Our team has produced a number of papers over the last few years looking at how corporate life in the UK has been affected by an increased ratio of females in corporate boardooms. A paper comparing the effect on performance of interlocks (abstract bellow) by women and men provides evidence that women play a unique role by providing more ties across sectors and hence facilitating tacit knowledge transfer between boards.

We have progressed from this work to also demonstrate how interlocks allow firms to achieve higher market capitalisation (abstract bellow). This is seen as an attempt at market dominance, with a new metric suggested, Market Capitalisation Rank.

From the earlier work on gender and interlocks there is still a paper under review that examines the structure of interlock networks and the value of interlocks to the transmission of tacit knowledge. 

Graph: Corporate Interlocks in the FTSE100 in 2017.

Sarabi, Y., Smith, M., McGregor, H. and Christopoulos, D. (2023), “Gendered brokerage and firm performance – An interlock analysis of the UK”, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 72 No. 2, pp. 306-330. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-01-2021-0022

Abstract
Purpose
Corporate success depends partially on the quality of knowledge accessible to the executive board. One route of access to such knowledge is the appointment of directors who already hold directorships with prominent other corporate actors. Such director appointments provide interlocks to a corporate knowledge ecosystem (Haunschild and Beckman, 1998). The purpose of this paper is to examine how linkages between companies belonging to different sectors impact firm performance and to examine how linkages created by female directors, as opposed to male directors, shape performance.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper investigates the interlocks created between UK FTSE 350 companies from 2010 to 2018. It draws on network analysis to map the roles that male and female directors play in linking firms with varying sector classifications. The paper provides an examination of the impact of these roles on firm performance, through a panel data regression analysis.

Findings
This paper finds that there is an increase of inter-industry brokers over the period, and that men are still dominant in both the network and creating inter-industry ties amongst companies. However, the role of women in establishing these ties appears to be changing, and women are more important when it comes to create inter-industry ties among key economic sectors.

Originality/value
This paper provides a novel approach to examine the interplay between gendered inter (and intra) sectoral linkages and firm performance. It provides an original application of the two-mode brokerage analysis framework proposed in Jasny and Lubell (2015).

Sarabi, Y., Smith, M., McGregor, H. and Christopoulos, D. (2022), “Market ranking and network structure: pathway to dominance”, Management Decision, Vol. 60 No. 1, pp. 167-188. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-04-2020-0473

Abstract
Purpose
The relationship between interlocking directorates and firm performance has been increasingly debated, with a focus on whether firm’s centrality in interlock networks is associated with performance. The purpose of this study is to examine not only how a firm’s position in this network is associated with performance but also how the performance of network partners can impact a firm’s performance. This study examines how firms effectively utilise the interlock network to achieve the goal of higher market capitalisation – termed market capitalisation rank (MCR).

Design/methodology/approach
The premise of the study is the UK FTSE 350 firms from 2014 to 2018. The paper makes use of a temporal network autocorrelation model to examine how firm characteristics, the structural position in the interlock network and the performance of network partners affect MCR over time.

Findings
The analysis indicates that firms with ties (via the interlock network) to firms with high market capitalisation are more likely to enhance their own MCR, highlighting network partners have the opportunity to play a critical role in a firm’s dominance strategy to optimise firm value.

Originality/value
The value of this research is that it does not only look at the impact of a firm’s position in the network on performance, but the impact of the performance of network partners on a firm’s market performance as well.