1 Interlocking directorates in agricultural enterprises in Scania, Sweden Thomas Björklund 1 , Kostas Karantininis 23 and Jerker Nilsson 4 Paper presented at the 5 th international conference on Economics and Management of Networks, December 1 – 3, 2011, in Limassol, Cyprus Abstract Introduction Factors that influence the degree of success of firms are a long-time theme in the business literature. This study is another contribution to this literature, though it differs from most of the preceding literature in some dimensions. First, the explanatory variable is the composition of the boards – more precisely to which extent the various boards are overlapping. Interlocking directorates may be expected to cross- fertilize the agricultural enterprises. There are prospects for better coordination, more concerted action, and faster diffusion of good innovations (Karantininis, 2007). As the same persons meet repeatedly in different boards, a culture of mutual understanding may develop such that they all work for the same purposes. Previous research indicates that a success factor for firms might be the composition of the boards (Karantininis, 2007). Second, this study is focused on agricultural enterprises and such of fairly large size – at least big enough to have a board of directors. It seems that there are no studies of interlocking directorates among agricultural enterprises. One explanation may be that many agricultural enterprises are family-owned, relatively small, and run as proprietary firms. Therefore they do not have a board of directors in the same sense that larger firms have. The agricultural sector’s structural development is, however, constantly changing, so by time these firms are becoming larger and the probability for them to have a board increases. There are increasingly often corporate farms around the world. Hence, the topic of interlocking directorates is successively becoming more topical in the agricultural sector. An overriding hypothesis is that interlocking directorates create information exchange, which may have the effect of stimulating the boards and the CEOs (Chief Executive Officer) to adopt “best practices”. If one type of crop has been successful in one agricultural enterprise there is a higher probability that other enterprises will cultivate the same crop. The same may 1 Thomas Björklund is lecturer in marketing, Department of Work Science, Business Economics and Environmental Psychology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 53, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden. Phone: +46 40 41 50 72. E-mail: Thomas.Bjorklund@slu.se 2 Kostas Karantininis is professor of industrial organization, Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7013, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden. Phone: + +45-30-239503. E-mail: Karantininis.Konstantinis@slu.se 3 Corresponding author. 4 Jerker Nilsson is professor of agricultural co-operatives and marketing, Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7013, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden, as well as Department of Work Science, Business Economics and Environmental Psychology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 53, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden. Phone: +46 18 67 17 68. E-mail: Jerker.Nilsson@slu.se