Career opportunities and network-based privileges in the Cosa Nostra

The paper provides an interpromotional analysis of Sammy ( a. k. a. the Bull) Gravano's career in New York City's Gambino family. Biographical material as well as complementary data sources ( court proceedings and electronic surveillance transcripts) are used to create Gravano's working network throughout his 30-year career in illegal and legitimate business ventures. A social network design is used to construct the interpromotional surroundings that accounted for Gravano's rise from associate to underboss through his ability to attain a competitive edge within a patron-client exchange system. Structural hole properties ( personal network constraint and hierarchical-constraint) shape opportunities for a member's advancement within fixed, organizational working settings. Such promotions within an organization, in turn, affect various facets of criminal entrepreneurial careers (i.e. shifts in criminal activities, increased participation in legitimate activities, increased financial earnings, and variations in access to regulatory lethal violence).