Holding-based network of nations based on listed energy companies: An empirical study on two-mode affiliation network of two sets of actors

•Using complex network theory to simulate heterogeneous economic networks.•A novel empirical study of two-mode affiliation network of two sets of actors.•Based on the shareholding relationships of global listed energy companies.•Constructed one-mode derivative holding-based network of nations.•Analyzing the global energy competition and cooperation relationships of nations.

Economic networks in the real world are not homogeneous; therefore, it is important to study economic networks with heterogeneous nodes and edges to simulate a real network more precisely. In this paper, we present an empirical study of the one-mode derivative holding-based network constructed by the two-mode affiliation network of two sets of actors using the data of worldwide listed energy companies and their shareholders. First, we identify the primitive relationship in the two-mode affiliation network of the two sets of actors. Then, we present the method used to construct the derivative network based on the shareholding relationship between two sets of actors and the affiliation relationship between actors and events. After constructing the derivative network, we analyze different topological features on the node level, edge level and entire network level and explain the meanings of the different values of the topological features combining the empirical data. This study is helpful for expanding the usage of complex networks to heterogeneous economic networks. For empirical research on the worldwide listed energy stock market, this study is useful for discovering the inner relationships between the nations and regions from a new perspective.