The Relationship Between Ownership Structure and Inter-Organizational Strategies: An Empirical Analysis

This paper examines the relationship between a firm’s ownership structure and inter-organizational relations (IORs). Based on the agency theory, this research contends that manager-controlled firms are more likely to join IORs than owner-controlled firms. In addition, this paper argues that economic institutions moderate the relationship between the ownership structure and IORs. Hypotheses were tested with data collected from 62 countries and more than 20,000 firms. The results of the hierarchical logistic regression suggest that the “separation of ownership and management” and “ownership dispersion” are significant drivers for IORs. Furthermore, agency cost is more salient in underdeveloped countries than in developed countries, implying that IORs are affected by intra-firm agency cost and country- level institutions—aspects which had been ignored in previous studies.