Lost in Space: The Geography of Corporate Interlocking Directorates

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Abstract
The article studies the causes of local and nonlocal interlocking directorates among the largest U.S. industrial corporations in 1964. The authors hypothesize that interlocks are spatial phenomena-with spatial attributes and spatial determinants. Consistent with this hypothesis, they find that local and nonlocal interlocks have different correlates. Further, three spatial structures influence interlocking: the location of a corporation's headquarters vis-g-vis other corporate headquarters and upper-class clubs, the territorial distribution of a firm's production facilities, and the spatial configuration of a corporation's ownership relations. This suggests that previous interlock research, which ignores spatial considerations, has been seriously misspecified.