"Status Projection": A study of the foundation of independent directors

转型国家在经济领域进行制度移植时,一个重要问题是制度形成过程和伴随制度而生的网络形成过程两者有何关联。本文通过对独立董事制度和伴生的独立董事连锁网络的研究,尝试提供一个回答。主要发现有两点:第一,制度形塑网络;第二,网络反过来会影响制度。具体而言,本文展示了政治网和专业网两种异质性网络如何反映了独立董事原来的身份结构特征以及两种不同网络对独立董事制度的作用。政治网在经济领域反映出官员的等级地位结构,而专业网反映出专业人士的扁平化声望地位结构。专业网中的网络关系加强了制度,而政治网中的关系则架空并削弱了制度。本文为更好地理解我国上市公司的独立董事制度和董事连锁网络提供了新的思路。

A key question for a state in transition, when a new institution is imported into its domestic economic field, is the relationship between the process dynamics of the formation of institution and the corresponding evolvement of the network. For China, such problem as the loss of the initial goal of the imported institution is particularly serious. This article tries to provide an answer by studying the foundation of independent directors and the interlocking network of China's listed companies caused by independent directors. The article has two main findings: first, the institution shapes the network. During the process of institutionalization, institutional actors who has different former identities contributed to the structural heterogeneity of the interlocking network. Second, network has a feedback on the institution. Heterogeneous networks may either strengthen or weaken the new institution. In the analysis, this article shows how "political network" and "professional network" were shaped by different independent directors with different former institutional identities and how they have different effects on the institution of independent directors.

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