This collection consists of 20 papers, organised into four sections, that have each made a valuable contribution to our understanding of the motivations and actions of different types of corporate owners and the impact that ownership appears to have upon key areas of corporate governance and corporate decision making and performance. The wide variety of specific research issues addressed, the research methods used and the institutional contexts examined by these 20 papers reflects the great diversity, multidisciplinary nature and dynamism of the research currently being undertaken into these topics.This insightful and innovative collection will be of great interest to students of corporate governance, researchers and practitioners alike.