Is the corporate elite disintegrating? Interlock boards and the Mizruchi hypothesis

Kevin Mentzer (1, 2) , Francois-Xavier Dudouet (3) , Dominique Haughton (2, 4, 5) , Pierre Latouche (4) , Fabrice Rossi (4)

1 Bryant University
2 Bentley University
3 IRISSO - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Sciences Sociales
4 SAMM - Statistique, Analyse et Modélisation Multidisciplinaire (SAmos-Marin Mersenne)
5 GREMAQ - Groupe de recherche en économie mathématique et quantitative

This paper proposes an approach for comparing interlocked board networks over time to test for statistically significant change. In addition to contributing to the conversation about whether the Mizruchi hypothesis (that a disintegration of power is occurring within the corporate elite) holds or not, we propose novel methods to handle a longitudinal investigation of a series of social networks where the nodes undergo a few modifications at each time point. Methodologically, our contribution is twofold: we extend a Bayesian model hereto applied to compare two time periods to a longer time period, and we define and employ the concept of a hull of a sequence of social networks, which makes it possible to circumvent the problem of changing nodes over time.

Mots clés: interlock boards; longitudinal social networks; Mizruchi hypothesis; hull of a sequence of social networks; Bayesian analysis

Domaines: Applications [stat.AP]; Sociologie

Kevin Mentzer, Francois-Xavier Dudouet, Dominique Haughton, Pierre Latouche, Fabrice Rossi. Is the corporate elite disintegrating? Interlock boards and the Mizruchi hypothesis. IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2015), IEEE/ACM, Aug 2015, Paris, France. pp.781-786, ⟨10.1145/2808797.2808890⟩. ⟨hal-01270293⟩