“The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. so far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. we present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. we find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. this core can be seen as an economic ‘super-entity’ that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.”

“A key debate on the merits and consequences of globalisation asks to what extent we have moved to a multipolar global political economy. here we investigate this issue through the properties and topologies of corporate elite networks and ask: what is the community structure of the global corporate elite? in order to answer this question, we analyse how the largest one million firms in the world are interconnected at the level of corporate governance through interlocking directorates. community detection through modularity maximisation reveals that regional clusters play a fundamental role in the network architecture of the global political economy. transatlantic connections remain particularly strong: europe and north america remain interconnected in a dense network of shared directors. a distinct asian cluster stands apart as separate and oriented more towards itself. while it develops and gains economic and political power, asia remains by and large outside the scope of the networks of the incumbent global (that is, north atlantic) corporate elite. we see this as a sign of the rise of competing corporate elites. but the corporate elites from the traditional core countries still form a powerful opponent for any competing faction in the global corporate elite.”