The Effect of Institutional Ownership on Firm Performance

Abstract

The role of institutional investors in corporate governance is widely recognized. This study investigates whether institutional investors are active monitors or passive investors by examining the relationship between institutional ownership and firm performance for a sample of 11,136 firm-year observations from 1,392 non-financial firms listed on the BSE from 2007 to 2014. It employs panel data regression models and instrumental variables regression using generalized method of moments to control for unobserved heterogeneity and possible endogeneity of ownership variables. The results reveal that institutional ownership has a positive impact on firm performance. Institutional ownership is disaggregated into domestic and foreign institutional ownership and it is observed that both the categories positively affect the firm performance. The findings suggest that institutional investors, whether domestic or foreign, are able to monitor managements’ actions and decisions effectively and help to improve firm performance. It also finds the relationship between institutional ownership and firm performance to be endogenous.