Shareholder value enhancing strategies - empirical evidence on multinational corporations behaviour

The shareholder value maximization objective function of Anglo-Saxon publicly quoted corpora-tions over the last three decades gave raise to contrasted reactions. The controversy raised by the implementation of this new form of capitalism goes beyond the simple interactions between corporate governance and its achievements. The means allowing corporations to maximize shareholders’ wealth are nowadays fuelling the debate, especially when considering the eventual generalization of the An-glo-Saxon corporate governance model to other countries. Excessive corporate debt, massive job cuts, considerable assets reductions etc. are the most recurrent corporate strategies denounced as harmful by shareholder value maximization detractors. While these strategies are often retained in descriptive studies or in the Medias as a byproduct of the shareholder value maximization policy, empirical sup-port in this direction is lacking. The econometric study conducted herein allows us to put into perspective the role of the above mentioned strategies in the shareholder value creation process.