Marie-Ann Betschinger at the Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data 2009 Conference

Marie-Ann Betschinger attended the Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data 2009 Conference from October 2-4 in Tokyo. She presented first findings of her research project on the impact of a firm's ownership structure on a firm's risk-taking in foreign direct investment portfolios based on Japanese data.    

Abstract:

The paper analyses the relationship between the risk involved in foreign direct investment projects and the ownership structure of a company. Following literature in corporate governance on ownership effects the ownership structure of a company should play a non-negligible role for corporate risk taking. This should be rendered evident in the risk involved in a firm’s foreign expansion policy via foreign direct investments (FDI). By merging two databases on Japanese listed firms and their foreign affiliates in a parent firm panel from 1990-2004, the paper provides preliminary evidence that bank ownership reduces FDI risk exposure while blockholder concentration per se has no implications.