Top Management Compensation and Shareholder Returns: Unravelling Different Models of the Relationship
Department
Management and Entrepreneurship
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1999
Abstract
In order to further examine the relationship between executive pay and company performance, this paper investigates the linkage between two separate components of executive compensation (i.e. cash compensation and stock options) and market return performance, among a selected sample of US pharmaceutical company CEOs and COOs. In the surveyed sample, changes in cash compensation were found to exhibit a between-firm relationship with lagged market returns, while Δ stock option grants displayed a within-firm relationship. The former result suggests a commonality in practices across all firms, while the latter denotes idiosyncratic firm-specific practices. These contrasts represent different degrees of the agency problem in the contracts for cash compensation as compared to the stock option components. Levels of cash compensation were affected primarily by firm size. Market returns were not instrumental influences on the levels of both compensation components.
Journal Title
Journal of Management Studies
Journal ISSN
0022-2380
Volume
36
Issue
1
First Page
123
Last Page
143
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1111/1467-6486.00129