Using manually collected data on foreign owners from 39 international jurisdictions for the 2010–2018 period, we find that foreign ownership significantly reduces corporate excess perquisite consumption in Chinese-listed companies. We take the instrumental variable approach and confirm this causal relationship. Investors from jurisdictions with strong corporate governance and those committed to the principles of responsible investment have greater monitoring effects. Greater cultural distance undermines these effects. The disciplinary role of foreign ownership is stronger in firms with weak governance and low information transparency. Foreign investors reduce corporate excess perks and thereby improve the operational performance. We focus on foreign investors to investigate the role of international owners in China, a host country with relatively weak corporate governance; future research can consider host countries with strong corporate governance. Consequently, we bring space and process to the forefront of the research agenda on perks in the international business literature.