The Italian corporate network after the “Golden Age” (1972-83): From centrality to marginalization of State-owned enterprises

This article analyses the structure of the Italian corporate network in the decade that followed the end of the “Golden Age” (1972-83), when the transition from the technological trajectory of the second to that of the third industrial revolution began. The article is based on a large dataset, Imita.db, which contains data on more than 38,000 Italian joint-stock companies and about 300,000 directors, and uses both network analysis and a prosopographic approach. The main result is that the interval considered was marked by a sharp decrease in the degree of cohesion of the Italian corporate network. In 1972 the system was very cohesive and state-owned enterprises were well represented within the most central firms. In 1983 the cohesion of the system had sharply diminished; state-owned enterprises had disappeared from the centre and a new private centre, hinged on Mediobanca, the only merchant bank operating in the country, had emerged.