Ownership structure, contingent-fit, and business-unit performance: A research model and empirical evidence

This study investigates the influence of contingent-fit on the relationship between ownership structure and business-unit performance. We predict that contingent-fit between business strategy and its contextual variables will have a positive relationship with business-unit performance. We also predict that widely-held companies will perform better than their closely-held counterparts but that the magnitude of the performance differential will decrease with the increasing level of contingent-fit.Overall, the results are consistent with our predictions. We found that contingent-fit is positively related to business-unit performance and widely-held business-units perform better than their closely-held counterparts. The performance advantage, however, was mitigated by the level of contingent-fit.