The Italian Corporate Network, 1952-1983: New Evidence Using the Interlocking Directorates Technique

The paper explores the structure of Italian corporate network by focusing on the relationships between financial –
banks, insurances and holdings – and industrial companies in Italy during the period 1952-83 through the analysis of the
interlocks that existed between them. By an interlock is meant the link created between two firms when an individual
belongs to the board of directors of both. The analysis is based on a database – Imita.db – containing data on over
130,000 directors of Italian joint stock companies for the years 1952, 1960, 1972 and 1983. After showing a descriptive
statistics of the companies and the directors included in the database, the paper develops a network connectivity
analysis of the system. This is integrated by a prosopographic study about the big linkers, defined as those directors
cumulating the highest number of offices in each benchmark year. The paper confirms that Italian corporate network
maintained substantial peculiarities in the period investigated. In particular, it argues that interlocks played an important
role in guaranteeing the stability of the positions of control of the major private companies and their connections with
state-owned enterprises. In 1952 and 1960, the system, centred on the larger electrical companies, showed the highest
degree of cohesion. That centre dissolved after nationalisation of the electricity industry in 1962 and was replaced by a
less strong and cohesive one, hinged on banks, insurances and the major finance companies. At the beginning of the
1980s the centre appeared to have been further reshaped with the marginalisation of state-owned enterprises.