The ownership structure of a company has been identified as a key mechanism in corporate governance. The present study investigates the impact of ownership concentration and ownership identity on company economic performance. The sample consists of a unique database of 749 listed Continental European companies. The empirical results show that ownership concentration has a U-shaped relationship with firm performance. The effect of ownership concentration on corporate performance is also found to be negatively mediated by R&D investment and to vary across different legal settings. Furthermore, this research proposes and supports the hypothesis that the identity of the controlling shareholder has implications for corporate strategy and performance. In fact, corporate and state ownership have a positive and negative impact, respectively, on firm performance. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that ownership structure matters, particularly in a Continental European institutional setting
