TY - JOUR AB - Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to test a link between the type of corporate ownership and business innovation activities, with application to Ukrainian joint stock companies.Design/methodology/approach–The objective of the paper is achieved through conducting a series of observations of 42 of the largest companies of metallurgy and machine‐building industries for the years 1998‐2001. The theoretical scope of the paper is to identify the motives of owners in Ukraine which affect their views on innovation policy in companies which they own.Findings–The research found that approaches of various groups of owners to the innovation policy differ and depend on the motives of their behavior at the market for corporate control. Thus, executives who owe companies, try to keep the control in their hands in order to set an abnormally high remuneration. This leads to the lack of funds to finance innovation projects because of cash flows reduction and absence of intentions to issue equity.Originality/value–The value of this paper is that it explains an impact of ownership structure on market opportunities of companies via an impact on the business innovation parameters. VL - 5 IS - 5 SN - 1472-0701 DO - 10.1108/14720700510630022 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/14720700510630022 AU - Kostyuk Alexander PY - 2005 Y1 - 2005/01/01 TI - Business innovations and structure of corporate ownership in Ukraine T2 - Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 19 EP - 29 Y2 - 2024/04/23 ER -