International Business & Economics Research Journal – September/October 2014 Volume 13, Number 5 Copyright by author(s); CC-BY 963 The Clute Institute The South African Banking Director Network: An Investigation Into Interlocking Directorships Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) Burgert A. Senekal, University of the Free State, South Africa Karlien Stemmet, University of the Free State, South Africa ABSTRACT The theory of complex systems has gained significant ground in recent years, and with it, complex network theory has become an essential approach to complex systems. This study follows international trends in examining the interlocking South African bank director network using social network analysis (SNA), which is shown to be a highly connected social network that has ties to many South African industries, including healthcare, mining, and education. The most highly connected directors and companies are identified, along with those that are most central to the network, and those that serve important bridging functions in facilitating network coherence. As this study is exploratory, numerous suggestions are also made for further research. Keywords: Social Network Analysis (SNA); Complex Social Systems; Complex Networks; Bank Directors; South African Banking INTRODUCTION ince the mid-1990s, the theory of complex systems has gained significant ground in a variety of academic disciplines, including in economics. Most of the social environment can be described as a complex system, where millions of actors interact to produce complex emergent properties, non-linear interactions and adaptability, as Kwapień and Drożdż (2012, p. 118) define a complex system, “a complex system is a system built from a large number of nonlinearly interacting constituents, which exhibits collective behaviour and, due to an exchange of energy or information with the environment, can easily modify its internal structure and patterns of activity.” International trade is no different; indeed, Kwapień and Drożdż (2012, p. 118) specifically name financial markets as an example of a complex system. Along with complex systems theory, the theory of complex networks has recently gained ground in a variety of disciplines, starting with the seminal studies by Watts and Strogatz (1998) and Barabási and Albert (1999) (although the theory itself can be traced back to Leonard Euler’s Königsberg bridge puzzle of 1736, see Amaral and Ottino, 2004, p. 151). Complex network theory is an approach to complex systems, and uses network theory’s ability to represent a network visually, along with network theory’s variety of mathematical formulae, to calculate the roles entities play in a network. Barabási (2009, p. 413) writes: Today the understanding of networks is a common goal of an unprecedented array of traditional disciplines: Cell biologists use networks to make sense of signal transduction cascades and metabolism, to name a few applications in this area; computer scientists are mapping the Internet and the WWW; epidemiologists follow transmission networks through which viruses spread; and brain researchers are after the connectome, a neural-level connectivity map of the brain. Although many fads have come and gone in complexity, one thing is increasingly clear: Interconnectivity is so fundamental to the behaviour of complex systems that networks are here to stay. S