Network Analysis of Interlocking Directorates/Project Overview

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Our Motivation

Looking at both the advantages and disadvantages of interlocking directorates networks, we were motivated by two ideas:

1. a non-financial measured method can be effectively used to assess fraud risk
2. second – urban planning may revolve around clustering concept that can be effectively displayed by the visualization of the relations between firms and social capital.

By examining the interlocking directorate network and indicating the importance of a firm or director’s position in the interlocking network, we hope to be able to set focus on the individuals who might possibly have deceptive actions and connections. The executives, who have set up many connections in multiple firms at the same time, are subjected to “potentially” facilitate fraudulent activities among these companies. Because these interlocking executives can control a big deal of information, they can make use of it to gain personal benefit either for themselves or for the companies they are governing. Moreover, as interlocking directorates is a major source of social capital, examining these patterns can contribute to research in urban planning for Singapore.

Project Scope

In each firm, there may be a board of directors which contains both insiders, who are direct employee under the firm, and outsiders – people who are not employees of the firm but hold an important position in the board of directors. As the existence of interlocking directorates between public and private entities in the same sector increases the possibility of conflicts of interest, our team aims to produce a visualization of these relationships. Key features of our project includes:

1. 1. Visualization of the network of interlocking directorates
2. 2. Analysis of this network, focusing on the relationships from public to private sectors.
3. 3. Gathering useful insights from the analysis, which may be helpful the corporate leaders in decision-making in the future.