Inter-firm Networks

This book examines the inter-firm networks created by interlock coordination through shared directors (inter-board) and managers (inter-department) at various levels: whole aggregate, core vs. peripheral companies, and distribution by country and sector. Presenting an empirical case study on all the limited liability or stock companies of the aerospace industry in the European Union and its interlock partners worldwide, the authors shed new light on these forms of coordination. Moreover, they reveal the relevance of shared managers’ coordination and hybrid manager-director interlocks.

The book applies advanced statistical and social network analysis alike by combining firms’ attributes (e.g. standard economic-financial parameters) and topological indices for firms (e.g. centrality and cluster measures). By conducting the analysis at both the aggregate network level and the cluster or corporate group level, the authors show how extensive and intensive the interlock forms of coordination are, especially when dealing with shared managers. By testing seven hypotheses concerning the research stream on board interlocks and (more broadly) inter-firm networks, the study offers new insights into the role of the financial sector, on the relations between interlock coordination and firms’ performance, on the role of geographical, technological and organizational proximity, and on the relations between interlock coordination and firms’ size. As such, this book will appeal to scholars of organization studies, business and management studies, industrial and evolutionary economics, and economic sociology, as well as officers and policymakers at anti-trust regulation institutions.

• European aerospace industry
• Social networks analysis
• Directors, managers, mixed-positions interlocks
• Business strategy
• Knowledge management
• Economic networks
• Relational economics
• Organizational governance

• University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

  Lucio Biggiero, Robert Magnuszewski

Lucio Biggiero is a Professor of Organization Science at the Department of Industrial Engineering Information and Economics, University of L’Aquila (Italy). His background is in industrial economics, scientific research on inter-firm networks and coordination, economic theory and organizational design. In his work, he primarily employs social network analysis and agent-based simulation modeling.

Robert Magnuszewski holds a PhD in Energy and Environment from La Sapienza di Roma (Italy). His research mainly focuses on economic networks of ownership and board interlocks, and applies methodologies from social network analysis, system dynamics and agent-based modeling. In addition to his academic work, he is involved in European projects for Horizon 2020.