Richard A. Benton

Interdependent effects of cohesion and concurrency for epidemic potential

PURPOSE Network diffusion depends on both the pattern and timing of relations, but the relative effects of timing and structure remain unclear. Here, we first show that concurrency (relations that overlap in time) increases epidemic potential by opening new routes in the network. Because this is substantively similar to adding contact paths, we next compare the effects of concurrency by observed levels of path redundancy (structural cohesion) to determine how the features interact. METHODS We establish that concurrency increases exposure analytically and then use simulation methods to manipulate concurrency over observed networks that vary naturally on structural cohesion. This design allows us to compare networks across a wide concurrency range holding constant features that might otherwise conflate concurrency and cohesion. We summarize the simulation results with general linear models. RESULTS Our results indicate interdependent effects of concurrency and structural cohesion: although both increase epidemic potential, concurrency matters most when the graph structure is sparse, because the exposure created by concurrency is redundant to observed paths within structurally cohesive networks. CONCLUSIONS Concurrency works by opening new paths in temporally ordered networks. Because this is substantively similar to having additional observed paths, concurrency in sparse networks has the same effect as adding relations and will have the greatest effect on epidemic potential in sparse networks.

Corporate Governance and Nested Authority: Cohesive Network Structure, Actor-Driven Mechanisms, and the Balance of Power in American Corporations

Corporate governance describes practices that allocate power and control within public corporations, especially between shareholders, the board of directors, and managers. Shareholder value norms have replaced earlier managerialist governance models. Concurrently, cohesion among the managerial corporate elite has declined, further contributing to a declining managerialist governance consensus. This study considers how governance orientations in publicly held corporations are nested within interfirm networks. Drawing on prior theory, the author argues that cohesive substructures among the corporate elite help account for the surprising resilience of managerial control. He finds that more cohesive subgroups in the board interlock network have greater managerial control and shows how cohesive substructures emerge out of local actor-driven mechanisms: (1) directors affiliated with managerialist firms select into dense groups, (2) firms appoint directors from similarly governed firms, and (3) interlocks help spread governance orientations. These findings have implications for theory and research on collective action in corporate governance.

Uniters or dividers? Voluntary organizations and social capital acquisition

Abstract Many voluntary civic groups such as churches, neighborhood organizations, and recreation clubs are segregated by status dimensions such as social class. As a result, they may preferentially foster social network ties among in-group members while excluding outsiders, thereby reinforcing social capital deficits among low status actors. However, to the extent that civic groups bring together diverse members from across a variety of status dimensions, these organizations can expand and strengthen network ties and foster heterogeneous social capital resources for those who participate. This study uses nationally representative data in the United States and the position-generator social capital instrument to investigate these issues. Analyses draw on several summary measures of individual social capital, as well as an innovative multilevel dyadic analysis constructed from position-generator responses. Results suggest that civic participation largely mediates the relationship between egos social position and access to social capital resources. Additionally, civic participation is associated with stronger ties to high status alters.

Governance monitors or market rebels? Heterogeneity in shareholder activism

Agency theory is the dominant theory of shareholder activism and argues that activist investors function as external governance monitors. Agency theory predicts that activist investors will tend to target firms who exhibit governance and performance problems. However, given limited resources and time, activist investors must often decide between selecting targets with particularly strong agency and performance problems and those where their activism efforts are most likely to succeed. Social movement scholars point out that, in social movement contexts, the corporate opportunity structure affects when and where activism is likely to arise. We draw on insights from social movement scholarship and agency theory to advance a theory of heterogeneity in shareholder activism. We argue that an activist’s access to power and resources shapes its target selection, particularly the activist’s preference for targeting firms with greater agency problems or where contextual factors favor chances of success. Whereas more powerful activists are able to wield their power as effective governance monitors against firms with substantial agency problems, less powerful activists must strategically select targets of opportunity by choosing firms where contextual factors improve their odds of success. We test these propositions using an innovative relational approach that can simultaneously incorporate firm traits, activist identities, and endogenous dynamics.

Brokerage and Closure in Corporate Control: Shifting Sources of Power for a Fractured Corporate Board Network

Structural sources of power have shifted dramatically in corporate America. Recently, the fracturing of the corporate interlock network threatens corporate managers’ capacity to act as a unified group in support of their shared interests, potentially destroying managerialism and elevating shareholder power. Paradoxically, however, the fracturing of the corporate elite has not led to a widespread retreat of managerialism. Corporate managers have replaced their collective structural resources, embedded in their board interlock network, with organizational structural resources located within their firms. By adopting lone-insider board structures where the CEO is the only employee on the board of directors, CEOs establish brokerage positions within their focal firms, allowing them to preserve their autonomy even as the broader network withers. Firms nested in cohesive communities were the first to adopt lone-insider boards, supplementing and eventually replacing closure with brokerage as a structural resource. These alternative structural resources operated to preserve managerialism during different times. Network closure traditionally helped to preserve managerialism against shareholder pressure, but this effect disappeared as the network fragmented in the mid-2000s. In its absence, managers increasingly relied on organizational brokerage positions to maintain their autonomy. Consequently, managerialism remains surprisingly robust in the era of a fractured corporate board interlock network because top managers have become more focused on establishing positions of power within their own firms.

The lasting effect of intergenerational wealth transfers: Human capital, family formation, and wealth

Recent evidence indicates that inheritances and other intergenerational wealth transfers have only a limited effect on wealth inequality and the intergenerational transmission of financial well-being. In this study, we explore the role that human capital and family formation play in mediating the relationship between receiving a transfer and building wealth. We examine how educational attainment and family formation determine whether or not households are able to convert inheritances into greater assets, facilitating improved wealth accumulation. Using data from the Panel Study for Income Dynamics (PSID), we examine how these factors moderate wealth accumulation trajectories following a bequest or inter vivos gift. Results reveal that educational attainment and marriage each facilitate wealth accumulation following a transfer. Our evidence suggests that cumulative advantage processes produce divergent wealth accumulation trajectories but these are situated in important turning points in the life course.

Real Estate Holdings Among the Super-Rich in the USA

Real estate is an important, but understudied, component of the portfolios of the super-rich. We explore the real estate ownership distribution and household traits associated with large real estate holdings in the USA. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we examine the factors that lead to top positions in the ownership of real estate. We find that top real estate owning households and other wealthy households do not uniformly overlap. Additionally, top wealth-owning households are more likely to have previously inherited assets, have higher educational attainment, and be self-employed. However, among households who own large amounts of real estate, real estate investment is associated with lower educational attainment and is not significantly associated with inheritance, occupational status, or family characteristics.

Lifestyles through Expenditures: A Case-Based Approach to Saving.

Treating people as cases that are proximate in a behavior space—representing lifestyles—rather than as markers of single variables has a long history in sociology. Yet, because it is difficult to find analytically tractable ways to implement this idea, this approach is rarely used. We take seriously the idea that people are whole packages, and we use household spending to identify groups who occupy similar positions in social space. Using detailed data on household consumption, we identify eight positions that are clearly similar in lifestyle. We then study how the lifestyles we identify are associated with saving, an important measure of household well-being. We find that households cluster into distinct lifestyles based on similarities and differences in consumption. These lifestyles are meaningfully related in social space and save in distinct ways that have important implications for understanding inequality and stratification.