The 2008 W. Richard Scott Award for Best Paper was awarded to Brian Uzzi and Jarrett Spiro, “Collaboration and Creativity: The Small World Problem,”American Journal of Sociology, vol. 111, no. 2, pp. 447-504, Sept 2005. With a number of first-rate pieces nominated this year, the awards committee quickly reached consensus about the top paper.  The winning paper examines how small, local and proximate networks among creative individuals – that is, small world networks -- shape the creativity and success of new artistic projects.  In particular, the authors focus on the teams of creative artists who made Broadway musicals from 1945 to 1989.  The authors show how the small world distribution of talent among these artists affected the financial and artistic performance of new musicals in a U-shaped pattern.  They find that as the small world characteristics of a network increase, success rises up to a threshold, then begins to decline. 

The committee unanimously praised the paper for its quality execution in every aspect.  The authors develop new methods to test their hypotheses and make the small world phenomenon “do something.”  These methods are impressive for their innovativeness, their sophistication and their multilevel framework.  The use of theory is supple yet rigorous, with an exceptional fit with the research methods.  The paper provides a rich set of theoretical and empirical applications for research in the field of organizations.  It also promises to become a central work in the training of graduate students as well as in organizational research.

Selection Committee: Irene Brown (Chair), David Obstfeld, Pamela Popielarz

Winner of the 2007 W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship was David Obstfeld for his article, “Social Networks, The Tertius Iungens Orientation, and Involvement In Innovation”, Administrative Science Quarterly, volume 50, no. 1, pp. 100-130, Mar 2005.

The article is an outstanding paper that employs quantitative and ethnographic analysis to link the process of innovation with a behavioral orientation toward connecting people within one’s social network. In developing his analysis, Obstfeld builds on previous work, particularly in the structural tradition of Granovetter and Burt, which has shown that being a connector or “broker” between unconnected actors can boost one’s innovative potential. In examining the behavior and social networks associated with innovation within the firm, Obstfeld examines new territory in two respects: First the paper identifies, and measures, a tertius iungens orientation and found that this dynamic connecting orientation influenced innovation independent of network structure. Second, brokers that initiate new forms of coordination between already connected pairs, that is, in dense (not sparse) networks were more involved in innovation. Seen in this new way, brokerage involves both bridging the disconnected – Burt and Granovetter's contributions – and connecting those already connected. The paper suggests that brokerage be considered as involving both connecting the unconnected, but also the many important ways that reconnecting those who already have ties to one another - whether weak or strong, social or professional, etc. -- constitutes brokerage as well. Social networks provide an opportunity structure for brokerage, but do not define it.

Selection Committee: Brian Uzzi, Matt Huffman, Kate Stovel