Ownership Structure, Corporate Status and Corporate Performance in Chinese Business Groups

Business groups show significant influence on economy area in emerging markets. This paper examines a core problem of corporate governance in business groups, say relationship between ownership structure and firm performance, especially how corporate status influence this relation. A total sample of business group, including headquarters and subsidiaries, in Chinese stock market is analyzed. It is found that tradable shares is positively related to corporate market value in all business groups and ownership concentration show a significant relationship with firm financial performance only in subsidiaries. In addition, managerial ownership shows no effect on firm performance in neither headquarters nor subsidiaries.