Do larger firms have more interfirm relationships?

Yukiko Umeno Saito*, Tsutomu Watanabe, Mitsuru Iwamura

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, we investigate interfirm networks by employing a unique data set containing information on more than 800,000 Japanese firms, about half of all corporate firms currently operating in Japan. First, we find that the number of relationships, measured by the indegree, has a fat-tail distribution, implying that there exist "hub" firms with a large number of relationships. Moreover, the indegree distribution for those hub firms also exhibits a fat tail, suggesting the existence of "super-hub" firms. Second, we find that larger firms tend to have more counterparts, but the relationship between firms' size and the number of their counterparts is not necessarily proportional; firms that already have a large number of counterparts tend to grow without proportionately expanding it.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)158-163
Number of pages6
JournalPhysica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
Volume383
Issue number1 SPEC. ISS.
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2007 Sept 1
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Fat-tail distributions
  • Firm size
  • Hub firms
  • Interfirm relationships
  • Network structure

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistics and Probability
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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