The Networked Financier

The Networked Financier offers an explanation of the individual network behaviour of major financiers across diverse sectors and leading global financial centres. It argues that experienced financiers leverage their social capital to operate as 'networked financiers'. The few prior studies of the network behavior of individual financiers typically focus on one sector or on one financial centre. This book draws on Meyer's unique database of digitally recorded personal interviews with 167 financiers in London, Zurich, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, and Mumbai. They work in the sectors of corporate and investment banking, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, fund management, real estate investment, insurance, and private banking. Extensive quotes are the mechanism for financiers to explain how they behave. Social network theory provides the lens for interpreting that behavior. The results demonstrate the validity of the theory for explaining financier network behavior. The book also contributes to a practical understanding of how financiers behave in networks because the interviewees explain their behaviour in their own words. By revealing the network behavior of leading financiers in major global business centres, the book provides a template about how sophisticated financiers behave.

1 - Financier network behavior-an enigma
2 - Networked financiers leverage their social capital
3 - How financiers access knowledge resources
4 - How financiers view meetings-formal versus informal
5 - The relevance of alumni networks
6 - The role of organizations in financiers' networks
7 - The strategies financiers devise to initiate relationships
8 - The strategies financiers devise to build and maintain relationships
9 - “It's all about trust”
10 - Will financiers change their network behavior?

David Meyer received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1970. He was in the Department of Geology & Geography at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst from 1970 to 1981. Then, he joined the Department of Sociology & Urban Studies Program at Brown University from 1981 to 2009. He retired as Emeritus Professor of Sociology & Urban Studies in 2009, and from then to the present, he is Senior Lecturer in Management at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis.