Ownership structure, corporate governance disclosure, and the moderating effect of CEO power: evidence from East Africa

This study examines the effect of ownership structure (classified as concentrated, institutional, and managerial ownership) on corporate governance (CG) disclosure. Using a sample of 96 East African firms, we document that, whereas concentrated ownership has a negative effect, institutional ownership has a positive and significant association with CG disclosure. However, we find the effect of managerial ownership on CG disclosure to be negative and insignificant. We also find CEO power to moderate the link between ownership structure and CG disclosure. Further analysis indicates that, whereas the effects of institutional and concentrated ownerships on CG disclosure remain unchanged irrespective of a firm’s debt levels, the effect of managerial ownership on CG disclosure is driven by external pressures associated with debt financing. Our findings provide evidence on how different ownership types have different preferences, thereby influencing corporate disclosure practices differently. Our results are robust to the two-stage system generalised method of moments (SGMM) and other alternative sensitivity tests.