Bipartite networks of universities and companies: Recruiting new graduates in japan

Author

Takahashi, Katsuhide and Kobayashi, Yuh and Kondo, Yohei and Takayasu, Hideki and Takayasu, Misako

Abstract

We investigated the bipartite Universities-Companies Network in Japan in terms of companies’ recruitment of new graduates. In Japan, graduates of universities are typically hired by companies upon their graduation. To examine socially accepted ideas about this recruiting system, we combined different types of data on education, recruitment and corporate finance. The hypothesis that graduates from prestigious universities have the advantage of entering excellent companies was verified by examining the determinants of ratio of graduates entering top-ranked companies. Through hierarchical clustering, we obtained classification trees and observed the stability of their structure, as well as interesting changes corresponding to the business climate. We also calculated weighted HITS hub and authority values for each university and company and identified the links between the results of this analysis and those above. Finally, analysis of all the data indicated that excellent companies recruiting many graduates from prestigious universities do not necessarily show superb performance in profit-making and growth.