IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v62y2022is1p1015-1063.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The governance role of institutional investors in management compensation: evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Song Zhu
  • Haijie Huang
  • William Bradford

Abstract

This study examines whether and how institutional investors play a corporate governance role in executive pay in China. Based on a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2005 to 2015, we find that higher institutional investor ownership is negatively related to excessive management compensation; this indicates that institutional investors play a governance role in listed firms’ decisions on management payment. Institutional investors are more likely to have an influence on executive compensation through their representatives on the corporate board or by conducting site visits, especially when their ownership is high. They will also react, as in the US, by ‘voting with their feet’; that is, holding fewer shares than they would otherwise, if firms pay excessive executive compensation, especially when their ownership is low. Cross‐sectional analyses show that the negative impact of institutional ownership on excess management compensation is more evident when firms are not owned by the government, monitored by fewer analysts, and located in regions of China with weak legal investor protection. Our results indicate that institutional investors in China can play an important governance role, especially for firms with characteristics such as location and analyst coverage, for which outside monitoring mechanisms will be in high demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Song Zhu & Haijie Huang & William Bradford, 2022. "The governance role of institutional investors in management compensation: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1015-1063, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:62:y:2022:i:s1:p:1015-1063
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12817
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12817
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12817?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Clyde, 1997. "Do institutional shareholders police management?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 1-10.
    2. Luo, Wei & Zhang, Yi & Zhu, Ning, 2011. "Bank ownership and executive perquisites: New evidence from an emerging market," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 352-370, April.
    3. Vidhi Chhaochharia & Yaniv Grinstein, 2009. "CEO Compensation and Board Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 231-261, February.
    4. Franks, Julian & Mayer, Colin, 2001. "Ownership and Control of German Corporations," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(4), pages 943-977.
    5. Qiang Cheng & Fei Du & Brian Yutao Wang & Xin Wang, 2019. "Do Corporate Site Visits Impact Stock Prices?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 359-388, March.
    6. Kato, Takao & Long, Cheryl, 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, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(4), pages 945-983, July.
    7. Firth, Michael & Fung, Peter M.Y. & Rui, Oliver M., 2007. "How ownership and corporate governance influence chief executive pay in China's listed firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(7), pages 776-785, July.
    8. Alex Bryson & John Forth & Minghai Zhou, 2014. "Same or Different? The CEO Labour Market in China's Public Listed Companies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(574), pages 90-108, February.
    9. Bebchuk, Lucian Arye & Fried, Jesse & Walker, David I, 2002. "Managerial Power and Rent Extraction in the Design of Executive Compensation," CEPR Discussion Papers 3558, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Anat R. Admati & Paul Pfleiderer, 2009. "The "Wall Street Walk" and Shareholder Activism: Exit as a Form of Voice," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2445-2485, July.
    11. Cao, Jerry & Pan, Xiaofei & Tian, Gary, 2011. "Disproportional ownership structure and pay-performance relationship: Evidence from China's listed firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 541-554, June.
    12. Jiang, Xuanyu & Yuan, Qingbo, 2018. "Institutional investors' corporate site visits and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 148-168.
    13. Wang, Qian & Wong, T.J. & Xia, Lijun, 2008. "State ownership, the institutional environment, and auditor choice: Evidence from China," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 112-134, September.
    14. Cai, Jie & Walkling, Ralph A., 2011. "Shareholders’ Say on Pay: Does It Create Value?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 299-339, April.
    15. Lucian Bebchuk & Jesse Fried, 2002. "Power, rent extraction, and executive compensation," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 3(03), pages 23-28, October.
    16. Huang, Wei & Zhu, Tao, 2015. "Foreign institutional investors and corporate governance in emerging markets: Evidence of a split-share structure reform in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 312-326.
    17. Hong, Xin & Zhuang, Zhuang & Kang, Di & Wang, Zhibin, 2019. "Do corporate site visits impact hedge fund performance?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 113-128.
    18. Fortin, Steve & Subramaniam, Chandra & Wang, Xu (Frank) & Zhang, Sanjian (Bill), 2014. "Incentive alignment through performance-focused shareholder proposals on management compensation," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 130-147.
    19. Jay C. Hartzell & Laura T. Starks, 2003. "Institutional Investors and Executive Compensation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2351-2374, December.
    20. Alex Edmans & Gustavo Manso, 2011. "Governance Through Trading and Intervention: A Theory of Multiple Blockholders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(7), pages 2395-2428.
    21. Qiang Cheng & Fei Du & Xin Wang & Yutao Wang, 2016. "Seeing is believing: analysts’ corporate site visits," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1245-1286, December.
    22. Chen, Yibiao & Wang, Steven Shuye & Li, Wei & Sun, Qian & Tong, Wilson H.S., 2015. "Institutional environment, firm ownership, and IPO first-day returns: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 150-168.
    23. Lu, Jun & Shi, Zhen, 2018. "Does improved disclosure lead to higher executive compensation? Evidence from the conversion to IFRS and the dual-class share system in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 244-260.
    24. Wenfeng Wu & Sofia A. Johan & Oliver M. Rui, 2016. "Institutional Investors, Political Connections, and the Incidence of Regulatory Enforcement Against Corporate Fraud," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(4), pages 709-726, April.
    25. Ding, Rong & Hou, Wenxuan & Kuo, Jing-Ming & Lee, Edward, 2013. "Fund ownership and stock price informativeness of Chinese listed firms," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 166-185.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Haozhe Han, 2023. "Does increasing the QFII quota promote Chinese institutional investors to drive ESG?," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 1627-1643, November.
    2. Jiang, Yahan & Wang, Cai & Li, Sha & Wan, Jing, 2022. "Do institutional investors' corporate site visits improve ESG performance? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Philip Teng Lin & Yanhui Jin & Fei Gao & Ruifeng Yang & Qian Lin, 2023. "Institutional Investors, CSR Report Readability and the Moderating Role of ESG Performance," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    4. Anisa Safiah Maznorbalia & Muhammad Aiman Awalluddin & Ardzlyn Hawatul Yuhanis Ayob, 2023. "Exploring the role of institutional investors in voting, monitoring and dialogue engagement in mitigating agency conflict in Malaysia’s public listed companies," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wu, Fang & Cao, June & Zhang, Xiaosan, 2023. "Do non-executive employees matter in curbing corporate financial fraud?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Minhang Deng & Yunyi Wang & Gaoliang Tian & Bozhi Xu & Yuyan Tang, 2023. "Institutional investors' corporate site visits and resource extraction: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(5), pages 5211-5243, December.
    3. Wu, Wenxin & Zhang, Xuezhi & Zhou, Zixun, 2022. "Institutional investors' corporate site visits and pay-performance sensitivity," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Dan Zhang & Shiguang Ma & Xiaofei Pan, 2021. "Institutional investors, controlling shareholders and CEO pay‐performance relationship: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 467-498, March.
    5. Cheng, Minying & Lin, Bingxuan & Wei, Minghai, 2015. "Executive compensation in family firms: The effect of multiple family members," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 238-257.
    6. Yize Hu & Jun Shan & Peixun Zhan, 2020. "Institutional Investors’ Corporate Site Visits and Firms’ Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Cao, Jerry & Wang, Hanyang & Zhou, Sili, 2022. "Soft activism and corporate dividend policy: Evidence from institutional investors site visits," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Guo, Yingwen & Li, Jingjing & Lin, Bingxuan, 2023. "Corporate site visit and tax avoidance: The effects of monitoring and tax knowledge dissemination," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Su, Fei & Feng, Xu & Tang, Songlian, 2021. "Do site visits mitigate corporate fraudulence? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Luo, Yonggen & Wu, Huiying & Ying, Sammy Xiaoyan & Peng, Qiuping, 2022. "Do company visits by institutional investors mitigate managerial myopia in R&D investment? Evidence from China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    11. Wilson, Mark & Wang, Kun Tracy & Wu, Yue & Lau, Archie, 2022. "Institutional investors and earnings management associated with controlling shareholders' promises: Evidence from the split share structure reform in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    12. Qi, Zhen & Chu, Chien-Chi & Zhou, Yixiao & Chen, Jian, 2022. "Corporate site visits and firm performance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 598-608.
    13. Li, Tao & Ji, Yu, 2021. "Institutional ownership and insider trading profitability: Evidence from an emerging market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Camelia M. Kuhnen & Alexandra Niessen, 2012. "Public Opinion and Executive Compensation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1249-1272, July.
    15. Pamela Kent & Kim Kercher & James Routledge, 2018. "Remuneration committees, shareholder dissent on CEO pay and the CEO pay–performance link," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(2), pages 445-475, June.
    16. Ricardo Correa & Ugur Lel, 2013. "Say on pay laws, executive compensation, CEO pay slice, and firm value around the world," International Finance Discussion Papers 1084, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    17. Yang, Xia & Ma, Zhong, 2022. "Institutional investors’ corporate site visits and dividend payouts," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 697-716.
    18. Chen, Jie & Song, Wei & Goergen, Marc, 2019. "Passing the dividend baton: The impact of dividend policy on new CEOs' initial compensation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 458-481.
    19. He Xiao, 2023. "Institutional investors' corporate site visits and corporate investment efficiency," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 359-392, June.
    20. Ng, Lilian & Sibilkov, Valeriy & Wang, Qinghai & Zaiats, Nataliya, 2011. "Does shareholder approval requirement of equity compensation plans matter?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 1510-1530.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:62:y:2022:i:s1:p:1015-1063. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.