Does big three ownership affect the strategic propensity to reinvest or distribute cash flow? Evidence from the UK and Sweden

The recent rise of index-based investors has led to substantially more concentrated share ownership around the world. This paper studies the ascent of the “Big Three” – Vanguard, Blackrock, and State Street – as major shareholders in the UK and Sweden between 2005 and 2019. More specifically, we address the issue of how the rise of these investors affects the corporate strategic propensity to reinvest or distribute cash flow to shareholders and whether this influence is contingent on national differences in corporate governance. We document how the rise of the Big Three is associated with an increasing strategic propensity for distribution at the expense of reinvestment. This effect is significantly greater in Sweden, where corporate governance institutions have historically developed to support active ownership by controlling shareholders, than in the UK, where corporate governance institutions have developed to support a more market-based model. Both the link between increasing strategic propensity for distribution associated with the Big Three and the effect of the institutional context in which the Big Three operate contribute to ongoing discussions on the extent and nature of the influence of passive index funds on firms’ strategies and on the role that corporate governance institutions play as boundary conditions for shareholder influence. • A surge in index-based investing has concentrated share ownership globally. • Major index-based investors influence corporate strategy. • Firms are influenced by major index-based investors to distribute available cash flow. • Corporate governance arrangements shape the extent of index-based investor impact.