Corporate networks form part of the institutional structure of markets and the business environment, enabling firms to co-ordinate their behaviour and regulate competition. Networks perform a number of economic functions: they reduce information asymmetries and uncertainty, and facilitate the redistribution of risk between banks, firms and investors. Within these networks, firms collectively monitor one another and owners supervise their managers. This text analyses comparative data on interlocking directorates and capital networks between the large corporations in six countries: Germany, Great Britain, France, the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The structure of corporate networks is shaped by the traditions, culture and institutions of a country. The German corporate network, for instance, is highly centralized and includes almost all large corporations. The network in the United States, however, is decentralized and falls into a number of regional centres. Corporate networks may be considered as a configuration of firms that are connected to one another by managers (interlocks).