UMass Boston

Creative industries, Social networks, leadership and negotiation

PhD, Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, Boston College
MS, Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, Boston College
BA, Earlham College, Departmental and College Honors

• Foster, P., Manning, S., Terkla, D. (2015) The rise of Hollywood East: Regional film offices as intermediaries in film and television production clusters. Regional Studies, 49(3):433-450.
• Foster, P. & Ocejo, R. (2015) Brokerage, mediation and social networks in the creative industries. Jones. C., Lorenzen, M. and Sapsed, J. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook on Creative Industries (pp. 405-420). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Foster, P. (2013) Mobile project networks: Geographic mobility in the U.S. film and television industry. Work and Occupations, 40(4): 398–430.
• Foster, P., Jones, C. & Borgatti, S. (2011) Gatekeeper search and selection strategies: Relational and network governance in a cultural market. Poetics: An Empirical Journal in Arts Media and Culture, 39: 247-265.
• Foster, P. & Richardson, J. (2011) The chocolate conundrum: An experiential exercise in the tragedy of the commons. The Negotiation Journal, April: 227-240.
• Foster, P. & Carboni, I. (2009) Using student-centered cases in the classroom: An action inquiry approach to leadership development. Journal of Management Education, 33: 676–698.
• Borgatti, S. P. & Foster. P. (2003) The network paradigm in organizational research: A review and typology. Journal of Management, 29(6): 991-1013.

Background

• 2014-present Associate Professor, Management and Marketing, UMass Boston
• 2007-2014 Assistant Professor, Management and Marketing, UMass Boston
• 2008-2012 Affiliated Faculty, Center for Medical Simulation
• 1996-1998 Associate Director, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
• 1994-1996 Research Associate, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
• 1993-1994 Research Associate and Junior Mediator, J.A.M.S./Endispute
• 1991-1992 Labor Case Administrator, American Arbitration Association

Research Interests

My research focuses on the connections among social, economic and regional dynamics in creative industries. I am particularly interested in how networks at one level of analysis (e.g., among individuals) affect the structure of networks at higher levels of analysis (e.g., among organizations and industry sectors). My early research identified how nightclub talent buyers use their social networks to manage the uncertainties and risks associated with booking bands. I wrote the first academic history of Boston hip-hop and conduced a benchmark study on the local film and television industry which was funded by a Creative Economy Initiatives Grant from the University of Massachusetts. In 2014, I launched the Massachusetts Hip Hop archive with the Special Collections at UMass Boston and worked with the Massachusetts Cultural Council on an evaluation of the Adams Arts Program.

Professional and Service Activities

Honors College, Steering Committee Member, 2014-present

CAPS, Steering Committee Member, 2014-present

Occasional reviewer for the Academy of Management (OMT), National Science Foundation, Organization Studies, Field Methods, Journal of Management History, Human Organization, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Regional Studies, Poetics. 15 years of experience providing consulting, training and research services to private, public and not-for-profit organizations including Massachusetts Cultural Council, IBM, Partners Health Care, The Center for Medical Simulation, The Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law School, Polaroid Corp., Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Syncline Inc. and Changewise

Honors and Grants

• 2014 Supporting Evaluation Planning and Methodologies for the John and Abigail Adams Arts Program. Massachusetts Cultural Council, Boston, MA.
• 2011 Lecco’s Lemma’s rap tapes: An aural history of the birth of rap music in Boston. President’s Creative Economy Initiatives Grant, University of Massachusetts.
• 2009 Electronic gaming in Massachusetts: Proposal for a baseline study and industry analysis. President’s Creative Economy Initiatives Grant, University of Massachusetts.
• 2009 Betty Diener Teaching Award, University of Massachusetts Boston, MA.
• 2008 Study on the film industry and its economic impact in Massachusetts. President’s Creative Economy Initiatives Grant, University of Massachusetts.
•  2008 Learning can be del.icio.us: Using social tagging to facilitate asynchronous research collaboration in undergraduate management courses. Educational Technology Teaching Grant, University of Massachusetts Boston, MA.
• 2002 Graduate Research Fellowship, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA.