paper looks at how the variables of department affiliation, geographical proximity, departmental role, and level of education completed all relate to network flows and social capital.  In addition to the primary analysis several issues of network survey data collection are looked at also, such as online survey administration, the ethical issues of consent and confidentiality, and response rate.   Department and Departmental role are found to play the largest roles in formation of academic networks.  Academic social networks tend to have high rates of homophilly and show very little diversity based on what is researched, except for association with department leaders.

Virtually Traveling the Network: An analysis of linked housing social movement group websites

The fair housing movement gained national recognition in the 1960's through participation spurred on by mailings, street demonstrations and reliance on the media. Today many social movements still depend on the same resources for gaining participation, but rely heavily on their own websites for informing and recruiting individuals to their cause. Formerly referred to as 'hot links', now simply titled a 'links page' or 'resources' on a website, this study looks at the virtual network of linked fair housing social movement groups. This network illustrates the path that may be traveled by researchers, concerned citizens and organizations with an interest in involvement in the fair housing movement. This study addresses the question:  how are these networks virtually traveled? The findings suggest that by entering into this virtual network at different nodes, depending on the centrality of that node, an individual will be exposed to different clusters of organizations that will influence their perception of the movement. The study also compares the virtual network of regional groups to that of national groups and finds an established pattern among the paths available by entering the network through a regional group.

A group and network perspective on participation and affiliation in organizational innovation implementation

Friendships, Self-Identification and Influences
within the Emergent/Emerging Church 

The Emergent, or Emerging, Church (E/C) is a social movement occurring within the Protestant Church. The following study examines the network of friendships, self-identification and influences within this group. For this survey, 600 survey responses were collected from 46 states within the US, and 17 foreign countries. The responses were collected via a self-organizing snowball sample, beginning with 12 self-described “Emergent” Christians who are members of the organizing group of Emergent Village, a social movement organization committed to furthering the so-called “conversation” around new understandings of Christianity in a globalized context. Additionally, a weekly email to Emergent Village participants invited survey responses, as did several blogs. The study looks at the global relationships of Emergent Christians, and examines the influences of key E/C leaders, authors and speakers on the development of network segments. Additionally, it looks at network predictors based on geography, church tradition and religious participation.

Who Competes with Whom? A Multilevel Network Analysis of Competition for Recruits in NCAA Football.

Organizations compete on the product playing field.  However competition in goods and services markets, are not the extent of this competition.  Recruitment is a major facet of organizational competition for human resources, as companies strive to attract the most skilled and talented employees.  The literature on recruitment is dominated by three types of studies: those whose focus is on the individual or applicant pool, those which focus on the organization, and those that examine the dynamics between these two constituencies.  This study takes an integrative, multilevel, network approach using data from the 2007-2008 recruiting cycle in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools.  We first test a model at the organizational level to predict the strength of competition among colleges.  The results indicate that competition on the playing field, geographic proximity, status similarities and institutionalized conceptualization of competitors all play a significant factor in determining who competes with whom. The second model, tested at the individual unit of analysis, predicts recruit commitment.  Recruits with multiple scholarship offer co-occurrences (recruits with several offers from similar schools) are shown to be significantly correlated with commitment co-occurrence (recruits signing at the same schools). This  equivalence argument suggests that interpersonal connection among recruits has an important effect on their ultimate commitment decision.  Finally, the competitive dynamics of college football recruiting is examined on the basis of multiple types of recruits, multiple stages of the recruitment cycle, and various recruit talent levels.  Implications of this research should help to inform recruitment strategies, and the organization of mass recruiting efforts.