The relationship between a firm’s ownership structure, governance, and innovation

Firm innovation is key for many companies to continuously thrive in the marketplace. Unfortunately, there are drawbacks to making innovative investments because of the upfront costs and riskiness of future returns. This creates conflicts because managers are under pressure to meet short-term earnings forecasts. A managers’ short-term focus on a firm’s business strategy may not be in the best interests of the shareholders’ long-term vision of a firm. For this reason, a strong corporate governance system can trigger an increased level of monitoring of the decision-making of managers so that it’s aligned with shareholders’ goals. Often, a firm’s long-term strategy focuses on firm innovation. A major influencer of a firm’s innovative strategy is its ownership structure. This research specifically focuses on the impact of ownership concentration, institutional ownership, activist investors, large passive investors, and Board of Director composition on firm innovation. Key components of a firm’s organizational structure, such as ownership concentration and Board member composition, are analyzed to explain the variance iv of innovation when other variables are controlled. Based on a sample of technology firms, the findings show that publicly-traded information technology firms’ level of passive investors and percentage of independent Board members are significant relative to firm innovation. There are also important findings from the unsupported variables, which are the firm’s ownership concentration of shareholders, activist investors, and institutional investors. Finally, inferences are drawn from these results as to whether a firm’s ownership structure and governance affect a firm’s long-term strategy