Exploratory social network analysis of affiliation networks of Indian listed companies

Interlocking directorates play a crucial role in the corporate governance system. In this paper we analyse the structural characteristics of the network of the interlocking directorate of National Stock Exchange (NSE) listed Indian companies using the tools of social network analysis to examine the effects of the underlying network on the performance of companies and directors. A component analysis of the network shows that 78.5% of the companies fall under one giant component with the largest island containing 6 companies. The giant component was further analysed for clusters and centrality measures. The results show that the highly boarded directors who constitute just 2.25% of the director population are associated with 42% of the total listed companies which account for 65.5% of the total market capitalisation. The top central actors in both director as well as company networks have been identified. The calculated values of mean path length and global clustering coefficient provide evidence for the existence of small world structure in the Indian corporate field.