Various exemplary systems and methods for linking entity references and identifying associations are presented. In particular, a method for linking a plurality of entity references to at least one entity using one or more constructed ghost entity references is provided. The method comprises the steps of identifying, for one or more common data fields, at least one unique field value from one or more entity references linked to a given entity and constructing, for the given entity, at least one ghost entity reference including the at least one unique field value, wherein the at least one ghost entity reference represents at least one potential entity reference for the given entity. The method further comprises linking at least one of the plurality of entity references to the given entity when a match probability between the at least one entity reference and the ghost entity reference is greater than a defined threshold.