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The Effect of Interlocking Director Network on Corporate Risk Taking: Lessons from China

  • Kun Su and Heng Liu EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 16, 2018

Abstract

Using a dataset of Chinese listed companies, this article quantizes the centrality of interlocking director network based on the social network analysis and examines the effect of interlocking director network on corporate risk taking. The empirical results find that when interlocking director networks have a high centrality, network members are more likely to imitate risk-taking behaviors. Marketization and investment opportunities have positive moderating effects, indicating boundary conditions in social network theory.

Funding statement: National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.71773088, No.71402141, No. 71672197), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in Northwestern Polytechnical University (No. 3102017jc19005).

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Appendix

A Summary of existing literature about the antecedents of risk taking

Author & dateJournal sourceMain findings about the antecedents
Tversky & Kahneman 1981ScienceThe way of how decision makers frame the risk – either as the potential for a gain or a loss
Sitkin & Pablo 1992Academy of Management ReviewFundamental risk appetite in people’s personality
West & Berthon 1997Journal of Advertising ResearchCorporate culture, corporate performance, organizational processes
Wiseman & Gomez-Mejia 1998Academy of Management ReviewCombine monitoring with performance and the framing of strategic problems
Hofstede 2001Sage bookNational culture context
Eisenmann 2002Strategic Management JournalCEO equity ownership, corporate diversification
Antoncic 2003Journal of Enterprising CultureA paradoxical nature of translation of individual level risk aversion into corporate risk taking
Tjosvold & Yu 2007Group & Organization ManagementConstructive controversy among senior manager teams
Wright et al. 2007Strategic Management JournalManagerial stock options
Sanders & Hambrick 2007Academy of Management JournalCEO stock options
John, Litov, and Yeung 2008Journal of FinanceThe quality of investor protection
Kim & Buchanan 2008Journal of Applied Business ResearchLeadership structure of CEO duality
Li and Tang 2010Academy of Management JournalCEO hubris
Nguyen 2011Pacific-Basin Finance JournalFamily control, ownership concentration, bank control
Chatterjee & Hambrick 2011Administrative Science QuarterlyCEO’s capability cues
Nakano and Nguyen 2012Corporate Governance: An International ReviewBoard size
Faccio et al. 2016Journal of Corporate FinanceCEO gender
Our paperThe centrality of interlocking director networks
Published Online: 2018-05-16

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