Enterprise Performance and Ownership Changes in Polish Firms

Abstract

The paper consists of two parts. In the first part, the authors briefly summarize the results of previous analyses devoted to such issues of relevance as the ownership structure of privatized companies in Poland and how it changed over the course of the 1990s, what factors seemed to have influenced those changes, the economic performance of these companies, and the composition of corporate governance organs such as supervisory and executive boards. In the second part, the authors present the results of econometric analysis of the relationship between performance and ownership structure evolution, focusing on concentration and the respective roles of three types of owners – managers, non-managerial employees, and strategic outside investors. In reference to the debate about whether ownership variables are exogenous or endogenous for performance, they test both hypotheses concerning the effect of ownership on performance and concerning the effect of performance on ownership change.

Keywords: privatization, ownership structure, enterprise performance, Poland