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I am examining the diffusion of a governance practice through board interlocks.
I am looking for a dataset from the mid-1990s on that provides directors and
firms.

Two datasets that I am aware of that might allow the construction of a network
of interlocks are Compact Disclosure and IRRC.

IRRC provides a director ID, which would seem to allow for cleaner interlock
analysis but only has fewer than 2000 firms meaning that links between firms
would be missed.

Compact Disclosure has a much more comprehensive collection of firms, but I’ve
been told that it can be difficult to format and to match director information
(e.g., is John Doe the same as John A. Doe?), which can lead to noise.

If anyone can give guidance on a good database to use to examine the effects of
board interlocks, I would be very grateful.

Peter J. Snyder

I have faced the same problem, and have not found a better database,
unfortunately. IRRC is neither complete nor as clean as it could be, so
Compact Disclosure seems to be the best way to go. Downloading the data
is easy, but you need to automate the transformation of Thompson's crazy
formatting into a usable file format. Once that is done, doing a hand
comparison of names is not that hard - there are not actually all that
many people with the same name and same age, and if you are looking at
interlocks over time, you can always check by going to the proxies
directly, and you will get a sense of whether John Doe and John A. Doe
are in fact the same people relatively quickly. The process is time-
and effort-intensive, to be sure, but much more accurate and
comprehensive than IRRC, in my opinion.

Jo-Ellen Pozner

-----Original Message-----
From: Business Policy and Strategy List
[mailto:BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Peter Snyder
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 7:56 AM
To: BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
Subject: Fwd: Director Interlocks

I am examining the diffusion of a governance practice through board
interlocks.
I am looking for a dataset from the mid-1990s on that provides directors
and
firms.

Two datasets that I am aware of that might allow the construction of a
network
of interlocks are Compact Disclosure and IRRC.

IRRC provides a director ID, which would seem to allow for cleaner
interlock
analysis but only has fewer than 2000 firms meaning that links between
firms
would be missed.

Compact Disclosure has a much more comprehensive collection of firms,
but I've
been told that it can be difficult to format and to match director
information
(e.g., is John Doe the same as John A. Doe?), which can lead to noise.

If anyone can give guidance on a good database to use to examine the
effects of
board interlocks, I would be very grateful.

Peter J. Snyder

I may have the data you want, and possibly more data than you want. It is available in cross section and time series, from a gaming simulation run of about 500 periods involving over 100 firms. It's experimental data, not field data. If the issuance of stock options to key personnel is one of the governance practices you have in mind, the data I have addresses the question.

Best,

Precha
--
Precha Thavikulwat, Ph.D.
Professor of Management
+---------------------------------------+
| Department of Management |
| Towson University |
| 8000 York Road |
| Towson, MD 21252-0001 |
| U.S.A. |
| t. 410-704-3230 |
| f. 410-704-3236 |
| pthavikulwat@towson.edu |
| Skype: pthavikulwat |
| AIM: prechathav |
| http://pages.towson.edu/precha |
+---------------------------------------+

-----Original Message-----
From: Business Policy and Strategy List [mailto:BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Peter Snyder
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 10:56 AM
To: BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
Subject: Fwd: Director Interlocks

I am examining the diffusion of a governance practice through board interlocks.
I am looking for a dataset from the mid-1990s on that provides directors and firms.

Two datasets that I am aware of that might allow the construction of a network of interlocks are Compact Disclosure and IRRC.

IRRC provides a director ID, which would seem to allow for cleaner interlock analysis but only has fewer than 2000 firms meaning that links between firms would be missed.

Compact Disclosure has a much more comprehensive collection of firms, but I've been told that it can be difficult to format and to match director information (e.g., is John Doe the same as John A. Doe?), which can lead to noise.

If anyone can give guidance on a good database to use to examine the effects of board interlocks, I would be very grateful.

Peter J. Snyder

Precha,

Thank you for the kind offer, but your data set is not exactly what I am looking
for.

Peter

Quoting "Thavikulwat, Precha" <pthavikulwat@TOWSON.EDU>:

> I may have the data you want, and possibly more data than you want. It is
> available in cross section and time series, from a gaming simulation run of
> about 500 periods involving over 100 firms. It's experimental data, not field
> data. If the issuance of stock options to key personnel is one of the
> governance practices you have in mind, the data I have addresses the
> question.
>
> Best,
>
> Precha
> --
> Precha Thavikulwat, Ph.D.
> Professor of Management
> +---------------------------------------+
> | Department of Management |
> | Towson University |
> | 8000 York Road |
> | Towson, MD 21252-0001 |
> | U.S.A. |
> | t. 410-704-3230 |
> | f. 410-704-3236 |
> | pthavikulwat@towson.edu |
> | Skype: pthavikulwat |
> | AIM: prechathav |
> | http://pages.towson.edu/precha |
> +---------------------------------------+
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Business Policy and Strategy List [mailto:BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On
> Behalf Of Peter Snyder
> Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 10:56 AM
> To: BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
> Subject: Fwd: Director Interlocks
>
> I am examining the diffusion of a governance practice through board
> interlocks.
> I am looking for a dataset from the mid-1990s on that provides directors and
> firms.
>
> Two datasets that I am aware of that might allow the construction of a
> network of interlocks are Compact Disclosure and IRRC.
>
> IRRC provides a director ID, which would seem to allow for cleaner interlock
> analysis but only has fewer than 2000 firms meaning that links between firms
> would be missed.
>
> Compact Disclosure has a much more comprehensive collection of firms, but
> I've been told that it can be difficult to format and to match director
> information (e.g., is John Doe the same as John A. Doe?), which can lead to
> noise.
>
> If anyone can give guidance on a good database to use to examine the effects
> of board interlocks, I would be very grateful.
>
> Peter J. Snyder
>

Dear Jo-Ellen,

Thank you for your insight. Your response is very helpful.

Peter

Quoting Jo-Ellen Pozner <pozner@HAAS.BERKELEY.EDU>:

> I have faced the same problem, and have not found a better database,
> unfortunately. IRRC is neither complete nor as clean as it could be, so
> Compact Disclosure seems to be the best way to go. Downloading the data
> is easy, but you need to automate the transformation of Thompson's crazy
> formatting into a usable file format. Once that is done, doing a hand
> comparison of names is not that hard - there are not actually all that
> many people with the same name and same age, and if you are looking at
> interlocks over time, you can always check by going to the proxies
> directly, and you will get a sense of whether John Doe and John A. Doe
> are in fact the same people relatively quickly. The process is time-
> and effort-intensive, to be sure, but much more accurate and
> comprehensive than IRRC, in my opinion.
>
> Jo-Ellen Pozner
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Business Policy and Strategy List
> [mailto:BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Peter Snyder
> Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 7:56 AM
> To: BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
> Subject: Fwd: Director Interlocks
>
> I am examining the diffusion of a governance practice through board
> interlocks.
> I am looking for a dataset from the mid-1990s on that provides directors
> and
> firms.
>
> Two datasets that I am aware of that might allow the construction of a
> network
> of interlocks are Compact Disclosure and IRRC.
>
> IRRC provides a director ID, which would seem to allow for cleaner
> interlock
> analysis but only has fewer than 2000 firms meaning that links between
> firms
> would be missed.
>
> Compact Disclosure has a much more comprehensive collection of firms,
> but I've
> been told that it can be difficult to format and to match director
> information
> (e.g., is John Doe the same as John A. Doe?), which can lead to noise.
>
> If anyone can give guidance on a good database to use to examine the
> effects of
> board interlocks, I would be very grateful.
>
> Peter J. Snyder
>