Executive Compensation: Empirical Essays on the Antecedents and the Consequences, and the Role of Executive Personality

Executive Compensation: Empirical Essays on the Antecedents and the Consequences, and the Role of Executive Personality
Author: Steffen Florian Burkert
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2023-03-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3947095104

Top managers have a significant impact on organizations because they are responsible for the formulation and implementation of corporate strategies, have the visibility and influence to shape the opinions of internal and external stakeholders, and coin the culture of their organizations, affecting employees at every level of the organization. Research has focused on the drivers and consequences of top managers' actions, with a particular focus on executive compensation, but important questions remain unanswered. This dissertation contributes to the literature on top executives by examining the antecedents of executive compensation, the influence of executive compensation on executive behavior, and the interplay of executive compensation and top executive personality. The first study introduces the role of compensation benchmarking for determining executive compensation to the management literature. It finds that benchmarking leads to compensation convergence. The second study examines the impact of executive compensation complexity on firm performance. The results show that compensation complexity is negatively related to accounting-based, market-based, and ESG-based metric of firm performance. The third study explores the implications of relative performance evaluation (RPE) on the imitation behavior of firms. It finds that the introduction of RPE is positively related to the imitation of the strategic actions of peer firms. The fourth study contributes to the growing literature on the impact of corporate social performance (CSP) goals in CEO contracts. Specifically, it examines how and when CSP incentives influence the CEO's attention to corporate social responsibility topics. The final essay examines the role of CEO personality; it finds that differences in CEO personality explain differences in the level of strategic conformity. Taken together, the essays in this dissertation make a significant contribution to the scholarly discourse on the influence of top managers on their companies. The empirical evidence presented expands the current understanding of how top executives affect strategic firm behaviors, and it provides insights for policymakers, managers, and investors.

Complex Compensation: Empirical Essays on the Impact of Compensation Design on Firm Performance, Turnover, and Organizational Justice

Complex Compensation: Empirical Essays on the Impact of Compensation Design on Firm Performance, Turnover, and Organizational Justice
Author: Tobias Oberpaul
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2024-01-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3947095112

Compensation contracts have become ever more complex and individualized, particularly in the executive compensation domain, where increasingly diverse stakeholder demands and governance requirements have led to the inclusion of more and increasingly interrelated components into compensation contracts. Even the compensation of lower-level employees has become complex as firms individualize employee compensation and use many different rewards simultaneously. Research has examined elements of compensation in isolation but has attempted to avoid the complexities of compensation. This dissertation examines the consequences of compensation complexity and compensation design dispersion and contributes to a better understanding of compensation and its consequences for firms and employees. The first study examines how the complexity of executive compensation contracts affects firm performance. It finds that CEO compensation complexity negatively affects accounting, market, and ESG (i.e., environmental, social, and governance) metrics of firm performance and explores mechanisms that help explain the relationships. The second study examines the effect of compensation design dispersion within top management teams and its impact on executive turnover. The results show that compensation design dispersion affects executive turnover, both directly and in interaction with relative pay level. The third study addresses the role of compensation design dispersion in the development of procedural justice perceptions. Using two experiments, this study shows that compensation design dispersion causes lower procedural justice perceptions, which appears to be less problematic for participants with relatively easier to understand contracts. In summary, this dissertation provides a nuanced overview of complex compensation design and compensation design dispersion. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the effectiveness of compensation as an incentive and sorting tool for organizations, and of the implications of compensation design for the functioning of teams.

The Many Selves in Social Structures - Applications to Corporate Strategy, Work-Life Dynamics, and Cross-Class Interactions

The Many Selves in Social Structures - Applications to Corporate Strategy, Work-Life Dynamics, and Cross-Class Interactions
Author: Alejandro Hermida Carrillo
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2024-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3947095139

How do identities shape and react to the socio-economic landscape? I draw from paradigms in cultural anthropology, organizational behavior, and sociology to dissect how distinct elements of individual identity inform and transform social interactions within corporate, work-life, and social class structures. In my first study, I provide evidence for the role of similarity and dissimilarity in visual (e.g., age, gender) and psychological (i.e., personality) attributes among CEOs on strategic imitation following underperformance. In the second project, I examine how romantic couples' joint preferences for integration or segmentation of their work and home spheres influence their domestic harmony, zooming into the context of remote work. In the final project, I explore how social class disparities among conversation partners influence the amount and type of information about the self, conveyed during the interaction. I address my projects by combining analytical strategies designed for the study of similarities and differences - e.g., spline regression and response surface analysis - with techniques aimed to capture the complexity of individual identity - e.g., surveys, archival data, and natural language processing. My research bridges theoretical and methodological paradigms in the social sciences, underscoring the multiplicity of the self as a critical nexus for interdisciplinary dialogue.

Inducements in Organizations

Inducements in Organizations
Author: Nicolas Tichy
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2023-03-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3947095090

Executive compensation has inspired controversial debate in both academia and the general public, and many voices criticize that executive compensation designs fail to deliver desired outcomes. Although much research has been devoted to understanding the antecedents and consequences of executive compensation design, important questions remain unanswered. This dissertation contributes to the field by exploring a previously neglected aspect: executive compensation complexity. Given the absence of an established measure of executive compensation complexity, there is an incomplete understanding of how complexity enters executive compensation contracts and what the consequences are for managers and corporations. The essays of this dissertation aim to narrow this gap. The first study presents a novel measure of executive compensation complexity, which is validated and utilized to examine the antecedents of executive compensation complexity. The second study explores the consequences of executive compensation complexity and finds that complexity impairs firm performance, regardless of the performance metric chosen (accounting-based, market-based, or ESG-based performance metrics). The third study explores the link between compensation design dispersion and executive turnover and reveals that executives with riskier compensation packages and fewer performance goals are more likely to move. The fourth study provides experimental evidence on the effect of CSR Fit dimensions and organizational reputation. Taken together, the essays of this dissertation make a significant and valuable contribution to the scholarly discourse on executive compensation. By shedding light on the complex nature of executive compensation and its implications for managers and corporations, this dissertation advances the current understanding of executive compensation and provides insights for policymakers, managers, and investors.

Essays on Executive Compensation

Essays on Executive Compensation
Author: Timothy C. Carpenter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2015
Genre: Chief executive officers
ISBN: 9781339034072

This dissertation examines the effects resultant from compensation committees' decisions on the structure and magnitude of executive compensation packages. Executive compensation has long been a contentious topic, both in the U.S. and abroad. Specifically, equity-based pay (eg. options and stock grants) has been increasing in popularity and met with mixed reactions. This form of remuneration aims to properly align the goals of executives with those of their shareholders; however, the use of equity based-pay tends to result in larger pay packages. Thus, the potential reasons for its recent popularity range from a forthright belief in its optimality to more Machiavellian motives. Moreover, incentive compensation has a number of secondary effects which must be accounted for, including effects on executive retention and accounting quality among many others. This line of research aims to improve our understanding of executive pay so compensation committees can better serve their shareholders by crafting more appropriate pay packages and better understanding the potential benefits and consequences therefrom. In Chapter One, I analyze the effect of cumulative wealth and unvested equity compensation on voluntary CEO turnover. I find that wealthier CEOs are less likely to retire or resign. This suggests that the CEO vetting process is able to sort out those individuals who would substitute high wealth for additional leisure. Consistent with Balsam and Miharjo (2007), CEOs with more unvested equity are significantly less likely to leave their position. However, I find that unvested equity is less effective as a retention device if the CEO has high existing wealth. In contrast to prior results, my results show no significant relation between existing CEO wealth and incentive compensation. In Chapter Two, I analyze the structure of compensation packages awarded in the United Kingdom compared to their U.S. counterparts. I consider the asymmetric relationship between CEO pay and firm performance in the U.S. and test for similar relations in the U.K. My findings confirm that asymmetry exists in the U.S. in that pay is more strongly associated with upside risk than downside risk. In contrast, U.K. CEO pay is more symmetrically associated with risk. Therefore, while U.S. CEOs face greater risk as a result of compensation with more equity-based pay, their pay to performance is asymmetrical. This suggests an additional component that risk-based arguments must consider before concluding that higher pay in the U.S. is structural and, thus, rational. Finally, in Chapter Three, I examine the effect of executive wealth on accounting quality. Results indicate that firms with wealthier CEOs are significantly more likely to restate earnings. To some extent this effect may be mitigated by compensation committees through the use of unvested compensation components, but this reduction is minimal. Firms with wealthier CEOs also exhibit greater levels of earnings management. Consistent with SEC auditors being aware of this, firms with wealthier CEOs are more likely to face an enforcement action, suggesting that these firms are both targeted and, ultimately, found in violation of accounting requirements. Chief Financial Officers' wealth shows a similar (and even stronger) relationship, increasing the likelihood of an earnings restatement as well as the magnitude of earnings management, but SEC enforcement actions do not reflect this relationship. My results suggest that SEC auditors may be able to improve governance by targeting firms that employ wealthy CFOs, and particularly those with recent large gains.

Antecedents and Consequences of Pay Disparity Between CEO and Non-CEO Executives

Antecedents and Consequences of Pay Disparity Between CEO and Non-CEO Executives
Author: Seema Pissaris
Publisher:
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2008
Genre: Chief executive officers
ISBN:

This dissertation investigates the antecedents and consequences to pay disparity between the CEO and non-CEO executives from an equity-based perspective. While the principles of agency theory suggest that CEOs are granted higher compensation packages to better align their motives to those of the firm's shareholders, empirical research has not supported a positive relationship between rising CEO pay and firm performance. Some results even suggest a negative relationship. This dissertation argues that if organizational outcomes are determined by the integrated skills and talents of its dominant coalition, and if the management of a firm's trajectory is a shared process, then, the disparity in rewards between the CEO and those that work closest to him becomes an important area of study. The dissertation investigates the antecedents of pay disparity and proposes that the quality of a firm's governance marked by independent boards as well as higher levels of blockholders will be more likely to temper and better align the CEO's compensation and thereby reduce pay disparity. Empirical results support the major propositions as firms with independent Chairman of the Board, fewer interlocking directors, and higher levels of blockholders were found to have lower levels of pay disparity between the CEO and non-CEO executives. Pay disparity was tested both at the firm level and at the individual executive level and both were found have a significant effect on non-CEO executive turnover for up to two years. Central to the dissertation is a moderation model which proposes that pay disparity has a profound effect on an executive team's ability to integrate its diverse experience and educational background, and consequently, its capacity to respond strategically to its changing competitive landscape. The study examines the education, age, tenure and functional background of top management teams of Fortune 500 firms and finds support for the assertion that the positive relationship between heterogeneously composed teams and firm performance is contingent on rewards equality between the CEO and balance of the top team membership. The findings suggest that higher levels of pay disparity attenuate the negative aspects of cognitive diversity serving to impede the firm's competitive performance.

Essays on Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation

Essays on Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation
Author: Patrick Bernard Washington
Publisher:
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2016
Genre: Electronic dissertations
ISBN:

This dissertation is composed of three essays that study the interconnections between blockholders and CEO power, and the link between deferred compensation (inside debt) and financial performance/firm behavior. In the first chapter, I consider agency theory's prediction that a large shareholder, "blockholder," can serve as an effective governance mechanism when monitoring man- agers by reducing CEO dominance. However, not all blockholders are created equally. Inside blockholders with large equity stakes may be subject to CEO influence. Outside blockholders may not fear the same career concerns. Using a novel approach, I sepa- rate blockholders into insiders (officers & directors) and outsiders when considering their relationship to CEO power, which is proxied by the CEO Pay Slice (CPS). However, separating blockholders into outside and officer specifications reveals that director block- holders reduce CEO power. Economic theory suggests that firms with multiple classes of shares have weak governance structures. A significant difference in CEO dominance inside dual class share firms versus single class share firms has been documented. This paper expounds on previous research and shed's light on the effect of insiders' differential shareholder rights in dual class share firms. Evidence is provided that shows as insiders' percentage of voting rights increase then CEO power (CPS) decreases. Also, the results reveal that as insiders' percentage of cash flow rights increase then CEO power (CPS) increases. In the second chapter, I study recent literature's documentation that inside debt is widely used in executive compensation contracts. Prior research has only focused on the CEO's level of inside debt. However, the inner workings of the top executive team, and their importance for firm performance are difficult to observe and measure. In this essay, I aim to contribute to the subject by introducing new measures pertaining to the rela- tionship between the CEO and the other members of the top executive team, as well as studying the relation between these measures and the value, performance, and behavior of public firms. My novel measure is the Slice of CEO Inside Debt (SCID) -- the frac- tion of the aggregate deferred compensation (inside debt) of the top-five executive team captured by the CEO. The effects of total deferred compensation account balances, firm contributions, executive contributions, and earnings on deferred compensation accounts are examined with respect to SCID. This research provides evidence of increased CEO tenure (entrenchment) in relation to the earnings measure of SCID, reduced spending on research and development in relation to the earnings measure of SCID, increased spend- ing on capital expenditures in relation to the executive contributions measure of SCID, and a lower probability of bankruptcy in relation to the executive contributions measure of SCID. Also, this paper shows that as the CEO's slice of deferred compensation from firm contributions and executive contributions increases then firm liquidity, i.e. working capital, decreases. In the final chapter, I consider prior research that has shown firms with CEOs who have less power take less risk. Thus, theory suggests that reducing CEO power through the use of deferred compensation, "inside debt," should motivate executives to become more risk averse. This essay investigates the relationship between the Slice of CEO Inside- Debt (SCID) — the fraction of the aggregate deferred compensation (inside debt) of the top-five executive team captured by the CEO — and CEO power (CPS--CEO Pay Slice) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The effects of firm contributions, executive contributions, and earnings on deferred compensation accounts are examined with respect to SCID in relation to CPS and CSR. This research provides evidence of increased CEO power by showing that firms with CEOs who contribute more money to their deferred compensation accounts relative to the total amount deferred by the top five executives, including the CEO, have CEOs with greater power in the following year. Additionally, this essay studies firms use of inside debt and its effect on corporate social responsibility. Empirical evidence is provided that firms with CEOs who experience increased earnings on their deferred compensation accounts relative to the account earnings of top five executives are positively correlated with being more socially responsible.

Executive Compensation and Earnings Management Under Moral Hazard

Executive Compensation and Earnings Management Under Moral Hazard
Author: Bo Sun
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2010-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1437930980

Analyzes executive compensation in a setting where managers may take a costly action to manipulate corporate performance, and whether managers do so is stochastic. Examines how the opportunity to manipulate affects the optimal pay contract, and establishes necessary and sufficient conditions under which earnings management occurs. The author¿s model provides a set of implications on the role earnings management plays in driving the time-series and cross-sectional variation of executive compensation. In addition, the model's predictions regarding the changes of earnings management and executive pay in response to corporate governance legislation are consistent with empirical observations. Charts and tables.

An Introduction to Executive Compensation

An Introduction to Executive Compensation
Author: Steven Balsam
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2002
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780120771264

General readers have no idea why people should care about what executives are paid and why they are paid the way they are. That's the reason that The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and other popular and practitioner publications have regular coverage on them. This book not only proposes a reason - executives need incentives in order to maximize firm value (economists call this agency theory) - it also describes the nature and design of executive compensation practices. Those incentives can take the form of benefits (salary, stock options), or prerquisites (reflecting the status of the executive within the organizational culture.

Explaining Executive Pay

Explaining Executive Pay
Author: Lukas Hengartner
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2007-12-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3835093916

Lukas Hengartner shows that both firm complexity and managerial power are associated with higher pay levels. This suggests that top managers are paid for the complexity of their job and that more powerful top managers receive pay in excess of the level that would be optimal for shareholders.