Managerial Ownership and Firm Performance in German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This paper studies the effect of managerial ownership on performance and the determinants of managerial ownership for small and medium–sized private companies. We use a panel of around 1300 firms in the German business–related service sector for the years 1997–2000. Managerial ownership up to around 80 per cent has a positive impact on firm performance (incentive effect), for higher shares the effect becomes negative (entrenchment effect). Moreover, risk–aversion of managers and signalling of firm quality leads to a non–linear relationship between managerial ownership and the risk exposure of a firm. The determinants of performance and ownership are estimated simultaneously