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Using a large dataset of Italian joint-stock companies, this article analyses the networks of corporate interlocks of the major universal banks and 20 most 'central' local banks in a critical period of Italian industrialisation. The networks of the two types of banks were largely independent, with universal banks being affiliated principally to larger concerns in electricity, transport and storage, and financials; and local banks to riskier, younger and smaller firms in light manufacturing. The article then explores whether the bank-industry relationship in Italy reflected the hegemony of banks and followed a bank-control model. Our analysis does not support that view. It rather indicates that interlocking directorates were driven principally by a convergence of interests between banks (monitoring customers) and industrial firms (interested in tapping capital and credit flows), with the latter exerting a slightly higher influence over the former. This significantly differentiates Italy from Germany and the USA, where banks had a more dominant position in the corporate system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the evolution of corporate networks in Argentina and Italy from 1913 to 1990, using an interlocking directorates technique applied to six benchmark years and the largest 25 banks and 100 non-financial companies in both countries. The descriptive statistics of the companies and directors in the sample provide input for a network connectivity analysis of the two systems, integrated with historical and structural analyses. Furthermore, this article provides the first assessment of syndics – special auditors for firms – to the network analyses. Relying on a recently established analytical framework, the authors show that the Argentine and Italian corporate networks exhibit different structures and evolutions over time. This research broadens the extant analytical framework by exploring how syndics contribute to corporate networks and how the interaction of macro, meso, and micro levels affects the evolution of syndicatures in the two countries. Finally, the detailed taxonomy of syndics offers evidence of companies' selection strategies and the historical uses of syndicature as a governance mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]