Incentives, Targeting and Firm Performance

Incentives, Targeting and Firm Performance
Author: Yael V. Hochberg
Publisher:
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

We examine whether options granted to non-executive employees affect firm performance. Using new data on option programs, we explore the link between broad-based option programs, option portfolio implied incentives, and firm operating performance, utilizing an instrumental variables approach to identify causal effects. Firms whose employee option portfolios have higher implied incentives exhibit higher subsequent operating performance. Intuitively, the implied incentive-performance relation is concentrated in firms with fewer employees and in firms with higher growth opportunities. Additionally, the effect is concentrated in firms that grant options broadly to non-executive employees, consistent with theories of cooperation and mutual monitoring among co-workers.

Management Team Incentive Dispersion and Firm Performance

Management Team Incentive Dispersion and Firm Performance
Author: Robert M. Bushman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 57
Release: 2016
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ISBN:

Recent theory suggests that firms incorporate synergistic interrelationships among executives into optimal incentive design (Edmans et al. 2013). We focus on Pay Performance Sensitivities (PPS) and use dispersion in PPS across top executives as a proxy for the incentive design component shaped by an executive team's synergy profile. We model optimal PPS dispersion and use residuals from this model to measure deviations from optimal. We find that firm performance is increasing (decreasing) in the residual when PPS dispersion is too low (too high). We conjecture that deviations from optimal are sustained by adjustment costs, finding that firms only close around 60% of the gap between target and actual PPS dispersion over the subsequent year. Viewing a team's equity grants as a vector, we provide evidence that firms use subsequent equity grants to actively manage PPS dispersion towards optimality. Cross-sectional analysis reveals that the deleterious effect of deviations from optimal is decreasing in the duration of a team's tenure together, and increasing in the importance of effort coordination across team members for firm performance.

Stock-Based Incentives

Stock-Based Incentives
Author: Marc Steffen Rapp
Publisher:
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2011
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ISBN:

We examine performance implications of stock-based incentive programs. While agency theory makes a strong case for stock-based incentives, empirical evidence of the effect on firm performance so far is mixed. Using a novel hand-collected data-set of German Prime Standard firms, we also find that on average stock-based long-term incentives do not improve firm performance. However, when we take a closer look at the design of the incentive structures, we find that ill-designed programs go along with poor post performance, while ambitious programs boosts firm performance. We confirm these findings by using different performance measures, addressing endogenity concerns, and controlling for various governance mechanisms like ownership and board structures, as well as other design dimensions of the stock-based incentive plans.

Rank Order Tournaments and Incentive Alignment

Rank Order Tournaments and Incentive Alignment
Author: Jayant R. Kale
Publisher:
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2012
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ISBN:

In this article, we study the effectiveness of promotion-based tournament incentives. We simultaneously investigate tournament incentives for the VP and performance- or equity- based (alignment) incentives for the VP and the CEO. We find that tournament incentives, as measured by the pay differential between the CEO and VPs, relate positively to firm performance. We show that the effect of tournament incentives on firm performance is weaker when the firm has a new CEO and more so when the new CEO is an outsider, and when the firm belongs to a homogeneous industry. On the other hand, tournament effects are stronger when the CEO is close to retirement. Our analysis is robust to corrections for endogeneity of all our incentive measures as well for several alternate measures of tournament incentives and firm performance.

Authority, Risk, and Performance Incentives

Authority, Risk, and Performance Incentives
Author: Julie Wulf
Publisher:
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2006
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ISBN:

I show that performance incentives vary by decision-making authority of division managers. For division managers with broader authority, i.e., those designated as corporate officers, both the sensitivity of pay to quot;globalquot; performance measures and the relative importance of quot;globalquot; to quot;localquot; measures are larger, relative to non-officers. There is no difference in sensitivity of pay to quot;localquot; measures by officer status. These results support theories suggesting that authority over project selection combined with incentives designed to maximize firm performance, as well as induce effort for the division, are important in incentive design for division managers. Consistent with earlier findings, the evidence strongly supports one of the main predictions of the principal-agent model, that is, a negative tradeoff between risk and incentives.

Understanding High-powered Incentives in Organizations

Understanding High-powered Incentives in Organizations
Author: Shuo Zheng (S.M.)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2018
Genre:
ISBN:

I study how the compensation structure of top managers from US public companies changes in recent years and the effect of these incentives on firm performance. I first explore the trend of executive compensation structure and performance metrics used in executive compensation over the years. I also examine systematic differences across industries and different firm sizes. Then I analyze the relationship between compensation structure and firm performance. My results suggest that a higher level of incentive-based compensation correlates with higher growth in total shareholder return; particularly for small firms, a higher level of incentive-based compensation correlates with significantly higher total asset growth, sales growth and employment growth as well. To explore whether the level of incentive-based compensation has influence on firm performance, I use propensity score matching to reduce selection bias. My results suggest that the level of incentive-based compensation has no significant influence on firm performance.