Integration and Isolation in the Global Petrochemical Industry

A Multiscalar Corporate Network Analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID4860366
AuthorsTheo Verbeek (0000-0002-4669-2685, Department of SociologyUniversity of Warwick Coventry CV4 7AL UK), Alice Mah (0000-0001-8183-2527, Department of SociologyUniversity of Warwick Coventry CV4 7AL UK)
Year2020
Volume96
Issue4
Pages363-387
Publication date2020-08-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0095 • E-ISSN: 1944-8287
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00130095.2020.1794809
OpenAlexW3082121827
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited56

The global petrochemical industry has long been characterized by stable patterns of Western corporate and geographic leadership, but since the early 2000s, the global playing field has changed significantly. China has overtaken the US and Europe as the world’s largest petrochemical producer, and other emerging economies have become global petrochemical players. Combining insights from scholarship on global corporate elites, world city networks, and relational economic geography, this article examines patterns in the corporate networks of leading petrochemical corporations. The research is based on a multiscalar corporate network analysis, applying social network analysis to identify board interlocks, joint venture interlocks, and spatial interlocks between corporations. Through analyzing corporate networks across multiple scales, the research reveals patterns of both integration and isolation within the petrochemical industry. Isolation is evident in disconnected regional corporate elite networks, where the established North Atlantic corporate elite is interconnected through board interlocks, while corporate networks in Asia and other emerging economies remain disconnected. However, high levels of integration within the industry are also evident in an interconnected international company system formed through joint venture collaborations and in overlapping subsidiary networks centered on petrochemical hubs around the world. The article argues that the results demonstrate a combination of resilience and change, or path dependence and contingency, in patterns of corporate power and collaboration. Western company networks still form the social and spatial backbone of the industry, but these have been challenged by emerging strategic centers and isolated elite networks in other parts of the world. This article contributes to debates on industrial corporate elites, multiple globalizations, and the multipolar global economy

Beijing · Business · China · Corporate governance · Divestment · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Elite · Emerging markets · Global network · Industrial organization · Interlock · Political science · Social capital · Social network analysis · Telecommunications · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Engineering · Finance · Higher Education Governance and Development · Management and Organizational Studies

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