Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Strategic Governance View

Recent tectonic, global economic and political shifts have spurred the emergence of new organizational forms such as sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)—state-owned investment organizations without pension liabilities—primarily in emerging and frontier markets. Although scholars have begun to explore SWF macroeconomic trends, little is known about the challenges these institutional investors face or their strategic capabilities to address these concerns. Drawing on comparative and strategic corporate governance research, we develop an organizing framework to better understand the firm-level characteristics of SWFs and their consequences. Our analysis of these investment funds’ multidimensional strategic governance traits contributes to the literature on state capitalism and comparative corporate governance.