Management and CEO Stock Ownership and its Effect on Company Performance

Abstract: This is a study on the effect of management and CEO stock ownership on company performance. A regression analysis is performed on panel data consisting of a sample of 30 companies listed on OMX Stockholm Mid Cap. A total of 210 and 2520 observations is considered on a yearly and monthly basis, respectively, for seven years (2010-2016). The Hausman test is applied for determining between the fixed effects and random effects regression models. Results show that management relative stock ownership has a significant positive effect on company net income growth and return on assets. The effect is not significant for CEO stock ownership, which is contrary to what commonly has been shown for large companies in previous research. Moreover, alternative methodology is discussed for the benefit of the future researcher. The authors illustrate how the selection of dummy variables can be vital for final model outcomes, and it is thus an important aspect to consider when performing panel data analysis.