Flexible design for a large-scale corporate data base

This paper describes the design and implementation of a “pre-structured multi-purpose data base” for information about the Canadian corporate structure. This system includes data on directorship, officcrship, executive board membership, and ownership ties among approximately 10,000 Canadian and other financial and industrial corporations and about 6,000 organizations (law firms, brokerage houses, public institutions, etc.) with which directors resident in Canada were affiliated. In addition, it contains data on the operating accounts, and standard industrial classification codes, for a large subset of these. Here we summarize its capabilities and analytic uses.