Networks of Canadian Business Elites: Historical Corporate Interlock Networks circa 1912

Abstract

Abstract This paper provides details about a historical dataset of Canadian corporations and business elites who served on corporate boards circa 1912. The source of this corporate interlock data is the Directory of Directors in Canada, 1912, a public domain volume listing Canadian public companies in Canada. Because these data are thought to be of interest not only to network researchers, but also to business historians and management scholars, an attempt has been made to make the data as easy to use as possible. Supplementary information has also been added to the network files provided. All of the individuals and companies in the dataset have been geolocated. The proper 1911 Census Division a company was located in has also been added so that the networks can be combined with other publicly available data from the period. Two sets of graph files are provided in CSV format with other formats provided on the author’s website. The first file contains corporations as the nodes with directors as edges. The second file has the individual directors as nodes and edges connecting them are corporate boards individuals both sat on.