网络分析法在公司治理领域的应用和前景

Based on the data of listed firms in China from 2009 to 2020, this study investigates whether environmental, society and governance (ESG) peer effects reduce the risk of corporate financial distress from an executive social network perspective. Using two‐stage least squares method, our empirical results suggest that the ESG peer effects exist in executive social networks, and the ESG peer effects can alleviate corporate financial distress. ESG subcategory analysis shows that the governance peer effect has the most obvious alleviating effect on financial distress. The negative impact of ESG peer effects on corporate financial distress is stronger when firms have high network power, network cohesion and network control in executive social networks. Our conclusions still hold after a series of robustness tests. Our research expands the literature on peer effects from the perspective of social relations, and sheds additional light on the critical role of ESG peer effects in financial risk management.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks have emerged as a dominant response to contemporary environmental and socio-economic crises, positioning themselves as integrative tools for corporate sustainability governance. Despite this integrative ambition, ESG practices are frequently operationalized through standardized metrics, indicators, and reporting systems that tend to compartmentalize complex socio-ecological relations. This article argues that such practices reproduce a modern epistemological logic based on the separation between nature, society, and economy. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), particularly the critique of modernity proposed by Bruno Latour, this study conceptualizes ESG as a socio-technical actor-network composed of heterogeneous human and non-human actors, including corporate managers, investors, consultants, metrics, reports, algorithms, and environmental indicators. Through a theoretical and analytical examination of ESG governance arrangements, the article explores how environmental realities are translated into calculable representations that shape decision-making processes while obscuring ecological agency. By reframing ESG as an actor-network rather than a neutral governance framework, the paper reveals how corporate sustainability remains grounded in modern assumptions, despite operating through hybrid assemblages. The article contributes to the interdisciplinary literature on sustainability governance by offering a critical epistemological perspective on ESG and by highlighting the potential of Actor-Network Theory to rethink corporate-environment relations beyond modern dichotomies.

Corporate governance has a significant impact not only on the behavior and performance of a corporation but also on the functioning of other corporations, entrepreneurialism in the economy, and the working of capital markets. One way of looking at the effects of corporate governance on company performance is to study the contributions of the corporate board of directors. In this article, we explore the network of the director boards for the top Indian corporations to better understand the effects of the interlocking of management boards when the financial performance is considered. To study the corporate networks, we collected and analyzed relevant data set of the top 150 Indian companies on the basis of the maximum revenue generation. We find that the debt-to-equity ratio (D/E), on average, tends to decrease as the measure of the degree centrality of certain corporations increases. Furthermore, we study a modularity maximization-based community structure of the network of director boards to better comprehend the interconnections of the Indian corporates. Moreover, the underlying relationship between the modularity and the corporate performance is also analyzed, and it can be observed that most of the top Indian corporations, with low net current asset value per share, belong to the larger communities.

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure and the moderating role of board network centrality and political connections on the nexus between EPU and ESG. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of the UK Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 350 firms during 2007 to 2018, this study examines the relationship between EPU and the ESG disclosure and the moderating effects of board centrality and board political connections using multivariate regression analysis. Findings The results show that firms tend to increase their ESG disclosure when EPU rises. The results also reveal that EPU is negatively associated with firms’ financial performance and ESG performance is less evident for firms with higher ESG disclosure scores and is observed only when board centrality is relatively low and the political connections are absent. The study finds further evidence to support the hypotheses during periods of heightened conflicts (i.e. global financial crisis and the Brexit referendum). Practical implications This study offers practical insights for corporate managers who attempt to preserve and enhance their firms’ competitive advantages via maintaining its stakeholders support through greater ESG disclosure during heightened EPU periods. Originality/value By integrating the resource-based view (RBV) and the signaling theory, this study extends the signaling theory and RBV by examining the relationship between EPU and ESG disclosure as a signal to its stakeholders and information advantages that board centrality and political connections bring to the company to reduce information asymmetry between the firms and its stakeholders during EPU.

Previous research lags behind in illuminating theoretical mechanisms that shape governance decision-making on board practices. Using an integrated theoretical approach, I examine how board interlock network and institutional factors are associated with board governance policy adoption in nonprofit organizations. A linear regression model is employed to investigate policies adopted by a panel of public charities in three cities in Upstate New York during 2008 and 2014. Results show that not only the presence of board interlock networks but also central network positions relate to extensive policy adoption. Results also reveal that the use of paid professionals in management relates to institutional isomorphism reflected by more extensive governance policy adoption. These results provide insights for nonprofit leaders seeking to facilitate good governance practices by paying attention to board members’ affiliations and institutional environment considerations.

Studies on board interlock networks are divided into two streams, one examining their dynamics; the other, their consequences. We propose that both phenomena—board interlock dynamics and consequences—are interdependent. Applying structuration theory, we explain and empirically demonstrate how firms' corporate strategic actions (specifically, acquisitions and divestitures) influence the creation and dissolution of different types of board interlock network ties and how these interlock ties, in turn, influence firms' corporate strategic actions. Integrating the two research streams, we complement corporate governance literature by demonstrating how corporate strategic actions and certain types of board interlocks coevolve. We contribute to theory on strategic networks by explaining coevolution through a structuration theoretical lens. Lastly, we illustrate methodological advances by using multiplex stochastic actor‐oriented models to analyze coevolution processes. The dynamics of board interlock networks—networks resulting from executive and non‐executive directors serving on multiple boards—and the consequences of such networks have been treated as disjunct topics in prior research. We argue and show empirically that certain types of a firm's board interlocks and its corporate strategic actions (specifically, acquisitions and divestitures) are mutually dependent. Applying network analysis to a longitudinal sample of large German firms, we find that firms adapt their actions to the actions of those firms they have directed interlocks with. Vice versa, corporate strategic actions influence the creation and dissolution of board interlocks. Our findings suggest that the dynamics of board interlock networks play a more prominent role in firms' corporate strategic decisions than commonly assumed.

Purpose Interlocking directorates are a common phenomenon across several markets around the world. Yet, the institutional environment and the role of corporate elites in forming board networks promote some developing markets as a unique setting to understand the corporate boards network structure. This study aims to first explore the board directors’ network of all publicly listed companies in Kuwait. This paper then evaluates the effects of exogenous factors and endogenous network structural processes on the likelihood of board interlock. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes the interlocks network structures of 167 listed companies in 13 different market sectors in Kuwait relying on hand-collected directors’ data and using four measures of network centrality: betweenness, degree, closeness and eigenvector. The authors predict board interlocks using exponential random graph models (ERGM) and firm-level information from the Bloomberg database. Findings This study observes that both the firms and directors’ networks consist of 55 components, with the largest component containing about half of the total number of firms/directors. The firm’s network consists of one giant component of 85 firms, including all but one bank. This study shows the importance of endogenous network variables, such as the number of edges, centralization and triangles on the estimation of the factors that promote the board interlocks. Highly centralized firms are less likely to interlock with other firms, while two firms that are interlocked with a common third firm are more likely to interlock. Originality/value This paper is the first to analyze in-depth the structure of the directors network of companies in Kuwait. This study illustrates the complex map of interfirm and directors social networks in Kuwait. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to exploit ERGM in the context of board interlocks to account for potential cross-dependencies and emergent network structures. Managers can identify the director interlock with other firms in the network and take advantage of the connection as a source of external knowledge and influence.

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The boards of health partnerships such as the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) create networks through cross-board membership (interlocks). While these networks bear the risk of cooptation and collusion in corporate governance, in public-private partnerships they may facilitate cooperation and responsiveness to health policy. This is feasible only through networks with specific characteristics discussed in this article. The analysis shows one whole network connecting 10 health partnerships established in Canada, Switzerland and United Sates, and belonging to two different subsectors (Product Development and Coordination and Financing). However, confluence on a few central interlocks makes the behavior of interlock individuals and organizations crucial for the effectiveness of the network, rendering good governance practices all the more important. At the same time, network clustering opens the possibility of tackling interdependencies at sub-level where expertise can be critically brought to bear. The article shows that, whether considered as a vector of collusion or as a bridge for coordination, the practice of overlooking partnership interlocks hinders both health policy oversight and strategic operation.

Abstract Interlocking directorates is a major element in corporate governance system. Interlock occurs when a director of one company sits on the board of directors of other companies. This phenomenon has given rise to number of concerns in the economy. The relationships of some companies’ attributes and corporate interlocks in Kuwait Stock Exchange among publically listed companies are investigated and uncovered for the first time. We explored the characteristics of the whole corporate network created by the directorship interlocks, and investigated the relationships of firms’ characteristics and interlocking directorates, i.e. member and company interlocks. The findings of work will spur some focus on one of the main elements of corporate governance, i.e. outside directors’ links, and contribute to the establishment of corporate governance codes and regulations in the context of Kuwait economy. Social network analysis shows clustering coefficients the financial companies are the highest degree centrality in the interlock network and hence the most influential actor in the network. The circle of influence stems from the high number of links with others. Another interesting observation elicited from the degree centrality analysis is the indirect interlocks companies can have. Companies can have indirect interlocks with companies having similar kind of business, which may facilitate collusion or anti-competition behaviors.

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A board interlock creates interorganizational networks where organizations are interconnected via overlapping board of directors. Board interlock is important for nonprofits because of its potential to impact organizational performance through the flow of information, resources, and status. While much is known about the consequences of board interlock, little is known about the mechanisms underlying its antecedents. This study explores three types of predictors of board interlock: organizational, dyadic, and structural characteristics. Inferential network analysis of a 17-year-period panel of nonprofits demonstrates that network relationships are shaped by the existing network structures, such as the tendency for preferential attachment (e.g., a social preference to connect with those who are already well connected) and transitivity (e.g., a social preference to connect with friends of friends). Findings inform nonprofit leaders about how to bridge to a board interlock network by recruiting well-connected board members serving on multiple boards.

Through combining the resource dependence theory and social network theory, this study sheds light on how two major kinds of interlocking network positions—central network position and structural holes position—drive corporate low-carbon innovation. We consider the mediating effect of information asymmetry and knowledge absorptive capacity to reap benefits from occupying the two advantageous network positions. We have empirically investigated a sample of 3365 listed firms over the period of 2009–2018 drawn from China, the largest emerging market economy as well as the biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Our main results show that either holding a central network position or spanning a structural holes position plays a significant role in stimulating low-carbon technologies, and the promotion effect can be partially channeled through downward information asymmetry and upward knowledge absorptive capacity. Our findings differ from earlier work because of our emphasis on network position, and our specific focus on corporate low-carbon innovation and China's unique setting, rather than network size, greenhouse gas emissions, and developed economies. This study also provides significant implications for executives striving to improve firms’ low-carbon innovation performance, and for policymakers seeking ways to fulfill the mission of carbon dioxide abatement.

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This study investigates the effect of supervisory board characteristics on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure in ASEAN-5 countries from 2014-2018. It explores one-tier and two-tier governance systems, where non-executive directors and commissioners perform oversight functions. The analysis focuses on board diversity, comprising female, independent, community influential, foreign, and interlock members. This study used a purposive sampling technique in sampling and obtained a sample of 115 companies with a total of 575 observational data. The findings reveal that female, community influential, and interlock board members positively influence ESG disclosure, supporting their critical role in advancing sustainability practices. Conversely, independent and foreign board members do not significantly affect ESG disclosure, highlighting potential misalignments between regulatory frameworks and practical governance outcomes in the ASEAN-5 context. The study provides insights into how diverse board characteristics contribute to ESG transparency, grounded in agency, feminism, and institutional theories. It underscores the importance of fostering board diversity and tailoring governance practices to local corporate and regulatory environments. However, limitations related to country-specific characteristics and inconsistent ESG reporting suggest avenues for future research. This study contributes to sustainability accounting literature by linking board diversity to ESG disclosure and offering recommendations for corporate governance reforms in emerging markets.

Despite the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in business, there is little research examining its effects on firm idiosyncratic risk (IR). This is an important issue for boards: as key conduits of firm–environment information flows via board interlock networks, traditional risk oversight functions are being increasingly augmented with strategic decision‐making and communications. Accordingly, we explore how AI and board interlocks independently and interactively affect IR, focusing on the heterogeneity of the board's network ties. We hypothesize these effects within signalling theory, positing that a firm's AI exposure and board network will differentially affect market perceptions of risk contingent on their perceived cost and relative signal strength under different environmental conditions. We find that while AI and board network heterogeneity both favourably affect risk, operating in a high‐AI industry while occupying a network position that spans industry boundaries mitigates these effects, leading to an increase in IR for firms in the most technologically advanced industries. Additional analyses of diversification corroborate these theoretical mechanisms: as a costly signal of competence across multiple domains, diversification enables firms to simultaneously engage with AI and diverse knowledge networks without market penalties. Our findings offer practical insights for directors and avenues for theoretical development.

As ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles increasingly shape the trajectory of global economic and societal sustainability, our study delves into how a firm's network dynamics influence its ESG performance within the Chinese landscape spanning from 2011 to 2020. Drawing insights from agency theory, resource dependence theory, and social network theory, we uncover a notable correlation between board interlocking and ESG performance. This correlation suggests that well‐connected directors can potentially enhance a firm's ESG performance by facilitating information gathering, monitoring, advising, and leveraging influence to address stakeholders' concerns. Moreover, our analysis reveals that the characteristics of ownership structure, as gauged by indicators such as institutional ownership, control‐cash flow wedge, and state‐owned ownership, serve as positive moderators in this relationship. Conversely, board structure, as evaluated by board independence, does not exhibit a significant moderating effect. Additionally, we uncover noteworthy mediating effects of firm size and institutional shareholding on the relationship between board interlocking and ESG performance. Importantly, our findings hold robust across various sensitivity analyses, including alternative model specifications, variable definitions, and strategies to mitigate potential endogeneity concerns.

ABSTRACT This study employs a network analysis with centrality measures to trace China’s evolving position within the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) governance network. The analysis spans from 2001 to 2021, revealing the shifts in China’s position from a marginal to a more central one in the IFRS governance network. The benefit of information and control across the network empowers China to emerge as an important force influencing the operations of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and IFRS development. The findings contribute to our understanding of the political dynamics in international accounting regulations. Insights gleaned from China’s experience offer implications for other jurisdictional constituents aspiring to amplify their influence in IFRS development. While acknowledging certain limitations in the study, this research concludes by advocating for a deeper exploration of China’s representation role in the IASB’s decision-making process.

Community detection is a well-established method for studying the meso-scale structure of social networks. Applying a community detection algorithm results in a division of a network into communities that is often used to inspect and reason about community membership of specific nodes. This micro-level interpretation step of community structure is a crucial step in typical social science research. However, the methodological caveat in this step is that virtually all modern community detection methods are non-deterministic and based on randomization and approximated results. This needs to be explicitly taken into consideration when reasoning about community membership of individual nodes. To do so, we propose a metric of community membership consistency, that provides node-level insights in how reliable the placement of that node into a community really is. In addition, it enables us to distinguish the community core members of a community. The usefulness of the proposed metrics is demonstrated on corporate board interlock networks, in which weighted links represent shared senior level directors between firms. Results suggest that the community structure of global business groups is centered around persistent communities consisting of core countries tied by geographical and cultural proximity. In addition, we identify fringe countries that appear to associate with a number of different global business communities.

While outside chief executive officers (CEOs) are often viewed as catalysts for strategic change compared to their inside counterparts, this study reveals their potential to undermine firms’ environmental responsibility. Integrating agency theory with social capital theory, we investigate whether and how board-level social capital can moderate the sustainability risks associated with outside CEO succession. Using a panel dataset of 989 pollution-intensive Chinese firms from 2010 to 2022, we apply propensity score matching (PSM) to reduce endogeneity in CEO succession decisions, followed by fixed-effects regressions. The empirical results show that outside CEOs, particularly during their early tenure, are more likely to prioritize short-term financial performance over environmental goals—due to limited firm-specific knowledge and heightened external pressure. However, external board social capital (e.g., ties to government and industry associations) enhances resource access and post-appointment accountability, while internal social capital (e.g., co-working experience among directors) establishes common norms that facilitate strategic continuity. This study positions board social capital as a relational governance mechanism that complements formal oversight. The findings contribute to succession and environmental research by linking executive origin to sustainability outcomes and provide practical guidance on leveraging board networks to support leadership transitions.

This study examines the impact of board interlocks on audit fees among firms listed on South Korea's KOSDAQ market. Board interlocks, created when directors serve on multiple boards, represent structural networks that can facilitate information exchange and coordination but may also compromise board independence. Although prior studies have explored the consequences of interlocks in mature markets, evidence from emerging, technology-oriented markets remains limited. This study addresses this gap by analysing whether board interlocks affect total and abnormal audit fees, which reflect auditors' risk assessments, effort, and pricing decisions. Using panel data, we estimate OLS and firm fixed-effects regressions and further validate the results through propensity score matching with fixed effects to mitigate endogeneity concerns. The findings show that inside directors' interlocks, initially associated with higher audit fees in OLS models, become significantly negative once firm-specific factors are controlled for, suggesting that inside directors' networks improve the information environment and reduce auditors' risk perception. Outside directors' interlocks show weaker and less robust negative effects. Overall, the results indicate that board interlocks can stabilise audit fees and enhance audit efficiency, contributing to the literature on corporate governance and audit pricing.

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Nowadays, social networks of ever increasing size are studied by researchers from a range of disciplines. The data underlying these networks is often automatically gathered from API's, websites or existing databases. As a result, the quality of this data is typically not manually validated, and the resulting networks may be based on false, biased or incomplete data. In this paper, we investigate the effect of data quality issues on the analysis of large networks. We focus on the global board interlock network, in which nodes represent firms across the globe, and edges model social ties between firms -- shared board members holding a position at both firms. First, we demonstrate how we can automatically assess the completeness of a large dataset of 160 million firms, in which data is missing not at random. Second, we present a novel method to increase the accuracy of the entries in our data. By comparing the expected and empirical characteristics of the resulting network topology, we develop a technique that automatically prunes and merges duplicate nodes and edges. Third, we use a case study of the board interlock network of Sweden to show how poor quality data results in incorrect network topologies, biased centrality values and abnormal influence spread under a well-known diffusion model. Finally, we demonstrate how our data quality assessment methods help restore the correct network structure, ultimately allowing us to derive meaningful and correct results from analyzing the network.

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The rise of multi-stakeholder institutions (MIs) involving the ultra-processed food (UPF) industry has raised concerns among food and public health scholars, especially with regards to enhancing the legitimacy and influence of transnational food corporations in global food governance (GFG) spaces. However, few studies have investigated the governance composition and characteristics of MIs involving the UPF industry, nor considered the implications for organizing global responses to UPFs and other major food systems challenges. We address this gap by conducting a network analysis to map global MIs involving the UPF industry, drawing data from web sources, company reports, business and market research databases, and academic and grey literature. We identified 45 such global food system MIs. Of these, executives from the UPF industry or affiliated interest groups held almost half (n = 263, or 43.8%) of the total 601 board seat positions. Executives from a small number of corporations, especially Unilever (n = 20), Nestlé (n = 17), PepsiCo Inc (n = 14), and The Coca-Cola Company (n = 13) held the most board seat positions, indicating centrality to the network. Board seats of these MIs are dominated by executives from transnational corporations (n = 431, or 71.7%), high-income countries (n = 495, or 82.4%), and four countries (United States, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) (n = 350, or 58.2%) in particular. This study shows that MIs involving the UPF industry privilege the interests of corporations located near exclusively in the Global North, draw legitimacy through affiliations with multi-lateral agencies, civil society groups and research institutions, and represent diverse corporate interests involved in UPF supply chains. Corporate-anchored multi-stakeholderism, as a form of GFG governance, raises challenges for achieving food systems transformation, including the control and reduction of UPFs in human diets.

Abstract The long tradition of scholarly work on corporate interlocks has left us with competing theoretical frameworks on the causes of interlock networks. Board interlocks are studied either as means to overcome the resource dependence of corporations or as a group cohesion mechanism of business elites. This contrast is due to an empirical divide of the literature where either the firms or the individuals are considered as decision-making bodies. In systematically ignoring the agency of the other group of actors, these literatures suffer from both theoretical and empirical biases in understanding the drivers of new interlocks. In this paper, we employ a relational event modeling technique that allows us to overcome this problem. The analysis of board appointments in Denmark demonstrates how in fact both personal and corporate considerations simultaneously drive the evolution of the corporate networks. The study of the duality of actors is essential for understanding the causes and consequences of corporate networks across time and space.

This study empirically investigates whether sustainability performance acts as a mediating mechanism linking board network centrality to financial outcomes. Drawing on a sample of 888 publicly listed European firms, we construct a network based on board interlocks and compute five centrality measures: degree, closeness, betweenness, eigenvector, and N-score (a composite measure capturing overall centrality). We employ structural equation modeling to investigate the mediating role of sustainability performance, measured through firm-level ESG indicators. Our results indicate that board network centrality has a positive indirect effect on financial performance through improved sustainability performance, even in the absence of a direct link. By identifying sustainability performance as a mediating channel, this study theorizes how firms can leverage the social capital embedded in board networks to achieve tangible performance benefits. In today’s interconnected global landscape, firms derive strategic advantages not only from internal capabilities but also from their embeddedness in external networks. Among these, board networks, formed through board interlocks, constitute a key source of social capital, providing networked firms with access to valuable resources and enhanced legitimacy based on their network position. However, empirical evidence on the relationship between board network centrality and firm performance remains inconclusive, underscoring the need to explore potential mediating mechanisms.

This article develops an executive compensation model focusing on board governance structure in nonprofit organizations. Drawn from a panel of nonprofits in three Upstate New York cities from 1998 to 2014, the analysis shows that chief executive officers (CEOs) compensation is positively associated with interlocking directorships of CEOs and boards of directors. The results reveal that the executives enjoy more compensation when they serve on the boards of other nonprofit organizations, hold more power in a leadership position with CEO duality and longer tenure, and when the organizations are led by busy boards where a majority of members in the boardroom sit on the boards of multiple other nonprofits. The analysis further shows that financial rewards offered to the executives are contingent upon women’s representation in the boardroom. These findings suggest board governance composition plays a critical role in executive compensation. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of ESG performance and board diversity on tax avoidance practices of FTSE350 companies before and after the COVID-19 pandemic from the stakeholder theory perspective. Using random-effect regression analysis on data from 2017 to 2023, the study analyzes ESG scores and various tax avoidance measures pre- and post-COVID-19. A two-stage least squares regression analysis using instrumental variables is used to address endogeneity. Results show that gender, age and network diversity reduce tax avoidance, while skill diversity has no effect, and nationality diversity increases it. High ESG scores lower tax avoidance, but higher governance scores increase it. Findings hold across different tax avoidance measures, sectors and pre/post-COVID-19 periods. Future research should explore the roles of board committees and external governance mechanisms and investigate tax avoidance in small- and medium-sized enterprises. The findings highlight the need for policymakers to enforce board diversity and promote ESG practices to encourage ethical tax behavior. Companies can reduce tax avoidance and enhance moral standards by prioritizing stakeholder interests. Promoting board diversity enhances social equity, supports ESG practices, aligns corporate actions with societal values and fosters a sustainable business environment. The paper expands existing research by analyzing the combined effects of board diversity and ESG performance on tax avoidance. It offers recent UK evidence on tax avoidance determinants, emphasizing behavioral changes pre- and post-COVID-19.

Abstract As businesses face increasing pressure from stakeholders to address environmental challenges, the intersection of corporate governance and digital transformation presents a promising pathway toward sustainable business practices (SBP). This study investigates whether the convergence of these two forces can foster innovation and sustainability, particularly within the complex socio-economic context of the MENA region. Grounded in stakeholder and dynamic capabilities theories, the research examines how CG structures influence SBP, with digital transformation serving as a moderating factor. Using panel data from 462 listed manufacturing firms (2010–2022) and employing advanced econometric techniques, the findings reveal that diversity-related governance variables—such as board expertise, gender, and age diversity—positively influence SBP, while nationality diversity has a negative effect. Structural governance elements, including board interlock, board size, and CEO duality, also enhance SBP, whereas board independence is negatively associated. Digital transformation significantly amplifies the effectiveness of CG mechanisms on SBP, with heterogeneous effects observed across industries and ownership structures. Cluster analysis highlights notable industry-specific differences in governance impacts. These findings support the implementation of context-sensitive, industry-specific policies aimed at strengthening board governance and digital capabilities as strategic levers for sustainable development.

ABSTRACT Purpose Currently, different research conclusions exist about the relationship between relational capital and corporate innovation. The research aims to (1) reveal the actual relationship between executive alumni relations and firm innovation performance, (2) examine the moderating role of executive academic backgrounds, (3) analyze the paths for firms to leverage knowledge spillovers from regional universities to promote firm innovation by their geographic location. Design/methodology/approach A social network approach is used to construct alumni relationship networks of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, China. A two-way fixed effects model is used to assess the impact of firms’ structural position in executive alumni networks on firms’ innovation performance. In addition, the research also delves into the interactions between knowledge spillovers from geographic locations and executives’ alumni networks, aiming to elucidate their combined effects on firms’ innovation performance. Findings This paper explores the curvilinear relationship between executive alumni networks’ centrality and firm innovation within the Chinese context. It also finds that in the positive effect interval on the right side of the “U-shaped,” the industry with the highest number of occurrences is the high-tech industry. Moreover, it elucidates the moderating influence of executives’ academic experience on the alumni networks-innovation nexus, offering a nuanced understanding of these dynamics. Lastly, we provide novel insights into optimizing resource allocation to leverage geographic knowledge spillovers for innovation. Research limitations The study may not fully represent the broader population of firms, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or unlisted companies. Future research could expand the sample to include a more diverse range of firms to enhance the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications Firstly, companies can give due consideration to the alumni resources of executives in their personnel decisions, but they should pay attention to the rational use of resources. Secondly, universities should actively work with companies to promote knowledge transfer and collaboration. Originality/value The findings help clarify the influence mechanism of firms’ innovation performance, providing theoretical support and empirical evidence for firms to drive innovation at the executive alumni relationship network level.

This study reveals that the risk exposure of Chinese A‐share listed companies with respect to public health, safety, and environmental (HS&E) concerns is associated with an increase in fraudulent behavior. Based on the reflection effect and the loss aversion effect posited by prospect theory, we demonstrate that firm‐specific HS&E risk exposure increases the firm's risk‐taking and propensity to disclose good news, thereby increasing the likelihood of the firm engaging in fraudulent activities. In addition, from the perspectives of motivation and governance, our research further demonstrates that the impact of HS&E risk exposure on corporate fraud is more pronounced in companies that are characterized by lower executive compensation, lower environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, lower independent director network centrality, and a lower proportion of members of the Communist Party of China among executives.

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This study aims to empirically test a multidimensional model of executive servant leadership with respect to firm performance and alliance partner performance. A network perspective was adopted to gain a better understanding of the processes and outcomes associated with servant leadership at the upper echelon. A survey design was used to collect a sample of 134 Polish senior executives managing international strategic alliances. Data were collected on-site and were analyzed with psychometric network analysis. Results indicated that there were both direct and indirect relationships between executive servant leadership and firm performance. Specifically, two dimensions of executive servant leadership, interpersonal support and morality, were directly related to firm performance. Morality was also related to cooperation, a proximate antecedent of firm performance. In addition, the morality and egalitarian dimensions of servant leadership were directly related to alliance partner performance. This study was a response to calls to advance servant leadership research by studying multidimensional models of servant leadership. It was also unique in that performance outcomes included external stakeholders.

ABSTRACT Integrating the behavioral theory of the firm and social capital theory, this study examines how performance shortfalls and executive social relations jointly affect firms’ trade-offs between the shared-control entry mode and full-control entry mode. This study argues that, for new overseas entries, performance shortfalls cause firms to prefer the shared-control entry mode. This is attributed to the fact that performance shortfalls increase firms’ resource constraints and reduce their information search scope. This, in turn, leads decision-makers to prefer the shared-control entry mode, because that mode requires fewer resources, less information collection, and lower processing capabilities. In addition, guided by social capital theory, this study also finds that the positive effect of performance shortfalls on the shared-control entry mode is weakened when executives have social relations, either overseas or in banks. Further analysis shows that, compared with less-developed economies, firms facing a performance shortfall are more inclined to adopt the shared-control mode to enter developed economies. By clarifying the joint effect of performance shortfalls and executive social relations on firms’ overseas equity entry modes, this study deepens the understanding of firms’ choices of overseas equity entry modes.

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The motivation for analyzing the impact of deep neural networks on enterprise performance is mainly due to the continuous deepening of enterprise information construction, shifting from traditional paper-based data acquisition methods to electronic data management. The data generated by the sales, production, logistics and other links of enterprises is also becoming increasingly large. How to scientifically and effectively process these massive amounts of data and extract valuable information has become an important issue that enterprises need to solve. The continuous and stable growth of China's economy has promoted the development and growth of enterprises, however, it has also made enterprises face a more complex competitive environment. The question of how to improve the performance of enterprises to enhance their competitiveness in the market has become a major issue to be addressed in the face of fierce competition and to ensure the long-term development of enterprises. In this paper, based on the research of firm performance evaluation, deep neural network is introduced to analyse the influence of ambidextrous innovation and social network on firm performance, and the theories of social network, ambidextrous innovation and deep neural network are sorted out and analysed, and a deep neural network-based firm performance evaluation model is established, and finally the sample data is obtained using crawler technology, and then the response values are analysed. Innovation and the improvement of the mean value of social networks are helpful to firm performance.

We apply the vector autoregression with exogenous variables (VARX) approach to integrate the optimal contracting theory, the managerial entrenchment theory, the principal-agent theory, the contextual criteria theory, and the upper echelon theory. Based on this new approach, we discover two middle ground conditions between the boundary of managerial entrenchment and optimal contracting, where CEO non-entrenchment or entrenchment cannot be explained by the managerial entrenchment theory or optimal contracting theory alone. For example, some CEOs are not entrenched when the agency problem is not mitigated, while others are entrenched when the agency problem is mitigated. The results imply that merely mitigating the agency problem cannot prevent managerial entrenchment. However, not mitigating the agency problem at all leads to managerial entrenchment. We recommend the boards look at other non-financial means and social approaches (e.g., value- and culture-based trainings, performance recognition, goodwill and friendship building events, pay transparency increase, smooth flow of information among stakeholders, value-adding managerial investments, oversight committee) to minimize the impact of managerial entrenchment on both firm performance and CEO compensation. In addition, we recommend the boards take on the approaches unique to their own firms and their CEOs to address managerial entrenchment.

Employee social network strategies play a key role in firm strategies and organizational performance. Currently, scholars underestimate the contributions of employee social strategies in firm strategies. Little is known how informal employee social networks, group entitativity and competition could shape and direct firm strategies and organizational performance. The article examines social network theory and strategic management’s content, process and open schools of thought to propose a new interpretation for managing firm strategies. More specifically, the author examines alternate causal paths, underlying processes and structures as mechanisms in employee social network strategies within a theoretical framework. The article proposes 4 theoretically driven propositions and makes two contributions. First, the article contributes to organizational behavior literature by focusing on the literature gap in network dynamics and competitive actions through employee social networks. Second, although there is immense literature on positive and negative employee competition in business, the article makes a contribution to the strategic management literature by moving beyond formalized structures and roles within an organization to focus on the multilevel informal workplace social interactions and processes that impact strategizing activities. Overall, the article extends strategy research in relation to how employee social networks operate through competition and group entitativity in firm strategies.

Although a tainted outside director’s social status may serve as a buffer against devaluation owing to an affiliate firm’s corporate financial misconduct, the extent of this buffer effect is unclear. We propose a threshold approach by introducing the expectancy violation perspective, which generates a theoretical tension from the network-embeddedness perspective, to clarify the following question: From which perspective does the buffer effect of social status become more salient? Specifically, we propose an inverted U–shaped relationship between the directors’ social status and the departure of tainted outside directors from host firms. We theorize that when directors’ social status exceeds a certain threshold, the network-embeddedness perspective is more dominant than the expectancy violation perspective. Moreover, a host firm’s external stakeholder attention and board social status moderate the inverted-U effect such that its turning point shifts to the right because such contingencies increase the threshold for the buffer. Using a sample of tainted outside directors penalized for associated firms’ financial misconduct, we find evidence that supports our predictions. Our study helps clarify the boundary between the competing theoretical perspectives of expectancy violation and network embeddedness to explain the phenomenon of tainted director departure.

The interlocking director network can not only help achieve low-cost information sharing and exchange learning among enterprises, but also provide essential resource support for corporate risk-taking behavior. This study aims to empirically analyze the impact, mechanism of action, and boundary of influence of interlocking director network (NET) on corporate risk-taking (RISK) using data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020.The results show: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between NET and RISK, and the above results are still established after a series of robustness tests. (2) Mechanistic tests show that the NET can promote RISK through two channels: alleviating financing constraints and increasing R&D investment. (3) Further analysis reveals the promotion of NET on RISK is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises with higher industry competition intensity. These findings have positive implications for the construction of an inter-enterprise interlocking director network and the enhancement the of the risk-taking level.

This study aims to provide new evidence linking director tenure to corporate misconduct by analyzing the sample of publicly listed companies in China from 2009 to 2022. The findings reveal a significant positive correlation between director tenure and corporate misconduct, which is negatively moderated by director network position. Further analysis shows that both independent and non-independent directors’ tenure increases the likelihood of corporate misconduct, while the centrality of independent and non-independent director networks negatively moderates these corresponding effects. Moreover, external audit quality plays a mediating role in the relationship between director tenure and corporate misconduct. This study elucidates the boundary conditions and mechanisms of corporate misconduct, supporting the management friendliness hypothesis. It offers practical implications for regulators and policymakers to strengthen board governance and audit oversight, thereby contributing to the research on the prevention of corporate misconduct. The limitations of the study include its geographical focus on the Chinese market, suggesting that future research should explore cross-national differences. These findings provide valuable insights for preventing corporate misconduct and promoting corporate sustainability.

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The oil and gas industry remains central to global production and consumption, wielding significant economic and political power. This power stems not only from the strategic value of its resources but also from the industry’s embedded social power. This paper conceptualizes and analyzes this social embeddedness through the lens of elite network embeddedness. It opens up the black box of the firms at the top of the oil and gas industry and highlights the importance of human agency, in particular the corporate directors in charge of the firms. Building on economic geography and economic sociology literature, we explore how lead oil and gas (O&G) firms are socially and territorially embedded through their directors’ elite ties, focusing on the O&G sector of the UK Continental Shelf in the North Sea (UKCS). Sourcing firm and people data from BoardEx (2016–2020), we utilize social network analysis and complementary qualitative research (e.g. semi-structured interviews). We find that lead firms with significant control of O&G assets in the UK are embedded in extensive national and transnational corporate networks and extensively connected to politics and policy planning through elite networks. We also find US elite ties to be dominant across these three domains, highlighting the continuing influence of US elite power structures within the UKCS oil sector even as US O&G firms have significantly reduced their operations in the North Sea. This study hence offers a new perspective on how firm-territory relations of the UKCS O&G industry are geographically and societally embedded through elite networks.

Using data from a sample of Chinese firms, this study examines the spillover effects of environmental regulation within director networks. Our findings suggest that environmental penalties imposed on director-interlocked firms increases the green innovation of the target firms. These results remain robust after a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. The effect is moderated by internal monitoring mechanisms and external stakeholder concerns. In addition, the spillover effect is more pronounced for firms that are central within the director network, have a greater proportion of directors with environmental backgrounds, or are located in regions with stronger legal environments. Further, this effect is predominantly observed within independent director networks, where independent directors play a crucial role through active board participation. Our study contributes to the literature on the determinants of green innovation and offers valuable insights for policymakers seeking to improve environmental governance and promote sustainable development.

We are interested in quantifying and uncovering the relationships that form between the board directors of companies. Using these relationships we compute three network centrality measures for each director in the network and employ them in the analysis of connectedness of directors. Our focus in this study is on the attributes that make a board member better connected. The biological, educational and experiential attributes are used as independent variables to develop a regression model measuring the impact on the three connectivity measures (degree, betweenness and closeness). Our results show that ?Age? has a direct significant impact on all connectedness measures of a board member. We also find that female directors have a higher measure of degree centrality and betweenness centrality, but lower closeness. The number of foreign degrees increases the degree centrality and betweenness centrality but not closeness. The three identified characteristics of ?Age?, ?Gender?, and ?Education? are supporting the idea that a high level of social connection can in part be expected by the characteristics of individual board members and can explain up to 25% of the board member?s connectivity.

Strategic decision-making at the board level is increasingly shaped by directors’ interorganisational networks. However, the mechanisms by which these structural positions translate into strategic influence remain underexplored. While existing scholarship acknowledges the value of director network centrality in enhancing resource access and legitimacy, the mediating role of information flow in converting this structural advantage into high-quality strategic decisions has received limited conceptual attention. Addressing this gap, the present study aims to develop a theoretical framework that explains how director network centrality influences strategic decision-making through board-level information flow. Using a narrative review methodology, this study synthesises 26 peer-reviewed articles sourced from the Scopus database. An integrative thematic analysis reveals three critical propositions: (1) director network centrality positively influences information flow; (2) information flow enhances strategic decision-making quality; and (3) information flow mediates the relationship between network centrality and strategic decision outcomes. The framework draws upon Resource Dependency Theory, Social Capital Theory, and the Knowledge-Based View of the Firm, offering a multi-level understanding of how network embeddedness, trust-based exchanges, and cognitive integration shape strategic governance. Theoretically, the study advances governance literature by positioning information flow as a cognitive mechanism within networked boards. Practically, it encourages organisations to reassess board effectiveness by considering directors’ network positions and internal information-sharing capabilities. The paper concludes by identifying conceptual limitations and proposing directions for future empirical validation. This framework offers a fresh perspective on how boardroom dynamics can be leveraged to enhance strategic agility and decision quality in complex environments

Purpose: Poland’s Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) is divided into the main floor and alternate floor (New Connect). They differ with respect to both regulatory requirements and company types listed. The presented study examined how structural power is shaped within this hybrid institutional environment. Methodology: Drawing on the full WSE data of 500 board members who sat on more than one board, the study compared the main floor only director network to the full director network using non parametric tests. Betweenness centrality was used as a proxy for brokerage, and the clustering coefficient as a proxy for closure. Findings: The results showed that brokerage is more unequally distributed in the full then the main floor only network, directors who were power brokers on the main floor tended to retain their top brokerage positions in the full network, and the tradeoff between cohesion and brokerage was more pronounced in the full network. Taken together this suggests that in hybrid capital market environments top brokerage positions are persistent, concentrated, and that the divide between local cohesion and bridging elites is amplified in the full network. Research limitations: The study relied on cross sectional data, did not include director level covariates, and may have had uneven data quality for the New Connect listed companies. Additionally, although it used known proxies of brokerage and closure, they may have omitted important information on informal power structures. Originality: The study contributes to understanding corporate governance in post socialist economies by offering insight into how structural roles are shaped by evolving market infrastructures.

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This study examines the role of board experience diversity in fostering corporate green technological innovation (CGTI), focusing on the moderating effects of absorptive capacity and director network location. Integrating upper echelons theory with absorptive capacity theory, we explore how board experience diversity enhances strategic decision-making and innovation. We hypothesize that board experience diversity improves CGTI by broadening cognitive perspectives. We also examine the moderating effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between board experience diversity and innovation. We examine Chinese A-share listing firms, finding that board experience diversity positively affects CGTI, and absorptive capacity strengthens this effect. Additionally, we show that director network location, proxied by centrality in inter-board networks, not only strengthens the association between board experience diversity and innovation but also affects innovation. Furthermore, we conducted heterogeneity and mechanism tests, confirming the robustness of these relationships. These findings contribute to the literature on corporate governance and sustainability by emphasizing the roles of board experience diversity, absorptive capacity, and network position in driving CGTI.

Many previous studies have examined factors that contribute to organizational resilience; however, the impact of supply chain members has received scant attention. This study aims to investigate whether placing supply chain associates on boards influences organizational resilience. Drawing on the dynamic capabilities perspective, we integrate strategic and operational aspects of organizational resilience and introduce the idea of placing supply chain members on corporate boards as a strategic approach for firms to create and maintain resilience. An analysis of the responses of 498 firms from the SP1500 list in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that firms with supply chain directors in their boardrooms had a higher capacity to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, as indicated by shorter recovery times and less loss severity than firms without supply chain members on their boards. Furthermore, we found that the benefit of less loss severity is strengthened under high closeness centrality and betweenness centrality, whereas the benefit of shorter recovery time is strengthened under high degree centrality and low betweenness centrality. We add to the organizational resilience literature by theorizing that having supply chain members on boards is a viable approach to creating and maintaining resilience.

We adopt a multilayer networks approach to assess how network structural embeddedness affects corporate technological innovation. Our findings indicate an annual increase in both single-layer and multilayer networks, although adoption of the latter by Chinese listed companies is comparatively low. We found that structural embeddedness of multilayer networks positively impacts corporate technological innovation. By reducing uncertainty within the internal environment, these networks bolster technological innovation. Moreover, such embeddedness notably spurs innovation in non-state-owned companies and those with greater internal transparency and robust external oversight. Our analysis reveals an intermediate effect where structural embeddedness in multilayer networks influences innovation. Our work provides new insights into enhancing innovation capacity via network embeddedness and supplies empirical data on utilizing network resources for innovation. We also offer actionable guidance and policy advice for managers, investors, and policymakers, especially relevant amidst economic transformation and pursuit of technological self-reliance of China.

This paper investigates the antecedents of lead director selection in the US context. Specifically, how do rational and social factors influence the likelihood of being selected as the lead director?Results for independent directors in S&P 1500 firms from 2000 to 2021 support the positive effect of both board capital (human capital and social capital) and social embeddedness with the CEO (university ties and demographic similarity) as factors in the selection of lead directors. Results also show that among late adopters, the effect of human capital (board experience) on selection is strengthened, and the effect of demographic similarity to the CEO on selection is weakened.First, building on the director selection model, this paper further differentiates the rational and socialized perspectives by integrating the diffusion model. Specifically, among late adopters, rational factors play a larger role, and socialized factors play a smaller role in the lead director selection. Second, for the literature on the boards of directors, this paper provides unique individual‐level insights about directors' attributes and their interactions with firm‐level timing of practice adoption.The new governance practice of having a lead director, a leader of independent directors, has emerged and spread in the United States since 2000. As attention to the lead director governance practice increases, this paper focuses on the complexity of its adoption. Specifically, both rational (board capital) and socialized (social embeddedness with the CEO) factors can play a role in the lead director selection. Related stakeholder groups such as directors, investors, and policymakers should be aware of the potential symbolic adoption of this new governance practice.

The paper estimates the influence of links between boards of directors on corporate performance at the world level in the framework of network analysis. The vast majority of empirical papers on the topic analyses the case of isolated countries. The current study estimates the effect of networking in large companies at the international level. It enables a more correct construction of the network between directors and eliminates the influence of national specificity. We construct an international network of boards and calculate three alternative centrality metrics: degree, closeness, and betweenness. Then the econometric analysis is applied to estimate the effect of centrality on performance. We consider two dependent variables which are responsible for the long-term and short-term effects (correspondingly, M/B ratio and ROE). The effect of boards’ networking on firm outcomes is found to be positive on average for large global companies. This resultis robust to used centrality metrics and financial indicators.The influence of networking is found to be similar in the short and long term. We found that closeness centrality is the most important aspect of network capital for firm outcomes; degree has a moderate impact; the effects of betweenness are the weakest and statistically close to insignificant. The study contributes considerably to existing literature summarizing particular empirical evidences. Obtained findings also raise new theoretical issues and provide some useful practical implications.

Whereas governments are increasingly considering affirmative action programs to increase corporate board diversity, the effect of such programs can be superficial as they do not address the underlying problem, which is women’s access to and inclusion in relevant corporate networks. To address this issue, we study the relationship among affirmative action programs (binding gender quotas and non-binding gender targets), director networks, and the number of board positions individual directors hold given their gender. We use personal, professional, and network characteristics of 25,127 unique directors from 2,435 public firms in 32 European countries over the period of 2000 through 2017. We find that in the absence of affirmative action programs, women directors benefit less from their networks than men directors suggesting the existence of a gender gap in network benefits. After the passage of binding gender quotas, this gender gap in network benefits narrows between women and men directors. Overall, this research suggests that binding gender quotas make director networks a more salient tool for hiring women and may help in leveling the playing field in the way these networks are used for achieving top management positions.

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This study investigates the role of CEO social capital, director networks, and anchor investor participation in influencing the short‐ and long‐term performance outcomes of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Hong Kong stock market. Studying a sample of 1155 IPOs listed in Hong Kong from 2004 to 2019, we find that highly connected CEOs and boards significantly enhance short‐term IPO performance as measured by demand multiples. We find that anchor investors' participations strengthen the positive performance of the IPO firms. We show that the positive effects of CEO and board networks are beyond the short‐term outcomes and significantly contribute to enhanced operating performance, higher market‐adjusted returns, and higher survival rates post listing. These results are robust to endogeneity concerns and shed further light on the value of social capital and anchor investors' participation for IPO firms. This study advances corporate governance research by highlighting the critical role of social capital in IPO success, particularly for a well‐regulated market outside the United States and Europe. It extends the literature on board and executive networks by demonstrating their complementary relationship with institutional investors, such as anchor investors, in enhancing both short‐ and long‐term IPO outcomes. The findings underscore the importance of leveraging CEO and board networks alongside unique institutional (i.e., anchor) investors to boost IPO success. Policymakers and stock exchange regulators can draw on these insights to design regulatory frameworks that foster stakeholder collaboration, reduce information asymmetry, and promote better governance practices in IPO markets.

We study whether and how board networks impact firms’ innovation search strategy. Innovation search strategies can be explorative or exploitative, where the former are strategies that investigate unknown territories and are regarded as riskier, and the latter rely on existing know‐hows and are considered more conservative. Our results show that better connected boards engage in more exploitative innovation search strategies, and this effect is more pronounced for less competitive industries, firms with busy directors, and firms with young directors. Tests using exogenous director retirements and deaths confirm the baseline finding. Board connectedness is also positively associated with high innovation output, impact, efficiency, as well as firm value and performance. Further tests suggest that firms with well‐connected boards seem to adopt a conservative innovation approach within the firm but actively acquire targets with patents and impactful innovation output.

In the field of firms’ technological innovation, a large body of research has emphasized the roles of interlocking directors and the associated board networks in which they are embedded. By integrating the process perspective of absorptive capacity theory with stakeholder network theory, this study investigates the influence of board networks on firms’ technological innovation output, with particular attention given to the moderating effects of shareholder networks and CEO networks. The theoretical hypotheses suggest that degree centrality within board networks positively influences firms’ technological innovation output, and that this positive effect is weakened by degree centrality within both shareholder networks and CEO networks. While board networks facilitate information acquisition for technological innovation, shareholder networks and CEO networks may serve as substitutes. Furthermore, they may shape the motivations of shareholders and CEOs, potentially hindering the exploitation of information acquired through board networks. Using longitudinal data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2005 to 2023, we construct three distinct types of interorganizational networks and annually measure firms’ degree centralities within each network type. Employing fixed-effects panel models, this study empirically verifies the proposed hypotheses. Practically, the findings offer important implications for firms seeking to align interorganizational networks with their technological innovation management strategies. We recommend that future research further explore the roles of diverse stakeholder networks in interorganizational contexts to enhance the understanding of how interactions across multilayer networks affect firms’ technological innovation output.

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Using the analytical framework of social identity theory, this paper explores how a special corporate governance arrangement in the Chinese capital market, i.e., independent directors' re‐appointment, affects corporate ethical behaviours. Using the bivariate probit model, we find that independent directors’ re‐appointment significantly increases corporate fraud propensity, indicating that the favouritism towards re‐appointed independent directors by firms generated from social identity plays a dominant role in the corporate governance outcome in a relationship‐based society. Our results remain consistent after using an exogenous shock to alleviate the endogenous problems. The policy implication of this paper is that the corporate arrangement of re‐appointed independent directors in the Chinese capital market may impair stakeholders’ benefit and weaken business ethics. Top‐level institutional design should be improved and consider thoroughly the effects of social identity on corporate governance outcomes.

We develop a new measure of director quality by conducting a meta‐analysis of the leadership literature and extracting the common characteristics of experience, creativity, social capital, talent, and education. From these five characteristics we create an integrated leadership model of director quality and examine its relation to a firm's success in securing government subsidies. We find that firms with higher‐quality boards secure larger subsidy amounts and receive subsidies more consistently. We establish causality using instrumental variables and a difference‐in‐differences design exploiting the staggered adoption of Corporate Opportunities Waiver laws.

This study introduces a conceptualization of board of directors' intrafirm knowledge network and a methodology for its construction, assessment, and analysis. We use network theory and analytical techniques to construct boards of directors' intrafirm knowledge networks based on directors' functional domain and committee affiliations. We demonstrate the utility of this approach for governance research by examining the intrafirm knowledge network of the board of directors of General Electric and offer testable propositions that link key director turnover with the properties of and the structural changes in the board's knowledge network and the firm outcomes of strategic change and innovativeness. Our approach bridges the human and social capital perspectives on boards of directors by considering the mechanisms through which turnover of key directors influences firm‐level outcomes. Directors are increasingly expected to not only fulfill their monitoring responsibilities but also provide firms with resources and service (e.g., involvement in strategy‐making). The enactment of these responsibilities is contingent on the effective collaboration within board intrafirm networks. Our conceptualization of intrafirm board ties as a knowledge network can help practitioners identify key directors, analyze the implications of director turnover, and develop succession plans. We make important contributions to corporate governance research and offer insights into understanding the knowledge dynamics in small team‐like settings, such as boards of directors and their impact on firm strategy and innovativeness.

Extending Resource Dependence and Situated Learning Theory, this study examines how environmental innovation emerges from the interdependent alignment of boards, CEOs, and owners. We contend that the board fulfills a critical service role by deploying its social capital across two dimensions: external ties that provide access to outside resources, and internal ties that strengthen relationships among directors, promoting learning within the board. Using fuzzy‐set Qualitative Comparative Analysis on 67 Spanish listed firms, we identify three distinct governance archetypes driving high environmental innovation: ambidextrous boards , bridging boards , and bonding boards . Our findings reveal that while board social capital is essential, its impact is shaped by complementary and substitutive effects with CEO entrenchment and ownership structure. This research advances a ‘constellation’ perspective, providing managers with actionable, equifinal pathways to orchestrate heterogeneous governance mechanisms for sustainable environmental success.

Purpose While emphasizing firm performance, the existing family business literature downplays the significance of family components in shaping transgenerational sustainability. Drawing on socioemotional wealth, social identity and stewardship theories, this study aims to investigate the impact of family governance practices and owner-family identity on the transgenerational sustainability of family firms. In addition, it explored the dual mediating role of family social capital in family governance, owner-family identity and transgenerational sustainability. Design/methodology/approach In this quantitative study, data were collected through surveys of 393 executives working in 100 family-owned SMEs operating across Pakistan that have managed to survive beyond the first generation. The final data set was analyzed using SmartPLS4 software for hypotheses and model testing. Findings The results show that although family governance practices and owner-family identity positively influence the transgenerational sustainability of family firms, the route goes through family social capital, which mediates these relationships. Practical implications To achieve transgenerational sustainability, family firms need to incorporate the effective management of family governance practices, family identity and family social capital into their strategic goals. This requires reshaping family members’ behavior, communicating family values and fostering social connections to enhance governance practices, social identity and social capital. Originality/value This study provides evidence to support the connection between family governance, family identity, social capital and business sustainability. It contributes to the family business research and deepens the understanding of how these family elements impact a business’s sustainability across generations.

Social entrepreneurship ecosystems (SEEs) are communities of varied yet interdependent actors collaborating to impact the environment for social entrepreneurs. To date, there is limited understanding of the processes that drive their functioning. The purpose of this paper is to address this limitation by explaining how SEE relational governance processes strengthen relationships among actors. This conceptual paper uses narrative theorizing to integrate ecosystem research with social enterprise literature and proposes an SEE relational governance process. Grounded in social capital theory, the authors explain how networks, norms and trust enhance relationships within SEEs. The authors identify how diverse ecosystem actors shape governance processes in SEEs: Socializing fosters collaboration within the network; Strategizing aligns objectives through shared norms; and Legitimizing reinforces trust via transparent communication. This paper advances the theoretical understanding of SEE by linking ecosystem governance with social enterprises and social capital theory. The process offers insights into the role of networks, norms and trust in shaping relational ecosystem governance. By articulating SEE relational governance, the authors give ecosystem builders, policymakers and support intermediaries a concrete checklist: expand and broker ties; co-create objectives that match those ties; and signal progress through shared impact metrics and credible partnerships. This paper advances SEE research by offering a process-oriented approach for SEE relational governance. The authors identify Socializing, Strategizing and Legitimizing as the three interconnected processes through which ecosystem actors connect, align objectives and build trust.

We find a positive association between institutional ownership and social capital. The social norms in a region, while not imposed by businesses or laws, play a monitoring role that disciplines managers from self‐serving behaviors. The resulting trustworthiness, through its mitigation of agency problems, drives the investment preferences of institutions. Our subsample analyses based on information asymmetry and financial performance support this inference. Further, the positive association is evident for transient investors and quasi‐indexers but not for dedicated institutional investors. Overall, our study underscores the impact of informal governance on institutions' investment decisions.

Despite significant discussion surrounding the benefits of family social capital in family business research, precisely how it is built and maintained by enterprise families remains unclear. To explore how and when family governance practices can avoid the decay of enterprise family social capital, we examine the mediating role of family identity and the significance of both generational and business ownership. Testing of our moderated mediation framework using data from 175 enterprise families globally suggests that family governance can stimulate family social capital by strengthening family identity. We also find a negative moderating role for business ownership in this indirect relationship.

The decision on how much the company contributes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related activities is influenced by President's characteristics and the company ownership structure. Present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of the President's busyness and tenure, as well as the ownership structure of family companies, on the ESG scores of companies in Indonesia. The present study used 221 observations from 50 companies listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange and Refinitiv ESG Scores database from 2016 – 2020 and analyzed them by the Regression method. The findings suggested that companies that have busy presidents or CEOs and family ownership structures give low ESG scores. While the authors do not find sufficient evidence to support the President Director serving more than five years has a good influence on ESG scores. It is because family companies tend to focus on enriching their families. Companies can limit the number of concurrent positions held by the President and recruit a President who has extensive experience. This study contributes to investigating the correlation between ESG scores with the President's concurrent positions and the company ownership structure.

Abstract We investigate how directors’ positions within board interlocking networks influence their monitoring behaviors from a social network perspective. We argue that the effectiveness of directors’ monitoring of a firm's management depends on their ability to overcome the information barrier and their motivation to develop a public reputation in the directorship market. We further contend that network centrality can supplement directors’ existing information set and facilitate reputation spillover, leading to an increase in the extent of their dissent on boards. We analyze the unique individual-director-level data of Chinese firms and find that directors occupying positions of greater centrality in the board interlock network are more likely to dissent. We then examine the underlying mechanisms of information and reputation through two moderators: firm transparency and media mention of a director. We also find that the effect of network centrality on dissent is weaker for independent directors. Our study advances the corporate governance literature by examining the micro-foundations of board monitoring and providing a social network perspective.

AbstractWe study the networks formed by the directors of the most important Swiss boards and the boards themselves for the year 2009. The networks are obtained by projection from the original bipartite graph. We highlight a number of important statistical features of those networks such as degree distribution, weight distribution, and several centrality measures as well as their interrelationships. While similar statistics were already known for other board systems, and are comparable here, we have extended the study with a careful investigation of director and board centrality, a k-core analysis, and a simulation of the speed of information propagation and its relationships with the topological aspects of the network such as clustering and link weight and betweenness. The overall picture that emerges is one in which the topological structure of the Swiss board and director networks has evolved in such a way that special actors and links between actors play a fundamental role in the flow of information among distant parts of the network. This is shown in particular by the centrality measures and by the simulation of a simple epidemic process on the directors network.

Corporations across the world are highly interconnected in a large global network of corporate control. This paper investigates the global board interlock network, covering 400,000 firms linked through 1,700,000 edges representing shared directors between these firms. The main focus is on the concept of centrality, which is used to investigate the embeddedness of firms from a particular country within the global network. The study results in three contributions. First, to the best of our knowledge for the first time we can investigate the topology as well as the concept of centrality in corporate networks at a global scale, allowing for the largest cross-country comparison ever done in interlocking directorates literature. We demonstrate, among other things, extremely similar network topologies, yet large differences between countries when it comes to the relation between economic prominence indicators and firm centrality. Second, we introduce two new metrics that are specifically suitable for comparing the centrality ranking of a partition to that of the full network. Using the notion of centrality persistence we propose to measure the persistence of a partition’s centrality ranking in the full network. In the board interlock network, it allows us to assess the extent to which the footprint of a national network is still present within the global network. Next, the measure of centrality ranking dominance tells us whether a partition (country) is more dominant at the top or the bottom of the centrality ranking of the full (global) network. Finally, comparing these two new measures of persistence and dominance between different countries allows us to classify these countries based the their embeddedness, measured using the relation between the centrality of a country’s firms on the national and the global scale of the board interlock network.

This paper examines how female directors (FDs) affect firm value in the absence of mandatory gender quotas. Using a newly collected data set on director deaths around the globe, we find that stock prices decrease approximately 2% more when an FD passes away, compared with a male director. What explains this negative capital market reaction? We find evidence that finding successors for deceased FDs is challenging for firms: Succession delays are longer, and although firms try to replace FDs with women, two-thirds of their successors are male. Furthermore, their successors tend to be younger, less experienced, and more often externally hired. Stock prices decline less if more potential female successors exist in a country, the firm is larger, or FDs other than the deceased woman were on the board. Because observable characteristics such as age, tenure, education, and network centrality cannot explain the negative stock market reaction, unobserved differences across genders that lead to a lower fit of male successors to the existing board are the most likely explanation for the firm value loss after the death of an FD. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, finance.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance has become a crucial factor in determining a firm's resilience and strategic agility in the evolving capital markets environment. This study examines how ESG practices contribute to organizational resilience through the mediating role of dynamic capabilities and the moderating effect of social network embedding, operationalized via board directors' social capital (centrality and structural holes). The proposed framework is tested using moderated mediation models on panel data from 7560 A‐share companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2013 to 2022. The findings demonstrate three major findings. First, ESG performance significantly enhances firms' dynamic capabilities, which include innovation, adaptation, and absorptive capacity, thereby strengthening their resilience to external shocks. Second, a stronger board network position amplifies the ESG‐capability link. Third, heterogeneity analyses reveal that the ESG‐resilience nexus is more pronounced in eastern regions, among large‐scale firms, non‐state‐owned enterprises, and in post‐pandemic periods. According to the study, ESG is a strategic resource. It highlights the role of director networks in the process of utilizing ESG investments to promote the long‐term sustainability of organizations. These results can contribute to the body of research on dynamic capabilities and stakeholder governance by providing a cross‐level model that incorporates sustainability, network theory, and resilience in emerging market environments.

Traded corporations are required by law to have a majority of outside directors on their board. This requirement allows the existence of directors who sit on the board of two or more corporations at the same time, generating what is commonly known as interlocking directorates. While research has shown that networks of interlocking directorates facilitate the transmission of information between corporations, little is known about the extent to which such interlocking networks can explain the fluctuations of stock price returns. Yet, this is a special concern since the risk of amplifying stock fluctuations is latent. To answer this question, here we analyze the board composition, traders’ perception, and stock performance of more than 1,500 US traded corporations from 2007-2011. First, we find that the fewer degrees of separation between two corporations in the interlocking network, the stronger the temporal correlation between their stock price returns. Second, we find that the centrality of traded corporations in the interlocking network correlates with the frequency at which financial traders talk about such corporations, and this frequency is in turn proportional to the corresponding traded volume. Third, we show that the centrality of corporations was negatively associated with their stock performance in 2008, the year of the big financial crash. These results suggest that the strategic decisions made by interlocking directorates are strongly followed by stock analysts and have the potential to correlate and amplify the movement of stock prices during financial crashes. These results may have relevant implications for scholars, investors, and regulators.

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Green innovation has garnered extensive concern in academia and practice as a systematic project oriented to accelerate the concordant development of economy and environment. Rooted in social network theory and resource dependence theory, the present study empirically examines the influence of director network centrality on green innovation and the moderating effect of absorptive capacity by using Chinese manufacturing listed companies as a sample. Regression results indicate director network centrality significantly boosts firm green innovation. Moreover, absorptive capacity serves as a positive moderator in the association between director network centrality and firm green innovation. Extended analysis demonstrates the impact of director network centrality on firm green innovation is predominantly driven by non‐independent directors. Director network centrality plays a more pronounced role in stimulating substantive green innovation compared to strategic green innovation. These findings not only enrich the existing literature regarding the consequences of director network and drivers of firm green innovation, but also provide guidance on how to improve firm green innovation practice.

The enduring lack of diversity in the corporate elite continues to attract attention from scholars and practitioners. However, the issue of representation or ‘body count’ – in particular for women – tends to dominate the discussion and overshadows social-relational dimensions. Adopting a network perspective, this article investigates how gender and nationality interact with human and social capital (i.e. director capital), explaining why particular directors hold more influential positions in the corporate elite. Findings from Swiss data show that some specific aspects of human and social capital matter more than others for being an influential director and that, ceteris paribus, Swiss citizens benefit most from both sources of capital. The discussion engages with the implications of our findings on current approaches intended to increase the numbers of appointments of ‘diverse’ directors, and how these are expected to change the corporate elite and the related job market in the longer term.

This study aims to explore how the composition and connectedness of a firm’s board of directors influence its environmental sustainability efforts, particularly in relation to climate risk. By analyzing a sample of European non-financial firms from 2012 to 2021, the paper addresses an important gap in the literature regarding the role of board networks in driving corporate social responsibility, especially in the absence of sustainability committees. The goal is to understand how board centrality affects environmental performance and the role of female CEOs in this context. The authors assess board connectedness using centrality measures and environmental sustainability through the “Environmental score” (E score). The impact of board networks on environmental outcomes is estimated using feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) panel regressions with time-fixed effects, controlling for firm-level characteristics. The results show that boards with greater connectedness positively impact a firm’s environmental performance. In addition, the presence of female CEOs significantly drives sustainability in firms without sustainability committees, highlighting the value of diversity in leadership. This research contributes to understanding how a board network influences sustainability outcomes. It offers new insights into the role of board centrality in enhancing environmental performance and underscores the importance of female leadership in advancing sustainability, particularly in the absence of formal governance structures. Future research could explore further the relationship between board diversity, governance and environmental, social and governance performance.

The impact of board gender diversity (BGD) on corporate philanthropy has garnered considerable attention in Western countries, while its influence within Eastern cultures has largely been overlooked. This study aimed to fill this research gap by investigating the moderating roles of network centrality (including buyer centrality and supplier centrality) and diversity management in shaping the relation between BGD and corporate philanthropy within a supply network context in Japan. The study analyzed 2,346 matched pairs of publicly listed firms and their business partners (covering both upstream and downstream ties) across various industries in Japan. Ordinary least squares regression models were used to investigate the linkage between BGD and corporate philanthropy, along with the moderating effects of buyer centrality, supplier centrality, and diversity management. The results showed that buyer centrality facilitated the positive impact of BGD on corporate philanthropy. Conversely, supplier centrality did not significantly affect this relationship. This indicates that the influence of BGD at the supplier level may differ from that at the buyer level. This highlights the need to consider contextual factors beyond BGD when analyzing corporate philanthropy. Additionally, diversity management was found to positively moderate the relationship between BGD and corporate philanthropy. This study was among the pioneering efforts to apply reciprocity theory to develop a conceptual framework that enriched the understanding of the mechanisms underlying operational and relational governance in buyer–supplier relationships and their influence on corporate philanthropy commitment. Additionally, it expands reciprocity theory by exploring in detail how diverse management exerts an impact on board governance and corporate philanthropy.

The debate on the purpose of corporations has intensified over the past decade, compelling businesses to reassess their societal roles. To effectively integrate sustainability into corporate strategies, for-profit firms are increasingly encouraged to adopt a pro-social purpose (SP). However, adopting and integrating an SP is a substantial shift that necessitates an internal push from corporate actors. In particular, due to its function of strategic decision-making, the board of directors represents a pivotal player in promoting the adoption of an SP. This research delves into the impact of board characteristics on the likelihood of adopting an SP in for-profit firms. We examined 580 European firms employing propensity score matching and logistic regression methodologies. Our findings offer initial insights on the effect of the board composition on adopting an SP. In particular, we found that cultivating the directors’ network with employees, fostering gender and age diversity, and welcoming highly qualified directors on board are key factors in facilitating the adoption and implementation of an SP in EU for-profit firms. Our study represents the first attempt to quantitatively examine the relationship between the board and SP. By doing so, we contribute to the theoretical advancement of the complementarity of corporate governance and corporate purpose. Moreover, we encourage practitioners to accrue awareness of the board characteristics that facilitate the adoption of an SP within their firms.

ABSTRACT Information technology (IT) innovation development within non-IT firms has been a key interest, but it is fraught with challenges because these firms lack sufficient IT knowledge. This study takes a resource dependence perspective to examine how engaging interlocking directorates with IT firms, or IT interlocks, affects non-IT firms’ innovation outcomes. Despite the acknowledged role of board interlocks in knowledge transfer, the role of IT interlocks in transferring IT knowledge has not been studied. Using a large-scale panel dataset of Chinese public firms between 2000 and 2020, our findings reveal that IT interlocks of non-IT firms positively impact their IT innovation by transferring IT knowledge, particularly when the interlocked IT firms are knowledge-intensive. Our research contributes to the information systems literature by affirming IT interlocks’ positive impact on innovation outcomes and highlighting the value of specific board relational capital in transferring external knowledge in need. It also offers practical implications for non-IT firms overcoming innovation challenges by establishing directorate connections with IT firms.

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PurposeThis study investigates the impact of supplier dependence on suppliers’ exploitative and exploratory innovations. Drawing on resource dependence theory, this research demonstrates that two governance mechanisms, relationship tenure and board interlocks with customers, can be used to manage supplier dependence.Design/methodology/approachUsing 1,825 observations from listed Chinese firms from 2008 to 2020, we established a unique dataset of buyer–supplier dyads. The hypotheses were tested using zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis.FindingsThe findings indicate that greater supplier dependence on major customers has distinct impacts on suppliers’ exploitative and exploratory innovations. We demonstrate that the strategic management of relationship tenure and board interlocks with customers can serve as mechanisms countervailing the negative impact of supplier dependence on exploitative and exploratory innovations.Originality/valueThese results provide insights into the complex relationship between supplier dependence and innovation, offering practical recommendations for companies to alleviate resource dependence.

PurposeThis study analyses interlocking directorates from the perspective of an emerging market, Mexico, where formal institutions are weak, and family firms with high ownership concentration dominate. It responds to recent calls in the literature on interlocks, which urge the differentiation between family and non-family businesses and to complete more research on emerging economies.Design/methodology/approachA database was constructed for 89 non-financial companies (52 family-owned) listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) from 2001 to 2014. This period includes normal times and an episode of financial crisis (2009–2010). To test the hypotheses, a dynamic panel model (in two stages) is used, applying GMM.FindingsIn normal times, the advantages of Board Chairman (COB) interlocks for the performance of publicly traded Mexican family firms are obtained regardless of the weak formal institutional environment. By contrast, during financial crisis, interlocking family COBs are more likely to jointly expropriate minority shareholders with actions that further their family objectives, which mitigates the positive effect of interlocks on performance. These findings contrast with the insignificant effects of COB interlocks found for non-family corporates.Originality/valueA new framework is proposed which, through agency theory, finds points of concordance among resource dependence and class hegemony theories, to understand the effect of interlocking directorates on the performance of family firms operating in Mexico. The results of the empirical exercise for family companies listed on BMV during normal and financial crisis periods suggest its applicability.

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Resource dependence theory (RDT) has long been a premier framework for understanding organization-environmental relations, but an empirical synthesis of its predictions is still lacking. Using meta-analysis, we consolidate 157 tests of RDT and corroborate its main predictions: organizations respond to resource dependencies by forming interorganizational arrangements like interlocks, alliances, joint ventures, in-sourcing arrangements, and mergers and acquisitions. In turn, these arrangements make them more autonomous and more legitimate. We also extend RDT in three ways. First, we “unpack” the theory by showing that the mechanisms linking arrangement formation to organizational autonomy and legitimacy differ across arrangements. Second, we address the question whether RDT is also a theory of organizational performance. We find that whereas autonomy positively mediates the relationship between arrangement formation and performance, legitimacy does not. This suggests that RDT can also explain organizational actions that have societal acceptance rather than economic performance as an ulterior motive. Third, we assess whether competition law is a boundary condition to RDT’s prescriptions. Specifically, we show that the adoption of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines in the U.S. has caused organizations to “flee” from mergers to less regulated arrangements like alliances and joint ventures, and has hurt the profitability of the remaining mergers.

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We investigate board interlocks and their relationship to the transparency of sustainability disclosure, drawing on the theoretical perspectives of resource dependence theory and agency theory. We ascertain that board members who gain sustainability experience by serving on another board will influence the transparency of sustainability disclosure for the focal firm. The study analyzes data from S&P 1500 firms in the U.S. from 2009 to 2018, using ordinary least squares regressions. Our findings demonstrate that the focal firms' sustainability disclosure will be more transparent if their boards have interlocking directors with experience gained from other boards in current or prior years. Furthermore, we find that the sustainability experience of interlocked firms interacts with both gender diversity and board independence, leading to an enhancement in the transparency of sustainability disclosure. In addition, we conduct robustness tests such as performing propensity score matching, controlling for firm fixed effects, and applying entropy matching. These additional tests provide consistent results to confirm and strengthen our findings.

We draw from resource dependence and institutional theories to explore how board characteristics associated with directors’ capacities to provide resources and legitimacy (i.e., board size, the number of non-executive, interlocking, and female directors) along with regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutional conditions combine to shape firm environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Using a process of configurational theorizing with fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis and data from firms in 32 countries, we identify multiple equifinal configurations that are associated with high and low ESG performance. We find that high and low ESG performance have different drivers due to complementarities among the presence and absence of board characteristics. Our results also show that the effectiveness (or not) of the bundles of boards’ characteristics for ESG performance varies across institutional contexts. By leveraging these findings to construct a typology of board archetypes that lead to high and low ESG performance, we offer novel theoretical and empirical insights to scholars as well as implications for practice.

Digital transformation (DT) enables manufacturing enterprises to navigate volatile and uncertain market environments, thereby achieving sustainable development. Considering the inherent uncertainty of DT and the influence of peer enterprises, this study examines peer effects of DT on enterprise resilience (ER) from the perspective of peer influence, drawing on the institutional theory, enterprise resilience durability theory and strategic ecology. Using data from Chinese manufacturing enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2013 to 2022, the study investigates the mechanisms and heterogeneity of DT peer effects within interlocking directorate networks (IDNs). The results show that: (1) DT exhibits significant industrial and regional peer effects; (2) industrial peer effects enhance innovation capability (IC), thereby strengthening ER, whereas regional peer effects improve resource allocation (RA) to bolster ER; and (3) industrial peer effects are more pronounced for enterprises in non-central positions within IDNs and highly competitive industries, while regional peer effects are stronger for enterprises in central positions and located in central cities. These findings highlight the differentiated pathways through which peer-driven digitalization shapes resilience and demonstrate its importance not only for firm-level resilience but also for long-term sustainable competitiveness in manufacturing ecosystems.

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Using social network theory and resource dependence theory, this study undercovers whether independent directors' interlocks contribute directly to the corporate financial performance of Chinese firms or indirectly through green technology innovation. Furthermore, we scrutinize how the environmental protection management system affects the path between independent directors' interlocks and green technology innovation. Using a sample of 4902 listed firms in China over the period of 2010–2022, the results indicate that firms possess interlocks through their independent directors play a crucial role in fostering performance and developing low‐carbon technologies. With an environmental protection management system, the impact of the independent directors' interlocks on corporate green technology innovation is stronger, indicating the significant role of corporate internal environmental context. This study offers practical implications for firms and policymakers by demonstrating how independent director interlocks can simultaneously advance corporate and national economic and environmental objectives.

: Green innovation plays a critical role in mitigating environmental issues and balancing the interaction between economic growth and the natural environment. Drawing on social network and resource-dependence theory, this article scrutinises the relationship between independent director interlocks and corporate green innovation. Using the data from listed Chinese companies from 2010 to 2022, this study finds that independent director interlocks can significantly promote corporate green processes and product innovation. This research further finds that internal corporate contexts can also influence the relationship between independent director interlocks and green innovation. Moreover, the results indicate that corporate environmental commitment positively moderates the relationships between independent director interlocks and corporate green innovation. This study also provides significant implications for firms seeking green innovation performance and for policymakers seeking ways to fulfill the mission of carbon dioxide abatement.

Many studies on the impact of boards of directors on corporate social responsibility have focused on the human capital of board members (i.e., structures and characteristics). However, the relational capital of board members (i.e., board interlock centrality) has yet to be fully explored. This study examines the extent to which board members are connected in their networks (i.e., board interlock centrality) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in the restaurant industry. It also recognizes the moderating role of board effectiveness on the relationship between board centrality and CSR performance. On the basis of organization legitimacy theory and resource dependence theory, this study found that high-centrality boards increase positive CSR performance. The effect is more substantial when a firm has more standing board committees. The theories view firms as components of the larger social environment, and their performance depends on their ability to procure crucial resources from other firms through mutual exchange. No significant link was found between negative CSR performance and the moderating effect of board committees.

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Our study aims to explore the evolution and workings of five neurodiversity networks as emergent organizational communities aimed at providing support to neurodivergent employees and fostering a more neuro-inclusive workplace. We analyzed eighteen interviews with network members and other employees. Interviewees were selected from neurodiversity networks varying in size and duration, and they were asked to provide information on network structure, governance, their aims and supportive practices, as well as disruptive network events and negative ties. We integrate the results of the six emerging themes, present the main enablers and barriers in network evolution in relation to its shifting goals, and discuss the organizational embedding versus autonomy dilemma. Moreover, we unveil three paradoxical mechanisms that apply specifically to neurodiversity networks, namely the relational challenges, the support-strain and the salience of the invisible paradoxes. Our study finds that neurodiversity networks face common enablers and barriers seen in other diversity networks, along with unique challenges specific to neurodiversity. Our qualitative approach limited the exploration of network impact on neuro-inclusiveness, and we call for quantitative studies to further extend our findings. The findings offer key insights for managers and employees contemplating the establishment of a neurodiversity network. Clear agreements on roles, influence and resources are vital to maintain network integrity and ensure a contribution to neuro-inclusiveness. The findings indicate that while neurodiversity networks can support neuro-inclusiveness, it is challenging to achieve given the risks when such networks are poorly designed or inadequately managed. The study is one of the first to explore the workings of neurodiversity networks in organizational settings and explore the challenges they face.

PurposeAn emerging body of literature has pinpointed the role of supply chain structure in influencing the extent to which supply chain members disclose information about their internal practices and performance. Nevertheless, empirical research investigating the effects of firm-level relational embeddedness on network-level transparency still lags. Drawing on social network analysis, this research examines the effect of relational embeddedness on supply chain transparency and the contingent role of digitalization in the context of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information disclosure.Design/methodology/approachIn their empirical analysis, the authors collected secondary data from the Bloomberg database about 2,229 firms and 14,007 ties organized in 107 extended supply chains. The authors employed supplier and customer concentration metrics to measure relational embeddedness and performed multiple econometric models to test the hypothesis.FindingsThe authors found a positive effect of supplier concentration on supply chain transparency, but the effect of customer concentration was not significant. Additionally, the digitalization of focal firms reinforced the impact of supplier concentration on supply chain transparency.Originality/valueThe study findings contribute by underscoring the critical effect of relational embeddedness on supply chain transparency, extending prior literature on social network analysis, providing compelling evidence for the intersection of digitalization and supply chain management, and drawing important implications for practices.

Shareholder activism is a contentious field where investors confront management over governance and social responsibility matters. Most prior research on shareholder activism focuses on firm traits, such as performance, that explain targeting. We argue that shareholder activism also reflects endogenous dynamics. Although activists target firms because of their characteristics, activists also choose targets based on their position in the relational field. We develop a network approach to mapping contentious fields: Shareholder activism is a social network whose topology reflects self-organizing patterns. We hypothesize four network effects thought to contribute to the observed structure: prolificacy, ignominy, differentiation, and homophily. We use data on shareholder-sponsored proposals targeting Fortune 250 firms between 2006 and 2013. Results from exponential random graph models support our hypothesized effects and suggest that activism sponsorship and targeting follow an endogenous cumulative process. We argue that these self-organization processes help explain the structure of the shareholder activism network.

This study investigates how the structural characteristics of a firm's supply network and its neighbouring firms affect their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) controversies. A secondary dataset comprising 18,943 firms and 103,632 contractual links from the global automotive industry was employed to test the hypotheses. Publicly available ESG controversies data for 268 firms were gathered from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database. The results indicated a negative relationship between the interconnectedness of neighbours’ networks and their ESG controversies. The results further revealed a positive association between the centrality of a firm’s neighbours and their ESG controversies. Furthermore, the study highlighted that a firm occupying a bridging position positively moderates the relationship between neighbours’ interconnectedness and ESG controversies. Drawing on a real-world large-scale supply network, our study extends the emerging debate on the criticality of broader supply networks in firms’ sustainability by investigating the role of neighbours’ structural properties in firms’ ESG controversies.