Does Company Ownership Matter? – Edited by Jean‐Philippe Touffut

• Date: 01 November 2012
• Published date: 01 November 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2012.00916.x
• Author: Ryszard F. Lawniczak

Book Review

Jean-Philippe Touffut (ed.), Does Company Ownership Matter? Edward Elgar, Cheltenham,

Northampton, MA, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84844-796

The answer to the seemingly simple question posed in the

title of this book depends on where and whom we ask.

For example, in a similarly titled chapter, “Does f‌irm own-

ership matter? POEs vs. FOEs in the developing world” in

Emerging Multinationals in Emerging Markets, by R. Rama-

murti and J.V. Singh (Cambridge University Press, 2009),

the major issue pertains to the inf‌luence of foreign owned

enterprises (FOEs) compared to local but privately owned

enterprises (POEs). If the title question “Does Ownership

Matter?” referred to the economic situation of post-

communist transition economies subjected to the ordeal of

privatization, the major problem could be reduced to the

issue: how much of the state and how much of private prop-

erty there is in the economy, i.e. the relation between state

owned enterprises (SOEs) and private owned enterprises

(POEs) with special emphasis placed on foreign owned

enterprises (FOEs). The latter have gradually taken over

entire sectors of sometimes strategic industriesand thus have

aroused resistance of the local business and population, fol-

lowed by government accusationsthat national treasures are

being sold off.

The book edited by Jean-Philippe Touffut, Director of the

Cournot Centre, provides, however, a review of several

issues related to company ownership and property rights in

highly developed economies. Thecontributions from promi-

nent scholars and practitioners from the US, France, UK and

Italy (in total 13 contributors) explore two basic questions:

(1) Do different modes of management depend on company

ownership? and (2) Does macroeconomic performance rely

on shareholder value creation? These micro- as well macro-

economic approaches are presented from the economic, his-

torical, and legal perspectives.

The book contains seven chapters; six of them are con-

tributions from participants at the Cournot Centre for

Economic Studies, Paris 2007 conference on company

ownership. The seventh chapter presents a roundtable dis-

cussion entitled “Shareholders’ rights in European corpo-

rations: Impact on economic performance.” This volume is

just one of a series arising from the conferences organized

by the Centre. It is an independent, French-based research

institute, which takes its name from the pioneering econo-

mist, mathematician, and philosopher, Antoine Augustin

Cournot (1801–77). Another fact worth emphasizing is that

the series is edited by Professor Robert M. Solow, who was

awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics in 1987.

Collectively, the chapters provide a comparative analysis

of different approaches to issues such as the role of share-

holders in the f‌irm versus their position, the process of lib-

eralization and integration of capital markets, the managers’

power both in the United States and in continental Europe,

primarily between the UK and France.

To be more specif‌ic, Wendy Carlin interprets the evidence

for OECD countries concerning the role played by owner-

ship in economic performance and supports it by means of

numerous tables and f‌igures (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 by

Donatella Gattiaims at analyzing the macroeconomic impact

of the ownership structure and employment protection. An

econometric analysis applied by the author has shown that

ownership concentration might favor employment. It also

favors growth when countries approach the technological

frontier.

Chapter 3 is contributed by two French authors, Jean-

Louis Beffa and Xavier Ragot. Their aim is to analyze the

impact of the shareholding structure on large listed compa-

nies in France. The authors came to the conclusion that over

the last 25 years, the evolution of f‌inancial markets and the

shareholdings of large companies have enabled French com-

panies to acceleratetheir modernization. Nevertheless, these

companies are now vulnerable due to the fragility of their

shareholdings. In Chapter 4, Christophe Clerc questions the

legitimacy of shareholder power by examining the issue in

the context of commercial companies listed on the stock

exchange. In conclusion, the author expresses his opinion

that “the political question of the legitimacy of shareholder

power deserves to be examined” (p. 120) with the aim of

determining the appropriate degree of shareholder power

and safeguarding interests of the other stakeholders.

In Chapter 5, Simon Deakin – a British professor, and

Antoine Rebérioux – a French professor, study the effects of

corporate governance on human resource management

(HRM) practices. They resort to a UK-French comparison,

presenting the divergences and convergences alike. They

conclude that the two systems, to a degree, converge at least

at the level of formal law and regulations.

The f‌inal paper, presented by Lorenzo Sacconi in Chapter

6, aims at developing a fully-f‌ledged theory of corporate

611

Corporate Governance: An International Review, 2012, 20(6): 611–612

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8683.2012.00916.x