From 1913 to 1937, the relationship network woven by the directors serving at the Commercial Press exhibited a typical three-tiered association system of core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral layers. Within subgroups, directors had diverse experiences in their tenures, contributing to a rich internal network structure. The formation process of the network resembled the expansion of water ripples, radiating outward in concentric circles with internal directors at the core. This phenomenon was driven by the inertia extension under path dependence, homogeneous selection in social networks, and director selection based on resource dependence. Consequently, it is suggested that in the process of constructing directorial relationship networks within publishing enterprises, attention should be given to three insights: combining organic networks with mechanistic networks, integrating homogeneous and heterogeneous connections, and balancing efficiency optimization with saturation optimization.

the Commercial Press Directorial relationship social network Structural holes , Social network analysis