Research on Influencing Factors of Executive Compensation in China’s Monopoly Industries

Abstract

The annual salary income of the executives in the state-owned monopoly industry has become the focus of the society recently. With the improvement of enterprise efficiency, executives deserve to get high pay. However, it’s should be noted that because of the state-owned monopolies’ special status, business performance relies heavily on administrative monopoly power, but not actually the efforts of leaders. In this case, the income distribution mechanism is distortion, which has caused great dissatisfaction. This paper aims to study the main affecting factors of the executive compensation of state monopolies, with 1280 firm-year observations of 183 monopoly companies. We find that 1) Executive compensation is positively correlated to firm performance, firm size, CEO duality; 2) Executive compensation is negatively correlated to state share proportion and independent director proportion; 3) Company location, industry both have significant influence on executive compensation.

Share and Cite:

Dai, Y. (2014) Research on Influencing Factors of Executive Compensation in China’s Monopoly Industries. Open Journal of Business and Management, 2, 210-218. doi: 10.4236/ojbm.2014.23026.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Taussig, F.W. and Baker, W.S. (1925) American Corporations and Their Executives: A Statistical Inquiry. Quarterly Journal of Economic, 40, 1-51.
[2] Tosi, H.L., Werner, S., Katz, J.P. and Gomez-Mejia, L.R. (2000) How Much Does Performance Matter? A Meta-Analysis of CEO Pay Studies. Journal of Management, 26, 301-339.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600207
[3] Lewellen, W.G. and Huntsman, B. (1970) Managerial Pay and Corporate Performance. The American Economic Review, 60, 710-720.
[4] Coughlan, A.T. and Schmidt, R.M. (1985) Executive Compensation, Management Turnover and Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 7, 43-66.
[5] Abowd, J.M. (1990) Does Performance Based Managerial Compensation Affect Corporate Performance? Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 43, 52-73.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0165-4101(85)90026-6
[6] Hall, B.J. and Liebman, J.B. (1998) Are CEOs Really Paid Like Bureaucrats? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113, 653-691. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1162/003355398555702
[7] Sapp, S.G. (2008) The Impact of Corporate Governance on Executive Compensation. European Financial Management, 14, 710-746. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1468-036X.2008.00443.x
[8] Conyon, M.J. and He, L. (2008) Executive Compensation and CEO Equity Incentives in China’s Listed Firms. Working Paper, ESSEC Business School, Wharton School, and SUNY.
[9] Sigler, K.J. (2011) CEO Compensation and Company Performance. Business and Economics Journal, 31, 1-8.
[10] Chow, I.H. (1992) Chinese Workers’ Attitudes towards Compensation Practices in the People’s Republic of China. Employee Relations, 14, 41-55. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1108/01425459210013896
[11] Kato, T. and Long, C. (2006) Executive Compensation, Firm Performance, and Corporate Governance in China: Evidence from Firms Listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 54, 945-983. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/503583
[12] Agrawal, A. and Walkling, R.A. (1994) Executive careers and compensation surrounding Takeover Bids. Journal of Finance, 49, 985-1014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1994.tb00085.x
[13] Bebchuk, L.A., Fried, J.M. and Walker, D.I. (2002) Managerial Power and Rent Extraction in the Design of Executive Compensation. University of Chicago Law Review, 69, 751-846.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w9068
[14] Mengistae, T. and Xu, L.C. (2004) Agency Theory and Executive Compensation: The Case of Chinese State Owned Enterprises. Journal of Labor Economics, 22, 615-637.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/383109
[15] Firth, M., Fung, P.M.Y. and Rui, O.M. (2006) Corporate Performance and CEO Compensation in China. Journal of Corporate Finance, 12, 693-714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2005.03.002
[16] Firth, M., Fung, P.M.Y. and Rui, O.M. (2007) How Ownership and Corporate Governance Influence Chief Executive Pay in China’s Listed Firms. Journal of Business Research, 60, 776-785.
[17] Li, D., Moshirian, F., Nguyen, P. and Tan, L.W. (2007) Corporate Governance or Globalization: What Determines CEO Compensation in China? Research in International Business and Finance, 21, 32-49.
[18] Conyon, M.J. and He, L. (2008) Executive Compensation and CEO Equity Incentives in China’s Listed Firms. Working Paper, ILR School, Cornell University, Ithaca.
[19] Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989) Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review. Academy of Management Review, 14, 57-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1989.4279003
[20] Weisbach, M.S. (1988) Outside Directors and CEO Turnover. Journal of Financial Economics, 20, 431-460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(88)90053-0
[21] Fama, E.F. and Jensen Michael, C. (1983) Separation of Ownership and Control. Journal of Law and Economics, 26, 301-326.
[22] Chen, J.J., Liu, X. and Li, W. (2010) The Effect of Insider Control and Global Benchmarks on Chinese Executive Compensation. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 18, 107-123.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2010.00788.x
[23] Conyon, M. and He, L. (2011) Executive Compensation and CEO Equity Incentives in China’s Listed Firms. Journal of Corporate Finance, 4, 1158-1175.
[24] Murphy, K.J. (1999) Executive Compensation. In: Ashenfelter, O. and Card, D., Eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier Science North, Holland, 2485-2563.

Copyright © 2023 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.