The social sciences, especially economics, management, and organizational science, are experiencing a tremendous renewed interest for their epistemological and methodological statutes, as witnessed by the many books and specialized journals established during the last two decades. Relational Methodologies and Epistemology in the Economics and Management Sciences identifies and presents the four main network-based methodologies including network analysis, Boolean network simulation modeling, artificial neural network simulation modeling, and agent-based simulation modeling in addition to their conceptual-epistemological implications and concrete applications within the social and natural sciences. Featuring a critical assessment of relational methodologies and their practical applications, this timely publication is ideal for use by corporate R&D departments, researchers, theorists, and graduate-level students.

This book examines the inter-firm networks created by interlock coordination through shared directors (inter-board) and managers (inter-department) at various levels: whole aggregate, core vs. peripheral companies, and distribution by country and sector. Presenting an empirical case study on all the limited liability or stock companies of the aerospace industry in the European Union and its interlock partners worldwide, the authors shed new light on these forms of coordination. Moreover, they reveal the relevance of shared managers' coordination and hybrid manager-director interlocks. The book applies advanced statistical and social network analysis alike by combining firms' attributes (e.g. standard economic-financial parameters) and topological indices for firms (e.g. centrality and cluster measures). By conducting the analysis at both the aggregate network level and the cluster or corporate group level, the authors show how extensive and intensive the interlock forms of coordination are, especially when dealing with shared managers. By testing seven hypotheses concerning the research stream on board interlocks and (more broadly) inter-firm networks, the study offers new insights into the role of the financial sector, on the relations between interlock coordination and firms' performance, on the role of geographical, technological and organizational proximity, and on the relations between interlock coordination and firms' size. As such, this book will appeal to scholars of organization studies, business and management studies, industrial and evolutionary economics, and economic sociology, as well as officers and policymakers at anti-trust regulation institutions.

This book contributes to the development of a relational view of economics. Bringing together experts from various disciplines, it offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the study of relational transactions. In contrast to discrete market transactions as a traditional subject of economic discourse, the book analyses the role of relational transactions in the study of economic phenomena. The contributing authors address topics such as global intra- and inter-company networks, intersectoral stakeholder management, relational contracts, and transcultural management approaches. Accordingly, the book makes an important contribution to an emerging field of research.