The ownership structures of ethnic Chinese business in the Southeast Asian region

Abstract

We investigate the impact of ownership structures on corporate performance with a sample of ethnic Chinese businesses in the Southeast Asian region. Through an extensive analysis of two groups of ethnic Chinese businesses, we reach the following conclusions. First, the entrenchment hypothesis is supported especially in the sample composed of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. This result implies that ethnic Chinese businesses, as far as listed on a stock exchange, should transfer from family‐type business to modern business with widely dispersed ownership structures. Second, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are more modernized in company characteristics than other countries, especially in terms of well‐dispersed ownership structures and low debt‐to‐equity ratio. These findings indicate the heterogeneity among countries even for ethnic Chinese businesses, which probably reflects the differences in institutional factors, the legal system, and industry structures resulting from each government's economic policy. Third, we could not find a significant difference in firm characteristics and the relationship of ownership concentration and corporate performance between ethnic Chinese and non‐ethnic Chinese businesses in Malaysia. Hence, we cautiously conclude that the distinction among companies is not ethnic‐specific, but country‐specific.