Ownership structure and voluntary disclosure: A synthesis of empirical studies

Abstract

In this article, we meta-analyse 69 empirical studies assessing the association between corporate voluntary disclosure and ownership concentration and types, and how institutional characteristics and research design moderate these relationships. Our overall analyses show that state, foreign and institutional ownerships have a positive effect but managerial ownership and ownership concentration have a negative effect on voluntary disclosure. Since the overall effect may conceal the underlying factors that cause heterogeneity in the effect size distribution, we select two important institutional factors: country-level investor protection and the equity market development, and research design and journal quality, to explain the mixed and conflicting findings. Our results emphasise the need to consider legal and institutional characteristics, and researcher induced-artefacts, in understanding the role of ownership structure and identity in corporate voluntary disclosure.