Ownership structures and corporate performance: A literature review

In the last decades, the phenomenon of separation between ownership and control has attracted the most attention from researchers and professionals. Indeed, proprietary concentration can play an asymmetrical role in helping to influence corporate performance, whereby large shareholders can use their power both to expropriate wealth due to minority shareholders and to benefit minority shareholders, controlling the discretion of the management. However, there is still a lack of research that has integrated and systematized the empirical research carried out on the relationship between proprietary concentration and company performance given that there is still no convergence of results regarding the sign and the form of this relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to present the results of a systematic review of the literature on the subject, proposing a possible innovative interpretation of the relationship mentioned above that takes into account additional interaction variables linked to the institutional structures of the countries in which the investigated companies operate