The asymmetric impact of institutional ownership on firm performance: panel smooth transition regression model

Purpose This study aims to test the asymmetric impact of institutional ownership on firm performance. This study does it through an examination of the hypotheses of efficient monitoring and convergence of interests from the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Design/methodology/approach Using a panel smooth transition regression model, as a new econometric technique, this paper examined the data to explore the asymmetric impact of institutional ownership on firm performance. With regard to 177 firms for the period 2009 to 2018 from TSE. Performance proxies are returned on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobins' Q. Findings The empirical for three performance proxies results strongly rejected the null hypothesis of linearity and the test for no remaining nonlinearity indicated a model with one transition function and one threshold parameters. The first regime (levels of institutional ownership below 28.5% and 43.5% for ROA and Tobins' Q) showed that performance increases with institutional ownership while the trend was reversed in the second regime (levels of institutional ownership above 28.5% and 43.5% for ROA and Tobins' Q percent). Also, institutional shareholders percent between 4.2 and 14.1 explain the positive relationship between institutional shareholders and ROE. Originality/value Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest that the application of institutional ownership theories calls for more inquiry.