More recent research accounts for both the alignment and entrenchment hypotheses by
considering a nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance.
Morck et al. (1988) find that the alignment hypothesis effects are dominant within
the 0 –5% range and above the 25% level. The entrenchment effect is dominant within
the 5 – 25% ownership range. These ownership turning points, however, must be
arbitrarily prespecified before their piecewise regressions are executed. As pointed out
by Morck et al. (1988), the theoretical arguments alone cannot predict the relationship
between ownership and performance, especially with regard to determining the managerial
ownership turning points where managerial incentives will switch from alignment
to entrenchment, and back again to alignment.