Ownership in Financial Sector: Analytical Essay

Backbone of the country’s economy is the financial sector. It plays the part of facilitator to attain constant and continues development of economy through providing actual monetary intermediation. A robust economic system through a competitive atmosphere encourages investment via financing productive business opportunities, mobilizing economies, efficiently distributing resources, and enabling trade in goods and services. Banking system is the chief component of financial system, playing a very noteworthy role in the countries’ economies. The wellbeing of the economy is meticulously related to the soundness of its banking system, which is the outcome of efficiently managing of government and tax management principles.

In both developed or developing economies, the banking system has a dynamic part in the advancement of development of economy. It is the heart of economic structure. It provides the capital for industry, agriculture, and other activities and it is like the blood in it. Contemporary trade and commerce would be nearly dreadful if short of the availability of satisfactory competitive banking facilities. This is for the reason as they encourage the saving, endorses investment in country, agricultural trade; permits foreign trade in the form of exports and imports, which is very imperative in the existing situation.

According to Kim et al., 2012, functions of banks are entirely changed from commercial banks ‘retail banking functions, though in Malaysia there are State-owned banks as financial organizations. Consequently, there is only two types of Bank ownership with in the Malaysia, which are private banks and foreign-owned banks. The ownership structure is the comparative amount of possession prerogatives apprehended by outsiders (stockholders lacking direct role in the running the company) and management (insiders). The majority ownership specifies the advanced authority of owners in controlling the bank. In short, there have been numerous bank terminations and a considerable refurbishment of banking guidelines in Malaysian banks. Experimental investigations show that administrators should be worried regarding ownership and that the effects of good governance on good banking performance and profitability. These discoveries approve that foreign-owned banks execute upright corporate governance and thus having an amplified gain in growing performance, and same with the private banks owned by the country. Thus, having healthier performance than foreign-owned banks. Good corporate governance performance in commercial banks will be constructive for banks to continue the level of risk they can be able to accomplish and providing investors an adequately innocuous level of their investments. Consequently, domestic and private banks maintained by Malaysia have a decent performance owing to the execution of higher corporate power.

In Pakistan, it is proposed that all substitutions of the ownership structure i.e. management ownership, institutional ownership, foreign ownership, and block holders have a weighty effect on risk-taking behavior. Managerial property has a noteworthy positive impact on risk-taking behavior while institutional ownership has a significant negative impact on the risk-taking conduct of banks in Pakistan. Alternatively, foreign property and block holders have a negligible impact on risk-taking behavior. The result of Bank identification is also substantial showing that the ownership structure has a noteworthy impact on bank risk-taking in conventional banks while in the ownership structure of Islamic banks does not have an impact on the risk Bank. (Arif et al., 2018)

According to oryzalin et al, 2015 who conducted research on Russian banks on post crises period of 2010-2012, demonstrated that foreign ownership is fairly and meaningfully interrelated to operating performance, backing up the assessment that foreign investors are authorizing the finest corporate governance practices. The outcomes illustrate that banks apprehended by foreign investors have advanced operational performance in a post-crisis period in the context of Russia, supporting the results of Hasan and Marton (2003), Kasman and Yildirim (2006), Bayyurt (2013), who stated that Bank results and foreign ownership are positively linked with each other. In terms of management ownership, the fallouts specify that there is no relationship between management ownership and performance of banks. Opposing to prospects, these discoveries do not back the declaration of the Agency’s theory, that managerial ownership enhances the performance of banks. These results are constant with the empirical data provided by Demsetz and Lehn (1985), Vefeas and THEODOROU (1998), and El Mehdi (2007) who determined that the managerial property has no influence on the bank performance. The outcomes for Government ownership show that the authority and impact of the State have no impression on the performance of the banks. Nevertheless, the Government ownership is positive and significant statistically impacting ratio ready/deposits meaning that the capital is injected by governments into industries facing hardships in a post-crisis period via State banks for macroeconomic equilibrium.

A study in China indicates that the Bank’s type of ownership has a noteworthy impact on the bank’s overall performance. The domestic banks and State owned, have a negative and significant relationship through the overall performance, signifying that these banks have a comparatively deprived performance relating to foreign banks. Foreign banks attain improved performance compared to national and public banks because foreign banks have depended on the human capital and skill of their parent banks, have up-to-date technology, providing improved competitive advantage and therefore healthier performance than national and public banks. Consequently, supporting Berger et al. (2009), who discovered that foreign banks are more competent as compared to private and domestic banks. In terms of profitability, outcomes propose that public and national banks seem like more lucrative related to foreign banks, contradicting a few studies in transitional economies Bonin et al. (2005a). Foreign banks may be deprived in terms of the cost of bringing the similar financial services relative to national banks owing to variances in language, ethnic, regulatory, and controlling models, constant with the conclusions drawn by Chari and Henry (2002), proposing that the entry of a foreign bank would help only if it has well known how of new market. Results propose that at the macroeconomic level, GDP growth and inflation appear to have an influence on the banks performance. The conclusion that the Bank size has a negligible and negative impression on performance is too in opposition with literature that huge firms have a tendency to decrease risks and fetch economies of scale hence, improved performance. Inflation is also positively associated to the performance measures, constant with the conclusion of Bourke (1989) and Boyd et al. (2001), specifying that low inflation is usually related with more profitability, as lower inflation decreases the operating costs of banks and expands performance. In terms of GDP growth rates, findings propose a negative but significant relationship between Bank performance and GDP, recommending that a GDP growth is related with an upsurge in prices and a rise in the provision for loan losses, resultant in a negative impact on the profitability of banks. (Boateng et al, 2015)

Banking in China has undertaken transformations in the previous 30 years. A study was conducted on commercial banks working in China for the period of 1995-2008. The yield of banks has enhanced considerably to 56 to 76 percent in the period of 1995-2008. Banks with widely held state ownership have truncated efficacy and are the most unprofitable. No noteworthy difference was found in bank’s performance with or short of smaller ownership of foreign banks (Jiang et al, 2012).

If the risk preference of banks and ownership structure are concerned, all examinations have diverse outcomes. The studies suggest that there is a problem with agent of bank. There is a chief impact of managerial ownership on liking of taking risk. It is decided that in risk-taking behavior of bank, the main reason is ownership structure. According to Paligorova, shareholders with high equity lean towards more conventional strategy of investment thus stabilizing the value of their assets. Iannotta et al. investigates 181 European banks from the time of 1994 to 2004, showing that owners equity intensity does not meaningfully modify the banks ‘productivity. Some scholars be certain of that if concentration of ownership is high there will be high preference of risk. According to Anderson et al. stockholders can bear larger risk than managers.

There is a positive relationship, in between risk-taking behavior of banks and ownership concentration according to Leaves study. when the ownership concentration is in low level, agency problem will come. Banks govern by bondholders have greater enthusiasm of taking risk than the banks administer through management. Minor and mid-sized stockholders will have an inferior drive for taking risk as compared to large shareholder, thus controlling shareholders have restricted strategy of investment. At that moment if there is increases in equity balance, management will control the bank, thus having lesser preference of risk as compared to stockholders. (Haoxuan Zhong,2017)

According to study conducted by Felício et al, 2013 though the maximum concentration of shareholders is observed in European banks, outcomes found do not back the reality of a linear relationship of performance and the concentration of the shareholders. So constant with the results that there is no meaningful relationship detected by SilvioSalsero et al. (2007); Kaymak and Bektas (2009). It was also observed that there is a negative effect of financial leverage on banks performance measured through operational performance like margin of profitability. It has been observed that the bigger banks having headquarters in the European country not in eurozone are expected to get a lower ROA. consequently, attain the lower profitability but if situated in the eurozone, margins progress. This is contrary to literature review that the size of the banks positively influences performance (Kiel & Nicholson, 2003). It was also observed that influence of block carriers’ participation does not affect on performance. It is also determined that the worth of banks in the stock market is hindered by the board size. Furthermore, the location of the headquarters and the size of the banks in the advanced economies influence negatively on the bank’s profitability margins.

The economic crisis that instigated in 2007 bring about closures of many firms, plus banks around the world. The reason of the financial collapse may be because the boards of directors of the key organizations have unsuccessful to recognize and respond appropriately and instantly to evolving dangers (Lloyd, 2009). The steadiness and productivity of the banking sector initiated to tremble, intimidating the international economy. Hence, studies conducted from 2008 to 2009 on banks in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan. The results indicate an insignificant association among corporate governance and bank’s performance. It is also observed that developed continents like Australia and America display advanced levels of bank performance. As defined earlier that the current financial crisis has infected all monetary institutions, counting banks, directed to a deteriorating performance and therefore profits. It was also detected a positive bond between insider ownership or managerial ownership and performance, signifying that there would be better performance if more shares are held by insiders like large shareholders, administrators and executives. (PapanikolaoU Ermina, Patsi Maria, 2010)

The first obstacle among stockholders and administrators that arises in the absenteeism of proper motivations or adequate supervision to bring into line the executive’s concentration along with shareholder. The second agency hurdle exist among the stockholder and minority control. This causes commandeering of majority stockholders over minority bondholders. role corporate governance like ownership structure plays the role to lessen both costs (Sheiffer and Vishny, 1997). If there is low ownership concentration first agency problem is mainly destructive. In this condition, growth in ownership concentration decreases the free-riding in monitoring. As a result, first agency problem is lessened, thus performance will progress. This is applicable up to the point where the concentration of ownership is large so that stockholders have a substantial stake also known as block holders. These block holders have authority to follow the practices that solitary support block holders’ motives. In this situation, second agency problem is more significant than first agency problem as ownership concentration amplifies. The result in reduction in performance. When block holders have a sufficient stake, they assume a huge percentage of the commandeering costs. This drives to an enhancement in performance (Magalhaes et al, 2008)

Inessa Love and Andrei Rachinsky did a research on Ukraine and Russian banks in 2004 and 2003 and 2006 respectively. It was observed that corporate governance has a lesser impact on operational performance in the banks of Ukraine and Russian. It was too found that banks having larger concentrated ownership have lesser standings on corporate governance in both countries of Russia and Ukraine. corporate governance is possibly play a vital part in the problem of steadiness of banks and its capability to offer liquidity in tough market situations.

Ownership concentration owns significant and positive relation with Jordan bank performance signifying principal–principal conflict that can be acutely rooted in the banking sector of Jordan. In contrast, foreign and institutional ownership do not affect the performance of the banks. This outcome could be partly owing to the explicit features of the banks listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) only. Regarding the corporate governance aspects, the resource dependence theory is reinforced, suggesting larger board size may drive to improved performance via ROA as of the diverse knowledge, skills, and expertise taken into meeting room conversation (Asma’a Al-Amarneh, 2014).

Given the swift evolution of Islamic banks round the globe a study was conducted on 105 Arab banks during the period of 2005 – 2009. It was found out that variations in shareholder structure are noteworthy in justifying the risk-taking behavior and performance of banks. Conventional banks along with concentrated ownership have inferior performance related to healthier performance in Islamic banks. Consequently, Islamic banks stick to the assumption of convergence of interests, where active checking of the concentrated ownership structures drives to an enhancement in the performance of banks. Conventional banks, alternatively, follow the assumption of entrenchment in which the widely held shareholders perform actions that commandeer minority shareholders, therefore generating differences of agencies resultant in deprived performance. So, the conflicts among principal agents are more intrinsic to conventional banks, considering effect on performance. It was also exposed that banks situated in countries with stouter shareholder rights are expected to accept lower risk-taking behavior, with no substantial variance among Conventional and Islamic banks. In countries wherever the fortification of shareholder rights is sturdy, can direct to more unrestricted influence on management and eventually less risk-taking. Incidentally, conflicts among principal agents are vital in Islamic and conventional banks since statistically weighty impact of shareholder rights on risk-taking behavior. It can be determined that the characteristics of governance are significant factors of the performance of Islamic banks. It can also be decided that governance machineries intended to protect shareholder benefits in conventional banks may not be sufficient in risk-taking behavior. (Mona Fayed, Asmaa Ezzat, 2017).

Riewsathirathorn et al, did research on banks of East Asia region in 2011 and brought to light that the more concentrated ownership is, the poorer, higher operating costs, bank performance, and less risk-taking will be. The inferior performance proposes that, as ownership turn out to be more concentrated, governing shareholders are more capable to manipulate minority shareholders, aggravating the agency conflict and subsequently in bank’s poorer performance. To the extent that risk-taking is concerned, the observed results that concentrated ownership enforces penetrating supervising on managers, roasting their encouragements to accept new risk. It was also proved that the route of causality goes from ownership to bank performance than other way round.

Study conducted on Kenyan banks by Rokwaro Massimiliano Kiruri in 2013 deduced that greater ownership concentration heads to commercial banks’ lesser profitability in Kenya. Thus, when the quantity of block holders escalates in a bank, the functioning of the bank descents whereas when the number sinks, performance upsurges. The research observed that foreign ownership is constructively linked with profitability of bank. it was also observed that domestic ownership is positively associated with banks’ profitability. There is a negative association of state ownership with banks proving that more the state ownership is, a reduced amount of profitability of banks.

Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Analytical Essay

Identity of ownership has always been a main topic to study in Finance. Many researchers studied the effect of ownership concentration and the identity of the largest shareholders on many factors, such as Capital structure, growth opportunities, and firm performance. (Jiang & Peng, 2010; Anderson & Reeb, 2003; San Martin & Duran, 2015; Javid & Iqbal, 2008; Thomsen & Pedersen, 1997; Diana Bonfim, 2015; Villalonga & Amit, 2004; Pindado & De la Torre, 2011; Ozler & Taymaz, 2004.). Family firm is a type of ownership that needs to be examined closely. Family firms are defined as firms that family continues to have an ownership or board seats in it (Anderson and Reeb, 2003). A “family-owned and -controlled large firm” is defined as “having a family and/or its identifiable members as the largest owner(s)” (Jiang and Peng, 2010). San Martin and Duran (2015) Identified Family firms when the family has 40% or more ownership of the company. Family refers to either the founder’s family or a family that becomes the largest shareholder in the firm through the acquisition of shares (Villalonga & Amit, 2004). Family ownership is defined as percentage of shares held by family members, whose surname is same as the founder or his family by blood or marriage (Javid & Iqbal, 2008).

The relationship between family ownership and control with performance is a puzzle. Many researchers conducted different studies to examine the relationship which had different results; positive, negative, or irrelevant (Jiang & Peng, 2010; Anderson & Reeb, 2003; San Martin & Duran, 2015; Javid & Iqbal, 2008; Thomsen & Pedersen, 1997; Villalonga & Amit, 2004; Zattoni et al., 2012). The inconsistent findings may perhaps be a result of the fact that family ownership poses potential costs and benefits at the same time. One of the potential cost of Family ownership is that families have the incentives and power to take actions that benefit themselves at the expense of firm performance, and they might replace talented, more professional and capable managers by placing family members in CEO position. (Anderson and Reeb, 2003).

In addition, the agency theory proposed by Fama and Jensen argued that the ownership of families might lead to poor performance in large firms, unlike the small firms that reduces the principal-agent conflicts and leads to better performance. (Jiang and Peng, 2010). If the CEO is a family member his/her position isn’t threatened, so they do not have to maximize efforts to keep their jobs. The main agency problem is risks resulted of controlling shareholders on the expense of minority shareholders. The controlling shareholder makes the decisions but all shareholders bear the cost. (Javid & Iqbal,2008).

On the other hand, family ownership may have some benefits. Families tend to minimize the agency conflicts that might rise by closely monitoring the managers which will lead to better performance, so the ownership is viewed as corporate governance mechanism. The information asymmetry problem in agency relationships may also be reduced if the CEO is a family member due to the close ties with the owners. Family CEOs have sufficient incentives to place family’s wealth ahead of personal interests, thus may perform better than firms with professional CEOs. (Jiang and Peng, 2010).

Also, through social relationships with managers and employees, family CEOs may create a competitive advantage by helping to obtain intangible resources such as loyalty, trust, and social interactions, in addition to gaining access to unique resources. (Jiang and Peng, 2010). It is also shown that families firms have long horizon due to the fact that they intend to view the firm as an asset that they pass to other generations, so they are willing to invest in long-term efficient investments to assure long-term value maximization and therefore long-term survival. (Anderson and Reeb, 2003).

In addition, third parties such as suppliers or creditors are more willing to deal with same governing bodies for longer horizons when comparing with nonfamily ownership. Families with good reputation will lead to long lasting economic consequences with third parties, such as having lower cost of debt financing (Anderson and Reeb, 2003). Also, Distinctive firm-level resources and capabilities is a unique result of involvement and interaction between the family and business (Zattoni et al., 2012).

The purpose of this paper is to shed a light on the impact of family ownership on firm performance using the context of Jordan. This study will utilize a sub-set of firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), namely Industrial firms, over a horizon of 10 years (from 2007 to 2017). This thesis will identify the identity of family firms by tracking the ultimate owner for each firm through time. Then a model will be developed to asses the performance by linking the debt, size, liquidity, tangibility, and growth generated in the family firms. Recognizing the importance of family ownership allows the owners, investors, shareholders, and other stakeholders to make the best choices that affect the profitability as a measure of the performance. The thesis will also highlight whether the debt will work as a governance tool to help in reducing the agency problems in family firms in Jordan and therefore enhance the performance.

There is a growing interest to study the effect of family ownership and firm performance, to examine if the family ownership can overcome the internal conflicts that might appear.

This study examines the effect of family ownership on the firm’s performance, by comparing the performance measured by ROA, and Tobin’s Q for both family and nonfamily firms. It will also focuses on the effect of other variables on mediating the relationship between ownership and performance namely the use of debt, and the controlling variables categorized by size, liquidity, tangibility, and growth.

This thesis tries to highlight the effect of family ownership and performance due to the different arguments mentioned by researchers. (Morck& Yeung, 2010) argued that high ownership concentration may lead to agency problems explained by the agency theory. The aim of the corporate governance is controlling and reducing the internal contradiction in capitalism so people’s savings in firms will be governed by highly trustworthy people, these firms need restrictions to create a governance of the internal conflicts that might rise because the inefficiency and irrationality of decisions will hampers economic growth and value maximization.

Family ownership concentration in the firm may create a conflict between a family perspective and its responsibility to other shareholders characterized by principal- principal problem that causes a reduction in the firm performance. (San Martin and Duran, 2015).

(Jensen, 1986) argues that free cash flow is one of the main causes of agency problems, as the managers intend to invest the free cash in negative NPV projects if they spend it for their own benefits. This argument might be our main cause to study the mediating effect of the debt to see if it allocates the resources away from non-profitable investments.

On the other hand, many benefits might rise from the family ownership such as the argument of (Anderson and Reeb, 2003), where the long horizon of family firms as a result of their intention to pass it to other generations will lead to long-term efficient investments to assure value maximization and long-term survival. The unique capabilities of the firm are a result interaction between the family and business (Zattoni et al., 2012). The concentrated ownership is viewed as corporate governance mechanism, where the agency problem might be reduced if the CEO is a family member with incentives to place the firm’s value upon of personal interests. (Jiang and Peng, 2010).

The problem of the study lies in finding the impact of the family ownership on firms’ performance in Jordan. Due to the heterogeneity of results found by other authors, this thesis will investigate if the family ownership concentration will overcome the agency problems and therefore enhance the performance, so the negative views held against family ownership will be reduced. The family ownership is an important topic to study; the firms controlled by families are the most common form of businesses in the world. Family-owned firms covers over 80 percent of all firms in the U.S. (Anderson and Reeb, 2003).

Anderson and Reeb (2003) studied the relationship between family ownership and firm performance in S&P 500’s firms excluding banks and public utilities, leading to 403 firms through the period 1992 to 1999, they found that family firms perform better than nonfamily firms regardless the age of the firm (young or old), this relationship is nonlinear relationship suggesting that when family ownership increases the performance increases until a point where the increase in the family ownership will lead to decrease in performance. They also studied the status of CEOs on the performance and found that CEOs who are family members have a positive effect on accounting performance measures.

Jiang and Peng (2010) examined the relationship between family ownership and performance in 744 publicly listed large family firms in 8 Asian countries. On aggregate level the results were irrelevant but showed different results on country level. Two main mechanisms were used for measuring family ownership and control; family CEO and pyramid structure, the dependent variable, firm performance, is measured by the cumulative stock return in 1996. The authors intend to study the principal-principal conflicts to explain the relationship, which are the conflicts that might rise between controlling and minority shareholders, they also explain the different results in different countries through legal and regulatory protection and governance to minority shareholders.

San Martin and Duran (2015) investigated the relationship between ownership structure and performance in public firms in Mexico for 142 firms listed on Mexican stock exchange during the periods of 2005- 2011, considering corporate governance measured by both debt and the structure of board of directors as institutional factors, financial firms and nonprofit organizations were excluded from the sample due to difficulties in calculating Tobin’s Q, and any firm with missing information in their financial statements were eliminated from the study, the final sample consisted of 75 firms. The results confirm a positive relationships between family ownership and performance calculated by Tobin’s Q, showing how participation of inside shareholders in board of directors and low level of debt lead to better performance. It was found that in family firms the effect of debt on performance is negative, while nonfamily firms showed that the effect of debt on performance is positive.

Villalonga & Amit (2004) conducted their study based on proxy data for the firms that are in the Fortune-500 for at least one year during the period 1994-2000. The result of their study of the relationship between family ownership, management, and control on firm value is that family ownership creates value only if the founder serves as CEO of the firm or a Chairman with a hired CEO. They contributed to the literature by classifying the definition of family firms into nine definitions that range from least restricted (Family has any shares) into the most restricted definition (Family is the largest voteholder, that at least has 20% of the votes, and has family officers and directors, and is in second or later generation) and showed how results were different across these definitions.

Zattoni et al. (2012) examined 421 Norwegian nonpublic small and medium-sized firms to study the relationship between family involvement and firm performance measured by ROA, by studying the mediating role of board tasks and processes. They found that family involvement has a positive impact on some of board processes such as effort norms and use of knowledge and skills, while it has a negative impact on cognitive conflicts, this leads to a positive influence on board tasks performance. The board control tasks have no significant influence on financial performance, while the board strategy task has a positive influence on the firm financial performance. On average we can say that family involvement has a small positive effect in firm financial performance.

Also Javid & Iqbal (2008) viewed the ownership structure and its implications on corporate governance and firm’s value measured by ROA and Tobin’s Q. The ownership is defined by cash flow rights. The sample consisted of 60 non-financial firms listed in Pakistan, Karachi Stock Exchange for the period 2003 to 2008. They found that in Pakistan firms there is significant ownership concentration, which is defined as the percentage of shares owned by the largest five shareholders in the firm, they explained the results by poor legal environment, where there is a small legal protection, so the ownership concentration become an instrument to resolve the agency conflicts. The identity of large shareholders determines the firm performance. Family ownership have a positive impact on firm performance, as they bring better governance practices to the firm, and therefore reduce the agency conflicts. Another reason for the positive relationship is that families have longer investment horizons which leads to more efficient investments.

The results introduced by Thomsen and Pedersen (1997) in their study of 435 largest non-financial companies in 12 of European countries for the period 1991-1996, to understand the impact of ownership structure on economic performance, found that family ownership have low market to book values and ROA, and high sales growth, it also have high debt to equity ratio comparing with financial institution ownership which have a better access to stock market. The ownership here is defined as the identity and concentration of the largest owner, where performance is measured by ROA, Tobin’s q, sales growth, and control variables used were capital structure, and nation and industry effect.

Literature Review: Consideration of Local Ownership

Defining Local Ownership

Several authors have attempted to define local ownership, but there is still no accepted definition. The UN itself emphasizes on the significance of the principle but does not offer a coherent definition. Chesterman describes ownership as “how the population comes to regard certain policies as their own” . Other scholars describe ownership as a tool to increase effectiveness and legitimacy in peacebuilding. Moreover, the term is used to address representational issues at the national and local levels.

Based on the discussions in the former literatures about local ownership, this section aims to analyze the concept of local ownership. To understand the concept of local ownership, it is significant to focus on the following respective aspects such as the owners of local ownership, its degrees, and ownership in process and as outcome.

The “Owners” of Local Ownership

In the discourse of local ownership, the term “local” can describe but is not limited to the government of the host state, civil society groups, community and religious leaders, social sectors such as women, children, and disabled persons. In the majority of studies around 2000, “locals” in peacebuilding operations represented only the elites, namely, political leaders and civil society organizations. However, criticisms were raised that local elites utilize local ownership as a political propaganda tool. Furthermore, civil society groups were blamed for prioritizing international values over their traditional ones, in order to receive more funds. Thus, more studies and practices began recognizing the role of the local population and community for sustainable peace.

The inclusion of a broad range of local actors in the decision-making process is crucial because it legitimizes decisions and makes locals more likely to support the implementation of the policy. In addition, it reduces resistance and thereby minimizes the cost of implementation. Such policies encourage and maintain social cohesion. However, in the case of a post-conflict situation, policies that decide the future of the country have to be determined as quickly as possible. Thus, although the participation of diverse interest groups is ideal, three critical issues can be raised: time, money, and capacities of locals. In practice, these factors often limit efforts to include all stakeholders in the debate.

Degree of Local Ownership

In this section, “local ownership” is divided into four categories based on how previous research and publications have used “ownership”: buy-in, consultation, participation, and full-control.

1 Buy-in

Buy-in is the minimalist version of local ownership, in which locals assent to the international peacebuilding activities, but do not participate in them. Furthermore, the locals and international actors in peacebuilding operations have a common understanding regarding what is “right” for the countries, and there is no conflict between the external and internal actors.

Scholars indicate that ownership in peacebuilding is domestic buy-in because the UN recognizes ownership within a liberal peacekeeping framework that includes rule of law, democratization, and respect of human rights. Thus, the UN, namely external peacebuilders, tend to accept the local values and practices only when it does not contradict the liberal norms. Indeed, Suhrke states “[O]wnership clearly means ‘their’ ownership of ‘our’ ideas” .

The consensus of locals can be promoted by effective communication and outreach through public information campaigns and dissemination explaining the mission’s function, mandate, and goals.

2 Consultation

Some scholars explain ownership as involving the locals in the consultation mechanism. For example, the 2005 report on UN integrated peace operations advocates for the creation of mechanisms that include local actors in planning, and the Capstone Doctrine stresses that peace operations should be conducted in a consultative manner. As Kofi Annan addresses in his 2004 report, peacebuilding activities must “assist national stakeholders to develop their own reform vision, their own agenda, their own approaches”.

Consulting with locals on peacebuilding operations not only leads to the incorporation of indigenous norms, practices, and culture but also enables the inclusion of local knowledge and opinions about how to establish a secure and sustainable peace. This reduces the imposition of external actors and increases the degree of self-determination.

3 Participation

Other scholars define ownership as participation of the locals. Roberto Belloni advocates for local ownership, declaring that local actors should be “placed at the center of international engagement” . In addition, he argues in favor of including the elites in the reconstruction process to prepare them for self-governance. Such participation will make the operation more legitimate and sustainable since local capacities can be developed based on the existing local capacities, structure, and culture.

4 Full-control

Another degree of ownership is described as full-control of the locals. Compared to the previous scholars, maximalist views maintain that peacebuilding processes “must be designed, managed, and implemented by local actors rather than external actors”. For Reich, “participation alone is insufficient and only full local leadership of peacebuilding can guarantee sustainability” and Donais emphasize that locals should take full responsibility for all peacebuilding procedures.

Local Ownership in Process or as Outcome?

Although previous literatures agree that, at certain stage, peacebuilding has to be locally owned, no consensus has been reached on when and how much local ownership should be promoted. Furthermore, a vast number of studies discuss ownership without distinguishing between ownership in process and as outcome. However, as Mackenzie-Smith explains, local ownership of the process “must not be confused with local ownership of the outcome”. According to Mackenzie-Smith, ownership in process is how ownership is distributed during the operations, and ownership as outcome refers to “the end stage of a development assistance and reform”. Although some studies differentiate between ownership in process and as outcome, these definitions and their usage remain ill-defined and understudied.

Furthermore, there has been a great deal of confusion in the literature regarding whether ownership should be ensured in the process or as the outcome. Nartan emphasizes the importance of ownership in both; process and outcome. He defines ownership as the “process and final outcome of the gradual transfer to legitimate representatives of the local society, of assessment, planning and decision-making, the practical management and implementation, and the evaluation and control of all phases of state-building programs up to the point when no further external assistance is needed”.

Other studies refer only to the significance of the ownership in process and do not address the ownership as outcome. For instance, Nathan describes ownership as “a process-oriented approach that respects and empowers the local actors”.

On the other hand, Marenin (2005) and Chesterman (2005) are certain that ownership should be at the end stage (outcome) and not significant in process. According to Marenin, post-conflict societies lack the capacity to support reconstruction and operate basic services.

Significance of Local Ownership

The emphasis on local ownership in peacebuilding can be found in numerous UN reports, studies, and the mandate of current peacekeeping operations. Based on these sources, the value of local ownership in externally driven state-building can be understood mainly in terms of two aspects, namely enhancing legitimacy by following the principles of self-determination and sustainability.

First, to sustain peace and stability, external actors have to be seen as “legitimate” in the eyes of the locals during the state-building process. Legitimacy is usually understood as a characteristic of a hierarchical relationship between actors, which are likely to be unequal in their power. According to Frank, legitimacy is the “factors that affect our willingness to comply voluntarily with commands”. In other words, people will follow the rules or rule-makers, not for their own benefit or due to coercion but because it seems “right.” Thus, if the external actors or operations are not regarded as “legitimate”, it is highly likely that the indigenous people will resist and reject the peacebuilding efforts. Previous studies and lessons learned from past peace operations have shown a strong connection between legitimacy and the principle of self-determination in that legitimacy is realized by promoting the principle of self-determination and decreasing the degree of external imposition. Self-determination, which can be understood as the legal grounds for local ownership, recognizes the right of people to choose and shape their own political and economic future, which includes but is not limited to selecting their political and economic system and governing it themselves. To conclude, without the involvement, – that is, ownership – of locals, the principle of self-determination is neglected, and policies are externally imposed, leading locals to see them as illegitimate. Furthermore, this principle of self-determination is recognized in the United Nations Charter as one of the purposes of its organization. Violating such an essential principle would not only bring the UN’s value into question but would result in the loss of its credibility (legitimacy) in the eyes of the locals.

Second, local ownership in the peacebuilding operation is crucial because domestically fostered solutions are much more likely to be sustainable than arrangements that are externally dictated. At the end, no matter how long the operations will take place, it is the local people who must live with the success or failure of peacebuilding operations. Decisions made without the input of these direct beneficiaries disregard local values, practices, and capacity. Such conditions may create an unsustainable “virtual peace” where external norms and institutions are shallowly rooted.

Relationship between Leverage, Dividend Pay-out Ownership Concentration and Firm Value: Analytical Essay

Does Growth Opportunity Moderate the Relationship between Leverage, Dividend Pay-out Ownership Concentration & Firm Value?

Introduction

Back Ground of the Study Corporate finance initially started with the assumption of complete and perfect market. It argued that fund raising is independent of its capital structure by assuming perfect competition cost, no agency cost and no bankruptcy cost, no transaction cost. Modigliani and Miller 1963 also said that dividend policies have no major role in value creation process of firm but with passage of time it was found that it has impact on it.

The most important decision made by financial management is capital structure. It is the mix of debt and equity that how much debt and how much equity is used. It also contain decisions of dividend policies, project financing and issue of long term securities etc. Management use capital structure as a tool to manage the cost of capital. Different results are noted on the relationship between capital structure and firm value .some studies shows negative relation with one another (Huang and song 2006 Chakra borty 2010) while others shows direct and positive relationship ( Abor 2005,khan 2014).

Myers 1984 said that capital structure is harder than dividend as we have much information about dividend policy through signaling theory but capital structure seems puzzle to us as we don’t know how firm issue equity and debt or hybrid securities, we have less knowledge about capital structure. According to Myer our understanding is insufficient.

As Barclay and smith 2005 said that capital structure is still debatable due to different theories and these theories did not match with one another. Some scholars supports Modigliani and miller. Miller 1984 also said that when a large amount of debt is used then it affects managers and they do not work well in interest of shareholders by ignoring important projects which have positive net present value this is also known as underinvestment problem of debt financing. However Jensen 1986 said that when firms contain more free cash than positive net present value the debt effects positively the value of firm. The reason behind it is that managers are going to pay out funds to debt providers which control managers from misuse of cash resources and if debt is not taken by companies then free cash flow is used in negative net present value investment opportunities.

This is known as over investment problems. This can be solved by giving excess funds in order to service debt if any debt is taken by firm. It arises due to separation between equity and management ownership .this problem can be solved by making managers shareholders too due to which the interest of both will align.

According to jawed and Iqbal 2008 the main problem is not conflicts of managers and shareholders but the exploitation of minority shareholders by majority. Decision are made by majority shareholders and not even bear the full cost. Mostly in cases when a family member is assigned to a high position and he or she don’t know about business which create a lot of problems and gave negative image of the firm to the market.

Problem statement

There are lot of literatures which focused on the relationship between financial decision and value of firm but less information about impact of ownership concentration on firm’s value in the presence or absence of growth opportunities in context of Pakistan.

Cheema et al 2003 only identify the nature of corporate ownership structure without analyzing its impact on corporate finance. The gap was then filled by jawed and Iqbal 2009 in which they found link between corporate ownership, firm’s performance and corporate governance. Wahla also show the influence of managerial ownership and ownership concentration on the performance of non-financial firm which were listed at Karachi stock exchange. In the above studies relationship between firm value and firm ownership structure is study from different directions but none of them show the relationship between firm value and ownership structure in the absence or presence of growth opportunity. Therefore this study aims to explore the relationship between firm’s value and ownership structure concentration in the absence or presence of growth opportunity. Because there are chance of exploitation of minority shareholders by majority shareholders and the influence of dividend leverage on firm value will be also discussed.

The objective of the study

The first objective of this study is to identify that how a future value creation is affected by firm’s leverage, dividend policies and ownership concentration in the absence and presence of growth opportunities?

Secondly to identify whether firms exploits the minority shareholders or not.

To identify the reverse effect or positive and negative impact of ownership concentration on future value of firm in the presence or absence of growth opportunity.

Research questions

How growth opportunity is linked with leverage, dividend, ownership concentration and firm performance?

Is there any turning effect exists on ownership concentration with firm value in the presence or absence of growth opportunity?

Research hypothesis

  • H1: No relationship exists between corporate debt and firm value when there are growth opportunities
  • H11: Debt is negatively related with firm value when there are growth opportunities
  • H12: Corporate debt positively related with firm value when there is no growth or few opportunities
  • H02: No relationship exists between dividend payout and firm value in the absence or presence of growth opportunities
  • H2: Relationship is uncertain between firm value and dividend when there is growth opportunity but by paying dividend it gave positive impact on firm value when there is no or few growth opportunity
  • H03: No relationship exists between firm’s value and ownership concentration
  • H3: There is a nonlinear relationship between firm value and ownership concentration. The relationship is initially positive and become negative after a critical threshold level.

Significance of the study

Its help firms in making appropriate decision of dividend and leverage policies. When there is growth opportunity the firm can focus on least debt otherwise all the important decision regarding investment are then taken by debt providers.

It also help the firms in making decisions of dividend policy that in which circumstances they should gave dividend and in which not.

It also help the SECP security and exchange commission of Pakistan to plan policies for the protection of minority shareholders.

Limitation of the study

Financial firms are excluded from study.

Missing information in non-financial firms are also not part of the study.

Only those firms are selected which are listed at Karachi stock exchange.

Dividend data is taken from annual reports of company’s website.

Literature Review:

Ownership structure and growth opportunities: Ownership structure and growth opportunities are negatively related to one another. Block holders or dominant holders take all decision by itself and involve in those activities which gave more benefits to them .e.g. a family member took higher rank and he or she not know how to take decisions then it gave negative impact (king and senator 2007).on the other side efficient boards equally assigned independent and dominant directors which gave positive image to the market. According to Iturriaga and Crisostomo (2010) if growth opportunity is more the exploitation of minority shareholders is more by dominant shareholder. So we expect that when growth opportunity is more than more chances of expropriation is there.

Dividend and growth opportunities: In the literature of finance the dividend policy is a broad topic. Brealey and Mayer (2005) said that dividend policy is unsolved problem. This statement supports black’s 1976 statement dividend seems puzzle to us. Modigliani and Miller 1961also said in perfect market dividend not affect value of firm. But this claim was later challenged by (LINTER 1962 and GORDON 1963) that because of imperfect information high dividend leads high firm value .there are a lot of factors through which we explained dividend behavior.

Through signaling theory we can determine whether growth opportunity is there or not. It gives signals to shareholders that firms have growth opportunity and having positive net present value projects but Iturriaga and Crisostomo (2010) said both activities, growth opportunity and distribution of dividend if working on same time would harm the investment projects then how we said that dividend payment increases the value of firm .so the positive relation is uncertain.

Therefore according to them when firms distribute dividend and having no growth opportunity it can reduce the misuse of firm’s resources and when positive relation is expected between firm’s value and dividend there will be poorest growth opportunity.

Leverage and growth opportunity: Modigliani and Miller assumed perfect market where no transaction cost, no taxes, no risk free debts is present .they modifies old Modigliani and Miller model and include tax deductibility of interest in their new model Tthey argued that interest is now a tax deductible expense and firm value is increased by taking leverage. If we want to increase our firm value we can take 100% of debt to finance a project which is not possible in reality. Warner talk about financial distress here he define as those firms which are mainly compose of debt leads towards bankruptcy, firm failed to meet his current obligations and stop firm from taking correct measures.

McConnell and Servaes 1995 also argued when a firm have few growth opportunities debt financing impact positive at firm’s performance and vice versa.

Methodology

Conceptual Framework

Moderator

Growth

Opportunities

Growth

Opportunities

Independent Variables

Leverage

Leverage

Dependent Variable

Dividend

Payout

Dividend

Payout

Firm Value

Firm Value

Family

Ownership

Family

Ownership

Data and sample selection

Annual panel data of 110 will be used which are listed at Pakistan stock exchange sector wise data from year2008 -2018 will be taken.

Study will be done on non-financial and in those sectors of which market capitalization is above the average at Pakistan stock exchange.

Missing information and financial firm will be not included in studies.

Balance sheets of state bank, annual reports from company website and official website of the Pakistan stock exchange is used as data sources.

Empirical Model This study follow iturriaga and Crisostomo model with more extension in the model.

SMBVRit=βₒ+β1(LEV)it+β2(DPV)it+β(OC)it+β4(OC)2it+β5(OCVS)it+Ƞi + єit error term

Where βₒ =intercept term

Β= coefficient of independent variable

Ƞi= firms fixed effect

Є= error term

i is used for firm and t is used for time

Panel data method is used to control unseen heterogeneity and fixed effects are used for firm’s characteristics it is denoted by Ƞi .through error term omitted variables are controlled.

Dependent variable: Main purpose of this study is to identify and measure growth opportunity with value of firm. In past different studies are done to measure the growth opportunity. Like price to earnings ratio, market to book ratio, profitability etc. An investment opportunities can be captured good through MBA ratio argued by ADAM and GOYAL 2008 as it contain high information data .now we are taken SMBA ratio that is sector market to book ratio. Question arises why we used it the answer is many studies in past mentioned sectorial issue it impact major on growth opportunity. For example different sectors contain different risks some of them are dealing with tangible assets while others with non-tangible asset and others factors too. (King and senator 2008) said that it not only gave efficient proxy but also contrast new research with past one.

So we are using SMBA, it is the main variable. We will calculate it through different steps first we are going to calculate market to book asset ratio after this we calculate average of each sector and in last average will be subtracted from MBA market to book ratio on specific year and of specific company.

Independent variable: Independent variable are dividend payout ratio leverage and ownership concentration. Leverage ratio can be calculated by two ways. One method is book value of debt /total asset and the other method is total debt/equity it is also called debt to equity ratio.

In this research debt to equity ratio will be used to find out leverage ratio. In higher growth firm relationship between leverage and corporate firm will be negative, while in lower growth firm relationship between them is positives. (MC ConnelL and Servaes 1995).

Dividend payout will be calculated by total dividend share / shareholders’ equity .the firm value can be judged through free cash flow and signaling theory that growth opportunity is present or not. Dividend payment provide signals to shareholders that growth opportunities are present. Firm contain positive net present value project and both are positively related.

Now according to iturriaga and Crisostomo 2010 relationship between them is uncertain in case of growth opportunity, they also argued that relation is positive between firm value and dividend when there is no or few growth opportunities.

Number of shares hold by owner is used to measure the concentration of ownership said by jawed and Iqbal .A block holder is the one who holds more than 10% of firm’s equity. According to ordinance 1984 of Pakistan it needs 75% vote to pass resolution to change in companies activities. Here 10% equity holder is given that right. Square of ownership concentration will be used to figure out any nonlinear effect of concentrated ownership. ABBAS ET AL 2013 said firm performance is affected positively by large shareholders but when it exceeds from 50% ownership concentration become pest and large shareholders influence decisions as a result their own personal benefits maximize while minority shareholders suffer for their own rights .according to iturriaga and Crisostomo 2010 there is a positive relationship between ownership concentration and firm value due to close check on manager and negative effect due to exploitation.

To avoid multicolinerity with ROA (that is used to measure profitability) log of market capitalization is used to measure the size of firm instead of total asset.

The sample is divided into two sub parts to analyze the impact of growth opportunities ,criteria of distribution is that those which have positive SMBA considered having growth opportunities in future and those which have negative SMBA will be considered having no growth opportunities in future.