Wharton-SMU Research Center

In-House Seminar

Guest Speaker:

Martin J. Conyon
Assistant Professor of Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Date & Venue:
Date: 26 January 2005, Wednesday
Time: 4.00pm-5.30pm
Venue: Eu Tong Sen, Level 1, Seminar Room 4,
Singapore Management University
469 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259756
(Location Map)

Topic:
The Small World Network Structure of Boards of Directors

About the Seminar:
This paper presents a random graph model to explain the network structure of boards of directors. It investigates the conditions under which corporate boards can be said to be a "small-world". The empirical results show that the random graph model is remarkably good at explaining board structure and connectedness in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Although there are small-world traits such as "clustering" and "short-paths" in the corporate world, they are no more pronounced than would be expected by chance in a statistically similar, but randomly assembled corporate universe. Finally, the results show the existence of positive degree correlation: directors who sit on many boards do so in the company of other directors who sit on many boards. This result helps explain the distribution of board interlocks.

Registration:
This seminar is free. Please register early. (Admission on a first-come-first-served basis.)
For registration, please click here (Registration closes on 25 January 2005, Tuesday)

Enquiries:
Ms. Lim Lih Yeng
Email: lylim@smu.edu.sg, Tel: 6822-0197
Ms. Priscilla Cheng
Email: priscillacheng@smu.edu.sg, Tel: 6822-0383