Interlocking Directorship Networks and Gender: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Interlocking directorates and gender are both relevant topics in the modern corporate governance debate. Interlocking directorship networks serve different purposes and can have a significant impact on boards, companies and industries. In this context there has been great interest in gender issues relating to interlocking directorship networks fueled by the recent wave of quota regulations across Europe that has pushed up the presence of women on boards. In this paper we provide a bibliometric analysis of the results in literature related to interlocking directorships and gender; in particular we analyse the relevant literature in order to understand its structure using co-citation mechanisms and co-word analysis of the relevant works. It is possible to observe from the existent literature that the topics of interlocking directorship and performance have developed into a relevant and researched area for academics. The results show that it is important to study the structure of the interlocking directorship networks by gender, type of role on boards, presence in board committees, as they impact performance. The main contribution of this work is to assess the existing literature on female networks, interlocking directorship networks and also the effects of different patterns of board diversity on the economic performances of companies.