IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v45y2008i7p1244-1273.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Performance Differential between Private and State Owned Enterprises: The Roles of Ownership, Management and Market Structure

Author

Listed:
  • Eskil Goldeng
  • Leo A. Grünfeld
  • Gabriel R. G. Benito

Abstract

abstract This article examines differences in performance between private companies (POEs) and state owned enterprises (SOEs), with an emphasis on the effects of market structure. The study uses a comprehensive panel covering in principle all registered companies during the 1990s in Norway, a country where SOEs play an important role in regular markets. Return on assets as well as costs relative to sales revenue are used as measures of performance in markets where SOEs and POEs compete with each other. Overall, POEs perform significantly better than SOEs. The study tests the hypothesis that SOE managers may learn from POE managers in environments with stronger competition, but finds only weak empirical support for such a learning mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Eskil Goldeng & Leo A. Grünfeld & Gabriel R. G. Benito, 2008. "The Performance Differential between Private and State Owned Enterprises: The Roles of Ownership, Management and Market Structure," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(7), pages 1244-1273, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:45:y:2008:i:7:p:1244-1273
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2008.00790.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2008.00790.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2008.00790.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Trevor, Igor, Mike Buck Filatotchev Wright, 1998. "Agents, Stakeholders and Corporate Governance in Russian Firms," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 81-104, January.
    2. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    3. Justin Tan, 2002. "Impact of Ownership Type on Environment–Strategy Linkage and Performance: Evidence from a Transitional Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 333-354, May.
    4. repec:lmu:muenar:19529 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Boycko, Maxim & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1996. "A Theory of Privatisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(435), pages 309-319, March.
    6. Oliver D. Hart, 1983. "The Market Mechanism as an Incentive Scheme," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 366-382, Autumn.
    7. Barberis, Nicholas & Maxim Boycko & Andrei Shleifer & Natalia Tsukanova, 1996. "How Does Privatization Work? Evidence from the Russian Shops," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 764-790, August.
    8. Shirley, Mary & Walsh, Patrick, 2000. "Public versus private ownership : the current state of the debate," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2420, The World Bank.
    9. Boardman, Anthony E & Vining, Aidan R, 1989. "Ownership and Performance in Competitive Environments: A Comparison of the Performance of Private, Mixed, and State-Owned Enterprises," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(1), pages 1-33, April.
    10. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    11. Simeon Djankov & Peter Murrell, 2002. "Enterprise Restructuring in Transition: A Quantitative Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(3), pages 739-792, September.
    12. Mar, Pamela & Young, Michael N., 2001. "Corporate governance in transition economies: a case study of two Chinese airlines," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 280-302, October.
    13. Januszewski, Silke I. & Koke, Jens & Winter, Joachim K., 2002. "Product market competition, corporate governance and firm performance: an empirical analysis for Germany," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 299-332, September.
    14. repec:bla:jindec:v:45:y:1997:i:4:p:359-75 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Nikolaus Uhlenbruck & Julio de Castro, 1998. "Privatization from the Acquirer's Perspective: a Mergers and Acquisitions Based Framework," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 619-640, September.
    16. Paul A. Grout & Margaret Stevens, 2003. "The Assessment: Financing and Managing Public Services," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 19(2), pages 215-234, Summer.
    17. Paul A Grout & Margaret Stevens, 2003. "Financing and Managing Public Services: An Assessment," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 03/076, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    18. Demski, Joel S. & Sappington, David, 1984. "Optimal incentive contracts with multiple agents," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 152-171, June.
    19. Vining, Aidan R & Boardman, Anthony E, 1992. "Ownership versus Competition: Efficiency in Public Enterprise," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 205-239, March.
    20. William A. Andrews & Michael J. Dowling, 1998. "Explaining Performance Changes in Newly Privatized Firms," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 601-617, September.
    21. Nombela, Gustavo, 2001. "Effects of Public Ownership over Firms' Size and Overstaffing Problems," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 108(1-2), pages 1-31, July.
    22. Barry J. Nalebuff & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1983. "Prices and Incentives: Towards a General Theory of Compensation and Competition," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 21-43, Spring.
    23. Steen Thomsen & Torben Pedersen, 2000. "Ownership structure and economic performance in the largest european companies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(6), pages 689-705, June.
    24. Ezra Solomon, 1970. "Alternative Rate of Return Concepts and Their Implications for Utility Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 1(1), pages 65-81, Spring.
    25. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    26. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    27. Vickers, John, 1995. "Concepts of Competition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 1-23, January.
    28. Justin Tan & Mike W. Peng, 2003. "Organizational slack and firm performance during economic transitions: two studies from an emerging economy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(13), pages 1249-1263, December.
    29. Villalonga, Belen, 2000. "Privatization and efficiency: differentiating ownership effects from political, organizational, and dynamic effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 43-74, May.
    30. Fisher, Franklin M & McGowan, John J, 1983. "On the Misuse of Accounting Rates of Return to Infer Monopoly Profits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 82-97, March.
    31. Rhonda K. Reger & Anne Sigismund Huff, 1993. "Strategic groups: A cognitive perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 103-123, February.
    32. Jeffry M. Netter & William L. Megginson, 2001. "From State to Market: A Survey of Empirical Studies on Privatization," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 321-389, June.
    33. Kay, J A & Thompson, D J, 1986. "Privatisation: A Policy in Search of a Rationale," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(381), pages 18-32, March.
    34. Eytan Sheshinski & Luis F. López-Calva, 2003. "Privatization and Its Benefits: Theory and Evidence," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 49(3), pages 429-459.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesca Di Pillo & Nathan Levialdi & Laura Marchegiani, 2020. "The Investments in Energy Distribution Networks: Does Company Ownership Matter?," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(5), pages 41-49.
    2. Christian Wolf & Michael G. Pollitt, 2008. "Privatising national oil companies: Assessing the impact on firm performance," Working Papers EPRG 0805, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    3. Clarke, George R.G. & Cull, Robert & Shirley, Mary M., 2005. "Bank privatization in developing countries: A summary of lessons and findings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 1905-1930, August.
    4. Fabio Monteduro, 2014. "Public–private versus public ownership and economic performance: evidence from Italian local utilities," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(1), pages 29-49, February.
    5. Ghulam, Yaseen, 2017. "Long-run performance of an industry after broader reforms including privatization," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 745-768.
    6. Trien Le & Trevor Buck, 2011. "State ownership and listed firm performance: a universally negative governance relationship?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 15(2), pages 227-248, May.
    7. Andersson, Fredrik N.G. & Opper, Sonja & Khalid, Usman, 2018. "Are capitalists green? Firm ownership and provincial CO2 emissions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 349-359.
    8. Trien Vinh Le & Jonathan P. O'Brien, 2010. "Can Two Wrongs Make a Right? State Ownership and Debt in a Transition Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7), pages 1297-1316, November.
    9. Cabeza-García, Laura & Gómez-Ansón, Silvia, 2011. "Post-privatisation ownership concentration: Determinants and influence on firm efficiency," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 412-430, September.
    10. Chen, Ruiyuan & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Wang, He, 2017. "Do state and foreign ownership affect investment efficiency? Evidence from privatizations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 408-421.
    11. Omran, Mohammed, 2009. "Post-privatization corporate governance and firm performance: The role of private ownership concentration, identity and board composition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 658-673, December.
    12. Holger MAHLENKAMP, 2015. "From State To Market Revisited: A Reassessment Of The Empirical Evidence On The Efficiency Of Public (And Privately-Owned) Enterprises," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(4), pages 535-557, December.
    13. Laura Cabeza García & Silvia Gómez Ansón, 2012. "What Drives the Operating Performance of Privatised Firms?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(1), pages 1-27, February.
    14. Paolo Esposito & Spiridione Lucio Dicorato, 2020. "Sustainable Development, Governance and Performance Measurement in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): A Methodological Proposal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-25, July.
    15. Hua Zhang & Yuanyang Song & Yuan Ding, 2015. "What Drives Managerial Perks? An Empirical Test of Competing Theoretical Perspectives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 259-275, December.
    16. Sun, Qian & Tong, Wilson H. S., 2003. "China share issue privatization: the extent of its success," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 183-222, November.
    17. Bogart, Dan & Chaudhary, Latika, 2015. "Off the rails: Is state ownership bad for productivity?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 997-1013.
    18. Filatotchev, Igor & Wright, Mike & Uhlenbruck, Klaus & Tihanyi, Laszlo & Hoskisson, Robert E., 2003. "Governance, organizational capabilities, and restructuring in transition economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 331-347, November.
    19. Boardman, Anthony E. & Vining, Aidan R. & Weimer, David L., 2016. "The long-run effects of privatization on productivity: Evidence from Canada," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1001-1017.
    20. D'Souza, Juliet & Megginson, William L. & Ullah, Barkat & Wei, Zuobao, 2017. "Growth and growth obstacles in transition economies: Privatized versus de novo private firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 422-438.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:45:y:2008:i:7:p:1244-1273. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.