Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e25995. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025995. Epub 2011 Oct 26.
The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic "super-entity" that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.
跨国公司的控制网络结构影响着全球市场竞争和金融稳定。到目前为止，研究仅局限于小的国家样本，没有适当的方法来进行全球控制评估。我们首次调查了国际所有权网络的结构，并计算了每个全球参与者的控制程度。我们发现，跨国公司形成了一个巨大的蝴蝶结结构，大量的控制权流向一个紧密的金融机构核心。这个核心可以被视为一个经济“超级实体”，这为研究人员和政策制定者提出了新的重要问题。
