Ownership monitoring mechanism and corporate performance: Evidence from banking firms in Asian emerging markets

Abstract

Corporate governance is regarded as a major issue during the post-financial crisis period in Asia. These countries have implemented corporate governance reforms to enhance the protection of their shareholders and stakeholders interests. Such reforms may affect the conduct of business of all corporations in the region as it allows for greater monitoring especially by the shareholders. Unlike earlier studies which focused on non-financial firms, this study analyzes the corporate governance involving ownership monitoring mechanism of listed banking firms in nine Asian emerging markets which are Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India. It is found that ownership monitoring mechanisms of the banking firms in Asian emerging markets are negatively related with firm value measured by Tobin's Q.