Management structure in the performance of Polish mutual funds: Does team spirit matter?

Abstract

This paper focuses on finding answers to two questions. The first one asks if there are any significant differences in performance between solo-managed and teammanaged funds. The second one is supposed to establish whether a management structure can be treated as a determinant of returns generated by mutual funds operating in Poland. The study was conducted on the basis of 835 annual observations, 388 of which concerned solo-managed funds and 447 – team-managed funds, in the period 2000-2017. The returns were calculated by means of a few popular measures of abnormal returns regarding the stock picking ability of fund managers. The methodological procedure consisted of four research tools which ensured a greater certainty of the statistical inference. The findings show that there are insignificant discrepancies in the performance of funds characterized by a different number of managers, yet they are noticeable in very few annual periods. The results obtained as an effect of determining the influence of a management structure on performance are statistically insignificant, which means that the examined variable is not a determinant of performance, at least as far as Polish circumstances are concerned.