title: The community structure of the global corporate network.
abstract: We investigate the community structure of the global ownership network of transnational corporations. We find a pronounced organization in communities that cannot be explained by randomness. Despite the global character of this network, communities reflect first of all the geographical location of firms, while the industrial sector plays only a marginal role. We also analyze the meta-network in which the nodes are the communities and the links are obtained by aggregating the links among firms belonging to pairs of communities. We analyze the network centrality of the top 50 communities and we provide a quantitative assessment of the financial sector role in connecting the global economy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Banking and Finance, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vitali
authors.affiliation: Department of Banking and Finance, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Battiston
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D007390:International Agencies; D015279:Organizational Culture; D011157:Population Dynamics