Striving for a quiet life: common institutional ownership and business strategy aggressiveness

Purpose With the increasing prevalence of common institutional ownership, a burgeoning literature has emerged to examine its economic consequences. However, the majority of existing studies focus on the product market and firm-level behavior and decision-making. Research on the impact of common institutional ownership on overall business strategy remains scarce. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence and mechanism of common institutional ownership on business strategy aggressiveness and explore the factors that affect the relationship between the two. Design/methodology/approach We empirically examine the relationship between common institutional ownership and business strategy aggressiveness based on a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2023. In addition, we perform a series of endogeneity and robustness tests to validate our findings, including the Heckman two-stage tests, propensity score matching ordinary least squares, instrumental variables approach, placebo tests and remeasurement of key variables. Findings We find that common institutional ownership significantly reduces business strategy aggressiveness. Mechanism analyses suggest that the anti-competitive effects lead to a significant negative correlation between the two. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the inhibitory effect of common institutional ownership on business strategy aggressiveness is more pronounced when common institutional investors are long-term oriented, the firms are state-owned and operate in non-technology-intensive industries, and the level of regional legalization is relatively low. Originality/value Our research provides novel evidence on how common institutional ownership shapes business strategy and presents implications for policymakers, corporations and investors.