Leverage, Ownership Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Karachi Stock Exchange

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the ownership structure and firm performance. The study uses two performance measures i.e. market-based performance measure (Tobin’s Q) and accounting-based performance measure (return on assets (ROA)) as dependent variables and ownership proxies and other control variables as independent variables whereas leverage is used as moderating variable. The ownership proxies include the managerial ownership and institutional ownership while the control variables include the size of the firm, the coefficient of variation, and growth. This study has used simple regression analysis while using data of 355 firms listed on Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) for the years 2003 to 2008. The results show that the ownership structure has significant relationship with the market-based performance measure, while it has insignificant relationship with the accounting-based performance measure. Moreover, the leverage has no moderating effect on the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance