8. A computer-implemented method comprising: clustering hierarchical database records into a first set of clusters having corresponding first cluster identifications (IDs), wherein each hierarchical database record corresponds to an entity representation, each hierarchical database record comprising a plurality of fields, each field configured to contain a field value, and each field value assigned a field value weight corresponding to a specificity of the field value in relation to all field values in a corresponding field of the hierarchical database records, the clustering based at least in part on determining similarity among corresponding field values of the hierarchical database records; determining highest compelling linkages among the hierarchical database records to identify at least one linked pair of mutually preferred records; and outputting database record information, based at least in part determining highest compelling linkages among the hierarchical database records.
8. A computer-implemented method comprising: clustering hierarchical database records into a first set of clusters having corresponding first cluster identifications (IDs), wherein each hierarchical database record corresponds to an entity representation, each hierarchical database record comprising a plurality of fields, each field configured to contain a field value, and each field value assigned a field value weight corresponding to a specificity of the field value in relation to all field values in a corresponding field of the hierarchical database records, the clustering based at least in part on determining similarity among corresponding field values of the hierarchical database records; determining highest compelling linkages among the hierarchical database records to identify at least one linked pair of mutually preferred records; and outputting database record information, based at least in part determining highest compelling linkages among the hierarchical database records. 13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: receiving parent-child hierarchical relationship information for the hierarchical database records; re-clustering at least a portion of the hierarchical database records into a second set of clusters having corresponding second cluster IDs, the re-clustering based at least in part on the received parent-child hierarchical relationship information; and outputting hierarchical database record information, based at least in part on the re-clustering.