Structural corporate ownership links to corporate cash and financial earnings: New evidence from non-financial firms

Institutional and executive shares account for the majority of ownership and have a considerable impact on the firm’s future financing, investment, earnings, and other corporate decision-making activities. This study aims to investigate the statistical links of institutional ownership and executive ownership on financial earnings and the corporate cash level of non-financial firms using a balanced dataset of 200 non-financial listed firms in PSX (Pakistan Stock Exchange) during the period 2013 to 2018. Among many advanced econometric methods, fixed effect models with pooled ordinary least square (OLS) estimation were found more appropriate to our investigation. Our main findings are twofold. The outcome of our analysis indicates that institutional ownership and executive ownership are significantly related to financial earnings. Further, our results suggest that there is a significant relationship between executive ownership and corporate cash level, as well as a positive and significant relationship between institutional ownership and finance. The cash level of firms can only be identified and predicted through executive ownership in a developing economy like Pakistan. This study provides insightful information for non-financial industry shareholders and policymakers in Pakistan.