IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v494y2018icp367-379.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Italian corporate system in a network perspective (1952–1983)

Author

Listed:
  • Bargigli, L.
  • Giannetti, R.

Abstract

We study the Italian network of boards in four benchmark years covering different decades, when important economic structural shifts occurred. We find that the latter did not significantly disturb its structure as a small world. At the same time, we do not find a strong peculiarity of the Italian variety of capitalism and its corporate governance system. Typical properties of small world networks are at levels which are not dissimilar from those of other developed economies. Even the steady decrease of density that we observe is recurrent in many other national systems. The composition of the core of the most connected boards remains also quite stable over time. Among the most central boards we always find those of banks and insurances, as well as those of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). At the same time, the system underwent two significant dynamic adjustments in the Sixties (nationalization of electrical industry) and Seventies (financial restructuring after the “big inflation”) which are revealed by modifications in the core and in the community structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Bargigli, L. & Giannetti, R., 2018. "The Italian corporate system in a network perspective (1952–1983)," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 494(C), pages 367-379.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:494:y:2018:i:c:p:367-379
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2017.12.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437117312608
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2017.12.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Iacopo Mastromatteo & Elia Zarinelli & Matteo Marsili, 2012. "Reconstruction of financial network for robust estimation of systemic risk," Post-Print hal-00714026, HAL.
    2. Rinaldi, Alberto & Vasta, Michelangelo, 2012. "The Italian Corporate Network After the “Golden Age” (1972–1983): From Centrality to Marginalization of State-Owned Enterprises," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 378-413, June.
    3. Alexander Aganin & Paolo Volpin, 2005. "The History of Corporate Ownership in Italy," NBER Chapters, in: A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers, pages 325-366, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. S. Battiston & M. Catanzaro, 2004. "Statistical properties of corporate board and director networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 38(2), pages 345-352, March.
    5. Martin J. Conyon & Mark R. Muldoon, 2006. "The Small World of Corporate Boards," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9‐10), pages 1321-1343, November.
    6. Sankowska, Anna & Siudak, Dariusz, 2016. "The small world phenomenon and assortative mixing in Polish corporate board and director networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 443(C), pages 309-315.
    7. Michele Tumminello & Salvatore Miccichè & Fabrizio Lillo & Jyrki Piilo & Rosario N Mantegna, 2011. "Statistically Validated Networks in Bipartite Complex Systems," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-11, March.
    8. Caldarelli, Guido & Catanzaro, Michele, 2004. "The corporate boards networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 338(1), pages 98-106.
    9. Martin J. Conyon & Mark R. Muldoon, 2006. "The Small World of Corporate Boards," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9-10), pages 1321-1343.
    10. Iacopo Mastromatteo & Elia Zarinelli & Matteo Marsili, 2011. "Reconstruction of financial network for robust estimation of systemic risk," Papers 1109.6210, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2012.
    11. Piccardi, Carlo & Calatroni, Lisa & Bertoni, Fabio, 2010. "Communities in Italian corporate networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(22), pages 5247-5258.
    12. F. Daolio & M. Tomassini & K. Bitkov, 2011. "The Swiss board directors network in 2009," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 82(3), pages 349-359, August.
    13. Lucia Bellenzier & Rosanna Grassi, 2014. "Interlocking directorates in Italy: persistent links in network dynamics," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 9(2), pages 183-202, October.
    14. Rinaldi, Alberto & Vasta, Michelanelo, 2005. "The Structure of Italian Capitalism, 1952 1972: New Evidence Using the Interlocking Directorates Technique," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(02), pages 173-198, October.
    15. Randall K. Morck, 2005. "A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number morc05-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gupta, Aparna & Owusu, Abena & Zou, Lei, 2021. "Identifying board of director network influence for firm characteristics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 581(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonardo Bargigli & Renato Giannetti, 2015. "The Italian Corporate System: SOEs, Private Firms and Institutions in a Network Perspective (1952-1983)," Working Papers - Economics wp2015_01.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    2. Sankowska, Anna & Siudak, Dariusz, 2016. "The small world phenomenon and assortative mixing in Polish corporate board and director networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 443(C), pages 309-315.
    3. Lucia Bellenzier & Rosanna Grassi, 2014. "Interlocking directorates in Italy: persistent links in network dynamics," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 9(2), pages 183-202, October.
    4. Drago, Carlo & Ricciuti, Roberto, 2017. "Communities detection as a tool to assess a reform of the Italian interlocking directorship network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 466(C), pages 91-104.
    5. Yu-En Lin & Jia-Qi Yu & Hsiang-Hsuan Chih & Kung-Cheng Ho, 2022. "Near is more: learning efficiency in research and development innovation among interlocking firms," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-30, December.
    6. Matthias Raddant & Mishael Milaković & Laura Birg, 2017. "Persistence in corporate networks," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 12(2), pages 249-276, July.
    7. Raddant, Matthias & Takahashi, Hiroshi, 2019. "The Japanese corporate board network," Kiel Working Papers 2130, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    8. Mishael Milaković & Simone Alfarano & Thomas Lux, 2010. "The small core of the German corporate board network," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 201-215, June.
    9. Ricardo Giglio & Thomas Lux, 2021. "The Core of the Global Corporate Network," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 681-705, September.
    10. Matthias Raddant & Hiroshi Takahashi, 2022. "Corporate boards, interorganizational ties and profitability: the case of Japan," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1365-1406, March.
    11. Ettore Croci & Rosanna Grassi, 2014. "The economic effect of interlocking directorates in Italy: new evidence using centrality measures," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 89-112, March.
    12. Carlo Drago & Roberto Ricciuti, 2019. "Bootstrapping the Gini Index of the Network Degree: An Application for Italian Corporate Governance," Working Papers 05/2019, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    13. Ding, S. & Dziubinski, M. & Goyal, S., 2021. "Clubs and Networks," Janeway Institute Working Papers 2109, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    14. Tetsuji Okazaki & Michiru Sawada, 2012. "Interbank networks in prewar Japan: structure and implications," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 21(2), pages 463-506, April.
    15. Piccardi, Carlo & Calatroni, Lisa & Bertoni, Fabio, 2010. "Communities in Italian corporate networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(22), pages 5247-5258.
    16. Carlo Drago & Roberto Ricciuti & Paolo Santella, 2015. "An Attempt to Disperse the Italian Interlocking Directorship Network: Analyzing the Effects of the 2011 Reform," Working Papers 2015.82, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    17. Stefania Vitali & Stefano Battiston, 2014. "The Community Structure of the Global Corporate Network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-13, August.
    18. Gualdani, Cristina, 2021. "An econometric model of network formation with an application to board interlocks between firms," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 224(2), pages 345-370.
    19. Lucrezia Fattobene & Marco Caiffa & Emiliano Di Carlo, 2018. "Interlocking directorship across Italian listed companies: evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(2), pages 393-425, June.
    20. Michelangelo Vasta & Carlo Drago & Roberto Ricciuti & Alberto Rinaldi, 2017. "Reassessing the bank–industry relationship in Italy, 1913–1936: a counterfactual analysis," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 11(2), pages 183-216, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:494:y:2018:i:c:p:367-379. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.