The network of global corporate control
Authors: Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, Stefano Battiston
Abstract
The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic "super-entity" that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.
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Papers around this one
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Closest papers
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On Global Corporate Control: Review of an ArticleBruce E. Parry · 2020 · Perspectives on Global Development and Technology · Not summarized yet
Abstract
This article reviews “The network of global corporate control” by Vitali et al. (2011) where the authors use modern network theory to analyze the centralization of global corporate control. Specifically, they calculate how a central core of transnational corporations (TNCs) have control over the total operating revenue of all transnational corporations. They find that out of 43,060 transnational corporations, 737 top shareholders control about 80 percent of the value of all TNCs. This control is centralized in the financial sector and extends to other sectors of the economy, including manufacturing and services. TNCs are more global than ever before. They are in virtually every country of th…
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Financial Intermediaries and Capital Centralization in Global FDI: A Network Approach to Tracing Transnational Corporate ControlA. Abeltino, Tiziano Bacaloni, Andrea Bernardini et al. · 2026 · cited 1 time · Not summarized yet
Abstract
Understanding how corporate control concentrates in modern ownership systems is crucial in an economy increasingly shaped by cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Rather than expanding productive capacity, these operations reorganize ownership and control over existing firms through complex transnational structures involving financial intermediaries, holding companies, and investment vehicles. As a result, corporate control may become highly concentrated even when formal ownership appears fragmented. This paper examines how foreign direct investments-related capital centralization reshapes firm-level governance by tracing how control converges on individual companies through multi-layered o…
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The power of corporate control in the global ownership networkT. Mizuno, Shohei Doi, Shuhei Kurizaki · 2020 · PLoS ONE · cited 26 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
As passive investment through index funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) has become pervasive, the structure of corporate control in the global capital market is more complex than before. We propose a new model and calculation algorithm to measure a shareholder’s power to control corporations in the global economy. Our method takes into account how fragmented voting rights attached to dispersed ownership may be consolidated to generate corporate control. Analyzing the ownership holdings in 49 million companies worldwide by 69 million shareholders in 2016, we find that the landscape of global corporate control appears differently if we adequately evaluate indirect influence via dispersed ow…
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Backbone of complex networks of corporations: the flow of control.J. Glattfelder, S. Battiston · 2009 · Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics · cited 139 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
We present a methodology to extract the backbone of complex networks based on the weight and direction of links, as well as on nontopological properties of nodes. We show how the methodology can be applied in general to networks in which mass or energy is flowing along the links. In particular, the procedure enables us to address important questions in economics, namely, how control and wealth are structured and concentrated across national markets. We report on the first cross-country investigation of ownership networks, focusing on the stock markets of 48 countries around the world. On the one hand, our analysis confirms results expected on the basis of the literature on corporate control,…
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The Core of the Global Corporate NetworkRicardo Giglio, T. Lux · 2021 · Networks and Spatial Economics · cited 1 time · Not summarized yet
Abstract
We investigate the network topology of a comprehensive data set of the world-wide population of corporate entities. In particular, we have extracted information on the boards of all companies listed in Bloomberg’s archive of company profiles in October, 2015, a total of almost 100,000 firms. We provide information on board membership overlaps at various levels, and, in particular, show that there exists a core of directors who accumulate a large number of seats and are highly connected among themselves both at the level of national networks and at the worldwide aggregated level.
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The Corporate Elite Community Structure of Global CapitalismEelke M. Heemskerk, Frank W. Takes · 2015 · New Political Economy · cited 164 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
A key debate on the merits and consequences of globalisation asks to what extent we have moved to a multipolar global political economy. Here we investigate this issue through the properties and topologies of corporate elite networks and ask: what is the community structure of the global corporate elite? In order to answer this question, we analyse how the largest one million firms in the world are interconnected at the level of corporate governance through interlocking directorates. Community detection through modularity maximisation reveals that regional clusters play a fundamental role in the network architecture of the global political economy. Transatlantic connections remain particular…
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Structure and influence in a global capital–ownership networkSammy Khalife, Jesse Read, M. Vazirgiannis · 2021 · Applied Network Science · cited 1 time · Not summarized yet
Abstract
Relationships between legal entities can be represented as a large weighted directed graph. In this work, we model the global capital ownership network across a hundred of millions of such entities with the goal of establishing a methodology for extracting and analysing meaningful patterns of capitalistic influence from the graph structure. To do so, we adapt and employ metrics from graph analytics and algorithms from the area of influence maximization. We characterize the relationships extracted and show that our analysis aligns with information from macro-economic studies; for example it recovers the presence of known tax heavens, which appear in dense subgraphs of countries. We also ident…
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The flow of corporate control in the global ownership networkT. Mizuno, Shohei Doi, Shuhei Kurizaki · 2023 · PLoS ONE · cited 5 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
We propose a model and algorithm to measure the amount of influence a shareholder has over the flow of corporate control held by the ultimate owners. Existing models of corporate ownership and control either focus on the ultimate owners’ influence or inadequately evaluate the influence possessed by intermediate shareholders in a ownership network. As it extends Network Power Index (NPI) that describes the the power of corporate control possessed by the ultimate owners, our new model, Network Power Flow (NPF), delineates the distribution of ownership influence among shareholders across the network and identifies the channels through which the ultimate owners’ corporate control travel through …
Prior work it builds on
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The Small World of Germany and the Durability of National NetworksB. Kogut, G. Walker · 2001 · American Sociological Review · cited 515 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
The globalization of financial markets and the concomitant restructuring decisions of firms challenge the historical legacy of national systems of governance. German corporate ownership patterns and restructuring events in the 1990's are examined here in this light. The results show that ownership links among German firms constitute a “small world” that has consequences for understanding mergers and acquisitions. Ownership links form closely-knit clusters affirms that are nonetheless highly connected across the network as a whole. Restructuring events fall squarely in the center of this structure. Despite increasing global competition, the German small world tends to replicate itself. To ill…
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Corporate Ownership Around the WorldR. la Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silane, A. Shleifer · 1999 · Journal of Finance · cited 11,526 times · Not summarized yet
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Ownership relations in the presence of cross-shareholdingE. Dietzenbacher, U. Temurshoev · 2008 · Journal of Economics · cited 51 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
The direct ownership structure in a sector can be readily obtained from data on shareholding. Due to cross-shareholding, however, the true ownership structure may be hidden by a complex network of indirect relations. In studying the property structure, two important aspects are the size of the relations between primary owners (e.g. individuals) and secondary owners (e.g. companies), and the distance between them. The distance is obtained from the average number of secondary owners via whom the relation runs. As an empirical application, we study the banking sector in the Czech Republic, where also the relation between distance and separation of dividend and control rights is discussed.
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A Social Movement Perspective on Corporate ControlG. Davis, Tracy A. Thompson · 1994 · Administrative Science Quarterly · cited 825 times · Not summarized yet
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The Control of Corporate EuropeMarco Becht, F. Barca · 2002 · ULB Institutional Repository · cited 747 times · Not summarized yet
Papers that cite it
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The interdependence of corporate reputation and ownership: a network approach to quantify reputationYan Zhang, F. Schweitzer · 2019 · Royal Society Open Science · cited 17 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
We propose a novel way to measure the reputation of firms by using information about their ownership structure. Supported by the signalling theory, we argue that ownership relations channel reputation spillovers between shareholders and their invested companies. We model such reputation spillovers by means of a simple dynamics that runs on the ownership network, constructed from available databases. We focus on the core of the global ownership network with 1300 firms and 12 100 ownership links. Our method assigns an ownership-based reputation value to each firm, used to provide a quantitative reputation ranking. We compare our ranking with alternative rankings, to confirm that the top-ranked…
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CORPORATE OWNERSHIP NETWORK: THE HIERARCHICAL CAPITALISM IN THE BRAZILIAN CONTEXTWilton Vicente Gonçalves da Cruz, Mário Sacomano, E. Ribeiro · 2023 · Revista de Administração de Empresas · cited 2 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
ABSTRACT Several studies have indicated a type of hierarchical capitalism in Latin America, characterized by the presence of multinational and state corporations, diversified multi-enterprise groups, low-skilled labor, and segmented labor markets. From the perspective of ownership networks, we explore who the owners of large Brazilian corporations are. These networks reveal actors and groups with prominent positions in the structure and ownership of companies. Thus, this article proposes to 1) describe the ownership network of the largest Brazilian corporations; 2) analyze the density, average degree, modularity, and the number of components connected in this network; 3) analyze measures of …
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Transnational Corporations as ‘Keystone Actors’ in Marine EcosystemsHenrik Österblom, Jean‐Baptiste Jouffray, Carl Folke et al. · 2015 · PLoS ONE · cited 277 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
Keystone species have a disproportionate influence on the structure and function of ecosystems. Here we analyze whether a keystone-like pattern can be observed in the relationship between transnational corporations and marine ecosystems globally. We show how thirteen corporations control 11-16% of the global marine catch (9-13 million tons) and 19-40% of the largest and most valuable stocks, including species that play important roles in their respective ecosystem. They dominate all segments of seafood production, operate through an extensive global network of subsidiaries and are profoundly involved in fisheries and aquaculture decision-making. Based on our findings, we define these compani…
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The Effectiveness of National Government Regulation of Large CompaniesJing Gui · 2023 · International Journal of Education and Humanities · Not summarized yet
Abstract
This study investigates the dynamic interplay between transnational corporations (TNCs) and their regulatory landscape. TNCs, as major players in the global economy, significantly influence both economic growth and the trajectory of domestic firms in less developed countries. However, this influence isn't always positive. The central theme of this paper is the challenges and complexities national governments face in regulating these corporate giants. Given the backdrop of neoliberalism and globalisation, the regulatory environment is ever-evolving and demands intricate analyses. Key to this is the development of robust governance frameworks which are imperative for striking a harmonious bala…
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The multilayer structure of corporate networksJ. van Lidth de Jeude, T. Aste, G. Caldarelli · 2019 · New Journal of Physics · cited 25 times · Not summarized yet
Abstract
Various company interactions can be described by networks, for instance the ownership networks and the board membership networks. To understand the ecosystem of companies, these interactions cannot be seen in isolation. For this purpose we construct a new multiplex network of interactions between companies in Germany and in the United Kingdom, combining ownership links, social ties through joint board directors, R&D collaborations and stock correlations in one linked multiplex dataset. We describe the features of this network and show there exists a non-trivial overlap between these different types of networks, where the different types of connections complement each other and make the overa…
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Updated on 2 November 2026.