Maktstrukturer i svenskt näringsliv
En social nätverkstudie av delade styrelseledamöter i Sverige 1985 och 2005
This paper examines the interpersonal and intercorporate networks of interlocking boardmembers among Sweden's 50 largest publicly traded companies in 1985 and 2005. We find that both the interpersonal and intercorporate networks of 1985 are considerably more coherent and densely connected than those of 2005. The observed changes in social network structure are compared to changes in company ownership in Swedish publicly traded companies during the same period, and it is found that the observed changes in network density and cohesion can be related to a notable increase in the number of foreign board members. These results imply that the social organization of the Swedish system of corporate governance has changed notably during the period. Social network theory suggests that these changes can explain the greater demand for external regulation, decreased homogeneity of board members and increase in board member compensation observed under the period. The results also question earlier studies on American and Australian data suggesting that the connectivity of interpersonal and intercorporate networks of interlocking board members is remarkably stable and appears to be an intrinsic property of the networks, resilient to major changes in corporate governance.