CEO and Chairman Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from Panel Data on Public Firms in the United States, China, and Sweden

Sammanfattning

This study examines the relationship between CEO ownership, chairman ownership, CEOduality, and firm performance across different institutional contexts. While prior research hasextensively examined managerial ownership and CEO duality, relatively limited attention hasbeen devoted to chairman ownership as an independent governance mechanism. Existingfindings regarding ownership and CEO duality also remain inconclusive, with evidencevarying across institutional settings. However, few studies have systematically compared howthese governance mechanisms operate across different countries and ownership systems. Toaddress this gap, this study investigates whether ownership-related governance mechanismsaffect firm performance differently across the United States, China, and Sweden.Using panel data from Capital IQ covering publicly listed firms between 2015 and 2024, thestudy applies fixed-effects regressions to analyze the relationship between ownershipstructures and firm performance. Firm performance is measured using return on assets(ROA), Tobin’s Q, and cash-flow return on assets (CFROA). The results suggest that therelationship between ownership and firm performance varies across countries andperformance measures, indicating that governance mechanisms operate differently acrossinstitutional environments.In the United States, ownership effects are mixed, with generally negative associations foraccounting-based performance measures but more positive effects on Tobin’s Q. In contrast,the Chinese results suggest a different pattern, where ownership is positively associated withaccounting-based performance, while effects on market valuation remain largelyinsignificant. In Sweden, ownership effects are generally weaker, potentially reflectingstronger external governance and concentrated ownership structures. The findings regardingCEO duality are largely statistically insignificant, although some negative effects emerge inspecific contexts.Overall, the study contributes to the corporate governance literature by extending the analysisof ownership-performance relationships to chairman ownership and by highlighting theimportance of institutional context in shaping governance outcomes.