Small World of Inter-firm Network an Firm's Acquisition Behaviour - An Evidence from India

Using a sample of listed firms in India, the study finds that the inter-firm network on account of director interlocks is a small world and the network has become more integrated since the introduction of corporate governance regulations in the country. Firm level analysis finds a negative relation between average path length and probability of acquiring indicating the importance of faster reach of information among the firms within the network. It also finds a non-linear relation given by inverted U-shaped curve between firm level clustering and probability of acquiring. Initially, increase in clustering has a positive effect through the informational quality effect; however at higher levels the negative informational redundancy effect dominates leading to a curvilinear relation.