Starling D Hunter - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Starling D Hunter

Journal of organization design, Jul 3, 2020

Over the last 40 years, organizational scholars have repeatedly called for more research to recon... more Over the last 40 years, organizational scholars have repeatedly called for more research to reconcile formalist and social network approaches to the intraorganizational structure. The former has primarily been concerned with the reporting relationship which manifests as the chain of command while research on the informal social structure relegates the reporting relationship to a wide and varied range of instrumental and affective relationships such as advice-seeking, knowledgesharing, trust, and friendship which span the boundaries that the chain of command defines. In this study, we employ the chain of command distance-the length along the chain of command of a path connecting a pair of organizational actors-as the basis for formulating and testing hypotheses about how the formal organization and the informal social structure influence one another. First, we argue that whereas the formal structure affords only one, often very lengthy, path between any pair of actors, the combination of formal and informal structures results in a greater number of significantly shorter paths between actors. Next, we consider one effect of the formal organization on the informal social structure. In particular, we argue that there is an inverse relationship between the chain of command distance and the likelihood of a social or informal connection forming between a pair of actors. We test our hypotheses with demographic data collected from a public sector provider of health, education, and welfare services in rural Norway.

On Information Technology and Organization Structure

Academy of Management Journal, Sep 1, 1964

... HAK CHONG LEE State University of New York at Albany ... forces and their skills before (1955... more ... HAK CHONG LEE State University of New York at Albany ... forces and their skills before (1955) and after (1962) the computer installation.7 Detailed descriptions of all jobs in the affected departments were made in order to properly classify each job into the mana-gerial or the ...

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Mar 5, 2004

© 2003 by David Spitz, Starling Hunter. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to excee... more © 2003 by David Spitz, Starling Hunter. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission, provided that full credit including © notice is given to the source. ... This paper also can be downloaded without charge ...

Design of the Times: Restructuring for E-Commerce and the Market Value of the Firm

International Journal of Social Science Studies, 2016

Formal and informal organization structure have been described as "opposing poles of a duality"-o... more Formal and informal organization structure have been described as "opposing poles of a duality"-one which has yet to be fully resolved. The aim of this paper is to detail an approach to treating both structures in a comparable way, an approach that explicitly recognizes core and underlying commonalties. Two distinct analytical strategies are employed to this end. The first involves a detailed comparison and contrast of selected and relevant structural dimensions drawn from the two research streams. The second strategy involves the application of these dimensions to the study of network graphs of both the formal and informal structures of the same organization at the same point in time.

Studies in Media and Communication, Jul 20, 2021

The term "showrunner" is used in the US entertainment industry to describe the person who is the ... more The term "showrunner" is used in the US entertainment industry to describe the person who is the chief executive and creative officer of a television TV series. The position is very prestigious, often very financially rewarding, and thus highly sought-after. While there are many paths to the role-and even instances of almost overnight success-the vast majority of current showrunners worked their way up over several years from staff writing positions to production-related roles, often across several different series in the process. Conventional wisdom about how to climb the ladder from writer to showrunner strongly emphasizes the importance of both writing and of originality. While there is research linking objective characteristics of pilot episode scripts to success of the subsequent series, we are aware of no studies that consider whether and how scripts written by showrunners differ from those written by staff writers. Towards that end, in this study we compare the scripts written by showrunners with those written by their staff writers for two highly-acclaimed dramatic series from the last decade-The Good Wife (2009) and The Mentalist (2008). Specifically, we test for differences in the "cognitive complexity" of the two groups of scripts. As expected, we find that, on average, scripts written by showrunners exhibited higher cognitive complexity than those written by staff writers. We also found that scripts by writing team members who later became showrunners for original new series had higher cognitive complexity than those written by staff writers who have yet to attain to this role.

Empirical studies of the determinants of box office revenues have mostly focused on postproductio... more Empirical studies of the determinants of box office revenues have mostly focused on postproduction factors, i.e. ones known after the film has been completed and/or released. Relatively few studies have considered pre-production factors, i.e. ones known before a decision has been made to greenlight a film project. The current study directly addresses this gap in the literature. Specifically, we develop and test a relatively parsimonious, pre-production model to predict the opening weekend box office of 170 US-produced, English-language, feature films released in the years 2010 and 2011. Chief among the pre-production factors that we consider are those derived from the textual and content analysis of the screenplays of these films. The most important of these is determined through the application of network text analysis-a method for rendering a text as a map or network of interconnected concepts. As predicted, we find that the size of the main component of a screenplay's text network strongly predicts the completed film's opening weekend box office.

Journal of Screenwriting, Jun 1, 2016

Empirical studies of the determinants of box office revenues have mostly focused on post-producti... more Empirical studies of the determinants of box office revenues have mostly focused on post-production factors, i.e. ones known after the film has been completed and/or released. Relatively few studies have considered pre-production factors, i.e. ones known before a decision has been made to greenlight a film project. The current study directly addresses this gap in the literature. Specifically, we develop and test a relatively parsimonious, pre-production model to predict the opening weekend box office of 170 US-produced, English-language, feature films released in the years 2010 and 2011. Chief among the pre-production factors that we consider are those derived from the textual and content analysis of the screenplays of these films. The most important of these is determined through the application of network text analysis-a method for rendering a text as a map or network of interconnected concepts. As predicted, we find that the size of the main component of a screenplay's text network strongly predicts the completed film's opening weekend box office.

Journal of organization design, Aug 28, 2015

Much of the literature linking organization structure to performance falls into two broad researc... more Much of the literature linking organization structure to performance falls into two broad research streams. One stream concerns formal structure-the hierarchy of authority or reporting relationships as well as the degree of standardization, formalization, specialization, etc. The impact of formal structure and other elements of organization design on performance is typically contingent on factors such as strategic orientation, task characteristics, and environmental conditions. The other research stream focuses on informal structure-a network of interpersonal and intra-organizational relationships. Properties of informal structure are typically shown to have a more direct (less contingent) impact on organizational performance. Despite these pronounced differences in the conceptualization of organization structure, considerable overlap and complementarity exist between the two research streams. In this article, I compare and contrast a pair of exemplars from each stream-the information processing perspective and the social network perspective-with respect to their conceptualizations of organization structure and its relationship to performance. Several recommendations for future research that combines the two approaches are offered.

This paper employs social network analysis to explain variation in the pricing of 846 banner adve... more This paper employs social network analysis to explain variation in the pricing of 846 banner advertisements appearing in a community formed by 89 "Liberal" and 84 "Conservative" weblogs. As predicted, weblogs that bridge "structural holes" between otherwise disconnected segments of the community command significantly higher prices for their advertisements. Also as predicted, the price of banner ads increases with the number of impressions received, with the size of the ad, when the ad is located higher on the page, and when fewer other ads appear.

II. Research Methods and DATA...................................................739 A. Our Data SET.....................................................................................739

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Series. International journal of tv serial narratives, 2019

Textual and content data were extracted from the pilot episode scripts of 183 new, dramatic telev... more Textual and content data were extracted from the pilot episode scripts of 183 new, dramatic television series and used to predict the 18-49 demo ratings for the first five episodes of each series’ first season. As expected, the originality of a series’ premise, the track record of success of the its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script each explain a statistically significant proportion of the variance in the Nielsen ratings over the first five episodes.

Advances in Journalism and Communication, 2017

Television seasons have gotten shorter and shorter over the past few decades. This has been espec... more Television seasons have gotten shorter and shorter over the past few decades. This has been especially true for new dramatic television series where the norm has dropped to thirteen episodes from almost double that figure twenty years ago. Somewhat surprisingly, there is a dearth of empirical research on this question. In this study, we build on recent research in the field of cultural economics to test the effect of three factors on the duration of new television series' first season-the originality of the series' premise, the track record of its creators, and the cognitive complexity of the pilot episode script. As expected, we find that in a sample of 165 new dramatic series debuting in the nine most recently completed seasons, these three factors-both individually and in combination-positively impact both the number of episodes of a new series and the likelihood that new series gets a "full" first season.

Business and Management Studies, 2017

In this study we develop an empirical model to explain failure rates of new television series. Sp... more In this study we develop an empirical model to explain failure rates of new television series. Specifically, we test the ability of three factors to predict the success of new dramatic series appearing on 31 cable networks over the last 10 years. Those factors are the originality of the story, the track record of its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script—all of which are known well in advance of a network’s decision to greenlight a new series. As predicted, we find that all three variables—both individually and in combination—strongly predict the success rate of new dramatic series in their first two seasons.

Proceedings of the Joint Workshop on Social Dynamics and Personal Attributes in Social Media, 2014

In this paper I apply a novel method of network text analysis to a sample of 150 original screenp... more In this paper I apply a novel method of network text analysis to a sample of 150 original screenplays. That sample is divided evenly between unproduced, original screenplays (n = 75) and those that were nominated for Best Original Screenplay by either the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences or by major film critics associations (n = 75). As predicted, I find that the text networks derived from unproduced screenplays are significantly less complex, i.e. they contain fewer concepts (nodes) and statements (links). Unexpectedly, I find that those same networks are more cohesive, i.e. they exhibit higher density and coreness.

Using Publicly-Available Information for Strategic Organizational Diagnosis and Design

Information and Organization Design Series, 1998

The purpose of this chapter is to assess the feasibility of using publicly-available information,... more The purpose of this chapter is to assess the feasibility of using publicly-available information, rather than inside or first-hand knowledge, for strategic organizational diagnosis and design. The chapter provides a detailed example of how business and popular press accounts on the leading U.S. biomedical firm, Medtronic, were identified, collected, analyzed, and transformed into inputs for the Organizational Consultant (OrgCon).

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2015

Network Text Analysis (NTA) involves the creation of networks of words and/or concepts from lingu... more Network Text Analysis (NTA) involves the creation of networks of words and/or concepts from linguistic data. Its key insight is that the position of words and concepts in a text network provides vital clues to the central and underlying themes of the text as a whole. Recent research has used an inductive or bottom-up approach to the question of theme extraction. In this paper we take a top-down or deductive approach in that we first establish prior expectations as to the key themes to be found in the text. We then compare and contrast the results of our network analysis with the results of literary and cultural analyses of the film Fight Club as reported in over four dozen other peer-reviewed publications. While our results are remarkably consistent with and complementary to results in those studies, our analysis permits something the others do not-an analytical framework for relating those underlying and central themes to one another.

Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 2014

This paper describes a novel method of network text analysis, one that involves a new approach to... more This paper describes a novel method of network text analysis, one that involves a new approach to 1) the selection of words from a text, 2) the aggregation of those words into higher-order concepts, 3) the kind of the relationship that establishes statements from pairs of concepts and 4) the extraction of meaning from the text network formed by these statements. After describing the method, I apply it to a sample of the seven most recent winners of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay-Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Milk, The Hurt Locker, The King's Speech, Midnight in Paris, and Django Unchained. Consistent with prior research, I demonstrate that structure encodes meaning. Specifically, it is shown that statements associated with a text network's least constrained nodes are consistent with themes in the films' synopses found on Wikipedia, the International Movie Database, and Rotten Tomatoes.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2005

Journal of organization design, Jul 3, 2020

On Information Technology and Organization Structure

Academy of Management Journal, Sep 1, 1964

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Mar 5, 2004

Design of the Times: Restructuring for E-Commerce and the Market Value of the Firm

International Journal of Social Science Studies, 2016

Studies in Media and Communication, Jul 20, 2021

Journal of Screenwriting, Jun 1, 2016

Journal of organization design, Aug 28, 2015

II. Research Methods and DATA...................................................739 A. Our Data SET.....................................................................................739

This paper also can be downloaded without charge from the

Series. International journal of tv serial narratives, 2019

Advances in Journalism and Communication, 2017

Business and Management Studies, 2017

Proceedings of the Joint Workshop on Social Dynamics and Personal Attributes in Social Media, 2014

Using Publicly-Available Information for Strategic Organizational Diagnosis and Design

Information and Organization Design Series, 1998

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2015

Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 2014

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2005

Formal and informal organization structure have been described as “opposing poles of a duality”—o... more Formal and informal organization structure have been described as “opposing poles of a duality”—one which has yet to be fully resolved. The aim of this paper is to detail an approach to treating both structures in a comparable way, an approach that explicitly recognizes core and underlying commonalties. Two distinct analytical strategies are employed to this end. The first involves a detailed comparison and contrast of selected and relevant structural dimensions drawn from the two research streams. The second strategy involves the application of these dimensions to the study of network graphs of both the formal and informal structures of the same organization at the same point in time.

Journal of Organization Design, vol. 4, no. 2, Aug 2015

Much of the literature linking organizational design to performance falls into two broad streams.... more Much of the literature linking organizational design to performance falls into two broad streams. One conceptualizes structure bureaucratically, i.e. in terms of a hierarchical pattern of authority or reporting relationships, as well as the degree of standardization, formalization, specialization, etc. The impact of structure and other elements of design on performance is most typically contingent upon other factors such as strategy, task characteristics, and environmental conditions. The other stream conceives of structure more informally, i.e. as a network of interpersonal and intra-organizational relationships. Properties of informal structure are typically shown to have a more direct (less contingent) impact on organizational performance. Despite these rather pronounced differences, considerable overlap and complementarity exists between the two streams. Little of it has been systematically examined, however. In this paper I compare and contrast a pair of exemplars from each stream—the information-processing perspective and the social network perspective—with respect to their conceptualizations of organization design and its relationship to performance. The paper concludes with several specific recommendations for future research combining the two approaches.

This study uses previous theory developed in the IT implementation literature and the information... more This study uses previous theory developed in the IT implementation literature and the information processing view of the firm to empirically investigate the impact of IT investments and several contextual variables on the volatility of future earnings. We use InformationWeek 500 data on IT spending from 1992–1997 to find evidence that IT investments increase the volatility of future earnings but that this impact is highly contingent upon three firm level contextual factors—sales growth, unrelated diversification, and size. These factors can lead to conditions in which IT increases or reduces
earnings volatility. Taken together, these results may help explain what has recently been termed the“new productivity paradox,”i.e., the apparent under-investment in information technology despite evidence of highly positive returns for doing so, and suggests settings where managers may be under- or over-discounting returns on IT investments.

Abstract In the 5 years since its inception, some interpretations of the software program known a... more Abstract In the 5 years since its inception, some interpretations of the software program known as Napster have been inscribed into laws, business plans, and purchasing decisions while others have been pushed to the fringes. This article examines how and why certain assumptions about Napster have gained greater currency while others have not.

Abstract: This study presents the results of an empirical test of two hypotheses concerning the q... more Abstract: This study presents the results of an empirical test of two hypotheses concerning the quality of a group of data processing patents on methods of doing business. The hypotheses are motivated by two frequently voiced criticisms of these patents: that their scope is overly broad and that they cite too little" prior art"(the extant body of knowledge or the array of prior solutions to the problem which the patented invention purports to solve).

On the Feasibility of Improving Patent Quality One Technology at a Time: The Case of Business Met... more On the Feasibility of Improving Patent Quality One Technology at a Time: The Case of Business Methods By John R. Allison? and Starling D'. Hunter* Table of Contents i. introduction 730 ii. research methods and data 739 A. Our Data Set 739 B. Categorization of Patent and Nonpatent Prior Art References 741 III. ANALYTICAL METHODS 744 A. Control Variables 744 1. Examiner experience effects 744 2. Foreign Inventor Effects 745 B. Statistical Techniques 746 IV. RESULTS 748 A. Number of US, Foreign, and Total Nonpatent Prior Art References 748 B.

This paper employs social network analysis to explain variation in the pricing of 846 banner adve... more This paper employs social network analysis to explain variation in the pricing of 846 banner advertisements appearing in a community formed by eighty-nine “liberal” and eighty-four “conservative” Weblogs. As predicted, Weblogs that bridge “structural holes” between otherwise disconnected segments of the community command significantly higher prices for their advertisements.

Technology and Investment

This paper examines the impact of social capital on advertising performance in an online social n... more This paper examines the impact of social capital on advertising performance in an online social network. Specifically,
we show that a widely-employed measure of social capital—network constraint—explains variation in the number of
click-throughs received by 5986 banner advertisements appearing on 25 Twitter-related websites. As predicted, banner
advertisements receive significantly more clicks when placed on websites that bridge structural holes, i.e. bridge other-
wise disconnected segments of the network.

European Journal of Information Systems, 19 (6), 689-703, Jul 13, 2010

In the last few decades, several studies have found the same technology implemented in highly sim... more In the last few decades, several studies have found the same technology implemented in highly similar organizational settings to be associated with very different consequences for structure and process. The seminal study in this stream of research is Barley's (1986) Technology as an Occasion for Structuring, which reported that two similarly composed radiology departments implemented the same technology (computerized tomography scanners), yet experienced very different structural outcomes. In this paper I re-analyze the original study's data under three different statistical assumptions. First, I performed an arcsine transformation on the dependent variable where the original study used the raw probabilities. Second, I specified a power regression model in which the original study employed a linear regression. Finally, I user fewer dummy variables in the ‘combined’ regression models to determine the distinct phases through which the two hospitals evolved. Taken together, these assumptions produce very different results from the original study. Specifically they indicate that the radiology departments did not decentralize at different rates and did not do so over a different number of distinct phases. From my analysis come three specific recommendations for research investigating the consequences of information technology in similarly constituted organizations: (1) exchange the default assumption of homogeneity of outcomes with one of heterogeneity; (2) explicitly account for both the observable properties of technology and the context of its use; and (3) state clearly and a priori the standard used to classify structural and organizational outcomes as ‘different’.

A case study for organizational behavior based on the pilot episode of Brooklyn 99. This docume... more A case study for organizational behavior based on the pilot episode of Brooklyn 99.

This document contains (1) a summary of the series (2) a list of the cast of characters (3) an episode recap and (4) two discussion questions suitable for classroom use in undergraduate courses such as organizational behavior and principles of management.

Slide deck for session 4, Organizational Behavior

Slide deck for session 3, Organizational Behavior

Slide deck for session 2 of Organizational Behavior (70-311)

Case study and discussion questions for Mr. Robot (S01E01) focused on Individual Behavior & Diffe... more Case study and discussion questions for Mr. Robot (S01E01) focused on Individual Behavior & Differences, particularly job personality traits.

Teaching case and discussion questions for organizational behavior, leadership traits, supervisor... more Teaching case and discussion questions for organizational behavior, leadership traits, supervisory ability based on Scorpion (S01E05, Plutonium is Forever).

Analysis of the Big Five personality variables, locus of control, self-efficacy, Machiavellianism... more Analysis of the Big Five personality variables, locus of control, self-efficacy, Machiavellianism, emotional intelligence, and creativity in Ugly Betty (S01E01, Pilot)

Powerpoint slides (saved as PDF) for analysis of Diversity and Conflict in The Apprentice (S01E02)

Powerpoint Slides for the application of Equity Theory to "The Fire", Season 2, Episode 4 of "The... more Powerpoint Slides for the application of Equity Theory to "The Fire", Season 2, Episode 4 of "The Office" (The Office, S02E04)

Summary of Hamel's Model of Business Concept Innovation Framework described in Chapter 3 of "Lead... more Summary of Hamel's Model of Business Concept Innovation Framework described in Chapter 3 of "Leading the Revolution."

A outline of Barney's Resource-based View of the Firm

We extract textual and content data from the pilot episode scripts of 181 new, dramatic televisio... more We extract textual and content data from the pilot episode scripts of 181 new, dramatic television series and use it to predict the 18-49 demo ratings for the first five episodes of the series' first seasons. As expected, we find that the originality of a series' premise, the track record of success of the its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script each explain a statistically significant proportion of the variance in ratings between the 181 series but none of the variance within series.

Good Girls is an original, comedy-crime drama created by Jenna Bans. It premiered on February 26t... more Good Girls is an original, comedy-crime drama created by Jenna Bans. It premiered on February 26th, 2018 on NBC as a mid-season entry.

From publicly-available sources, I determined (1) the creator’s track record of success and (2) the originality of the story’s premise.

Using a proprietary algorithm, I determined the size of the pilot episode script’s semantic network.

With these three variables, I identified 18 comparable dramatic series that appeared on the four major broadcast networks in the last ten seasons.

Based on my analysis, I predict that (1) Good Girls will not achieve a full first season, i.e. 20+ episodes (2) Good Girls has only a 1-in-6 chance of being renewed for a second season and (3) If renewed, the season will fall well short of 20 episodes.

A Semantic Network Analysis of Showtime's "The Chi" The Chi—a Showtime series debuting on Januar... more A Semantic Network Analysis of Showtime's "The Chi"

The Chi—a Showtime series debuting on January 7th, 2018—is a contemporary, coming-of-age story set in Chicago’s South Side.

A semantic network analysis of the “Buff” draft of The Chi’s pilot episode script was undertaken.

The script rates poorly on two, text-based, leading indicators of series performance—cognitive complexity and concept specificity.

The broader story also rates poorly on two content-based predictors of subsequent series performance—genre breadth and prior source material.

Based on these four factors, six comparable and another twenty “anti-comparable” series were identified.

Four of the comparables (67%) were canceled after the first season and five of six (83%) failed to reach a third season. In marked contrast, only 1 in 20 anti-comparable series was canceled after season one and only three have failed to get a third season thus far.

Unless The Chi’s pilot script, dated October 15th, 2015, was subjected to major re-writes before filming began in April 2017, there is little reason to expect that the subsequent series to perform any better than its comparables.

The specific objective of the present study is to develop and test an early-stage, empirical mode... more The specific objective of the present study is to develop and test an early-stage, empirical model for predicting the audience of new television series. We test our model on a sample of 107 new dramatic television series that debuted on one of the four major US television networks during the 2010-2014 seasons. In particular we examine the role of three previously untested predictors of the performance of new television shows, all of which can be known prior to the decision to greenlight the pilot script. Those three are the originality of the concept of the show, the track record of success of the show's creative team, and the size of the conceptual network created from the teleplay of the pilot episode.

A semantic network graph of the pilot episode of Eric Ellis Overmeyer & Michael Connelley's "Bosc... more A semantic network graph of the pilot episode of Eric Ellis Overmeyer & Michael Connelley's "Bosch", an Amazon Original series.