Regional businesses and state-owned companies: can the state-owned companies contribute to the businesses' operational efficiency improvement if they have a share in their property and participate in managing the businesses?

The article authors provide the empirical data they have gathered while analyzing the corporate management characteristics in privately owned companies operating on a mixed property basis. They also have examined whether the state-owned companies contribute to the regional businesses' operational efficiency improvement if they have a share in the companies' property and participate in managing the companies. The data analyzed include the information that pertains to 93 stock companies that operated in the Urals region within the period of 2004 - 2007. The state-owned companies are now largely involved in managing the corporate property in the Russian regions where the share of state property in the property owned by the privately owned businesses is still high. The state owned companies set the standards of corporate management for the companies operating on the mixed property basis. The article authors indicate that the state owned companies that have a share in the businesses' property affect the businesses' efficiency levels but the state officials who become members of the privately owned businesses' boards of directors provide additional guarantees to the private property owners and this is an advantage for a company that operates on the financial markets. The article authors' main goal is to identify the role the state bodies that have a share and take part in the management of the Russian privately owned companies play in business. Their additional objective was to identify whether a partnership between the privately owned and state bodies can affect the businesses' operational efficiency and the competitiveness level. The research findings can be of interest to the big businesses' and medium enterprises' top managers and owners, state regulatory bodies' staff who elaborate stock market and corporate management regulations, Russian business analysts and to all those who are interested in knowing more about the corporate government.