  Business elites reconfigure their locus of organization over time, from the
city level, to the national level, and beyond. We ask what the current level of
elite organization is and propose a novel theoretical and empirical approach to
answer this question. Building on the universal distinction between local and
nonlocal ties we use network analysis and community detection to dissect the
global network of interlocking directorates among over five million firms. We
find that elite orientation is indeed changing from the national to the
transnational plane, but we register a considerable heterogeneity across
different regions in the world. In some regions the business communities are
organized along national borders, whereas in other areas the locus of
organization is at the city level or international level. London dominates the
global corporate elite network. Our findings underscore that the study of
corporate elites requires an approach that is sensitive to levels of
organization that go beyond the confines of nation states.
