Does Ownership Structure Matter? A Case Study on Business Performance of Two Accounting Companies

Many public organisations procure a substantial amount of goods and services from in-house companies. When providing their goods and services, those companies are supposed to fulfil objectives set for them and for the wider entity, including in particular cost-effectiveness. This paper examines the performance of selected in-house companies both by analyzing the externally reported financial performance (top-down) and analyzing the internal operations and related performance (bottom-up). Based on the analysis, it is discussed, 1) how the in-house companies fulfil their assigned tasks as publicly owned entities and 2) how these in-house companies and their performance should be controlled by public bodies. Methodologically the paper takes advantage of two cases of accounting companies: one publicly owned in-house company and another private company. As a conclusion, in this case top-down analysis reveals inefficiencies which are further explored via bottom-up analysis. In this case, privatization leads to enhanced business performance.