Ownership Structure and Corporate Performance: An empirical study on the impact of managerial ownership & concentrated ownership on corporate performance of Swedish publicly traded firms

Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relationship between the corporate governance mechanisms, managerial ownership, and concentrated ownership, on corporate performance in Swedish companies. With its distinguishing corporate governance regime and financial environment, Sweden facilitates a unique contribution to the ongoing discussion on ownership structure and agency conflicts. Methodology Quantitative method with a deductive approach Theoretical perspectives Principal-agent problem, Stewardship theory Empirical foundation The empirical foundation is the intersection between Modular Finance, Bloomberg, and Retriever. The final sample consists of 1440 firm-year observations of companies listed on the OMX Nasdaq Stockholm small, - mid, -and large-cap lists between 2017 and 2021. Conclusion We find evidence of a negative statistically significant relationship between managerial ownership and ownership concentration with corporate performance measured as Tobin’s Q.