Does Ownership Structure Influence Firm Value? Evidence from India

Corporate Governance deals with the issue of how the suppliers of finance to various corporations assure themselves of getting a return on their investment. Several Studies have examined the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. Using different data samples from different countries, most of the studies provide evidence that ownership influence firm performance. This study examines empirically the effects of ownership structure on the firm performance for a panel of Indian corporate firms, from an ‘agency perspective’. We examine the effect of interactions between corporate, foreign, institutional, and managerial ownership on firm performance. Using panel data framework, we show that a large fraction of cross-sectional variation, in firm performance, found in several studies, can be explained by unobserved firm heterogeneity. We also provide some evidence that the shareholding by institutional investors and managers affect firm performance, after controlling for observed firm characteristics and unobserved firm heterogeneity and the effect is non-linear. JEL Classification: G32; G34.