Liberties in networked capitalism

Abstract

The article relates two kinds of economic freedom, starting with a social network analysis of the main European capitalisms. The definition of these freedoms rises from an ad hoc use for the entrepreneurial system of the very concept of freedom by Isaiah Berlin: while the first kind of freedom (negative freedom) depends on external factors to the entrepreneurial system (e.g., those constraints to the enterprise decided by law), the second one (positive freedom) refers to proper internal factors, in other words, the firm possibility to compete in markets freely, and independent of other companies. This second type of liberty depends on the use and diffusion of interlocking directorates (i.e., those members of a board of directors in common between two companies) and the network by them created.

Keywords
Social network analysis; Antitrust policy; Interlocking directorates; Europe; Economic liberty; Inter-organizational network