IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v94y2021icp473-482.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why socially concerned firms use low-powered managerial incentives: A complementary explanation

Author

Listed:
  • Kopel, Michael
  • Putz, Eva Maria

Abstract

We study a duopoly market where a profit-maximizing firm and a socially concerned firm compete by offering differentiated products to consumers. Both firms delegate the quantity (price) decisions to a manager. The socially concerned firm employs an intrinsically motivated manager whose interest is partially aligned with the firm's objective. The profit-maximizing firm's manager is simply interested in maximizing compensation. We find that depending on the substitutability of the firms' products and the level of the firm's social concern, the socially concerned firm might prefer – solely for strategic reasons – a flat wage for compensating its motivated manager rather than a variable bonus. Our paper points to strategic motives as a complementary explanation for the observation that hybrid organizations with objectives other than profits frequently rely on different forms of compensation than their for-profit rivals.

Suggested Citation

  • Kopel, Michael & Putz, Eva Maria, 2021. "Why socially concerned firms use low-powered managerial incentives: A complementary explanation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 473-482.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:94:y:2021:i:c:p:473-482
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2020.11.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999320312384
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2020.11.002?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fehrler, Sebastian & Kosfeld, Michael, 2014. "Pro-social missions and worker motivation: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 99-110.
    2. Florian Englmaier & Markus Reisinger, 2014. "Biased Managers as Strategic Commitment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(5), pages 350-356, July.
    3. Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), 2018. "Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume II," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 17978.
    4. Robert Dur & Robin Zoutenbier, 2015. "Intrinsic Motivations of Public Sector Employees: Evidence for Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 16(3), pages 343-366, August.
    5. Lambertini, Luca & Tampieri, Alessandro, 2015. "Incentives, performance and desirability of socially responsible firms in a Cournot oligopoly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 40-48.
    6. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2005. "Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 616-636, June.
    7. Paolo Perego & Frank Hartmann, 2009. "Aligning Performance Measurement Systems With Strategy: The Case of Environmental Strategy," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(4), pages 397-428, December.
    8. ., 2001. "Corporate Governance in Islamic Banking," Chapters, in: Islamic Banking, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Melissa B. Frye & Edward Nelling & Elizabeth Webb, 2006. "Executive Compensation in Socially Responsible Firms," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(5), pages 446-455, September.
    10. Kopel, Michael & Lamantia, Fabio & Szidarovszky, Ferenc, 2014. "Evolutionary competition in a mixed market with socially concerned firms," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 394-409.
    11. Florian Englmaier, 2010. "Managerial optimism and investment choice," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 303-310.
    12. Karine Nyborg & Tao Zhang, 2013. "Is Corporate Social Responsibility Associated with Lower Wages?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(1), pages 107-117, May.
    13. Tirole, Jean, 2001. "Corporate Governance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 1-35, January.
    14. Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), 2018. "Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume I," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16873.
    15. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2018. "Prosocial Motivation and Incentives," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 411-438, August.
    16. Dennis Campbell, 2012. "Employee Selection as a Control System," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 931-966, September.
    17. Dirk Sliwka, 2007. "Trust as a Signal of a Social Norm and the Hidden Costs of Incentive Schemes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 999-1012, June.
    18. Liu, Qian & Wang, Leonard F.S. & Chen, Charlie L., 2018. "CSR in an oligopoly with foreign competition: Policy and welfare implications," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-7.
    19. Arturo García & Mariel Leal & Sang‐Ho Lee, 2020. "Welfare‐improving cooperation with a consumer‐friendly multiproduct corporation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(7), pages 1144-1155, October.
    20. Xavier Vives, 2008. "Innovation And Competitive Pressure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 419-469, December.
    21. Antoni Cunyat, 2019. "Crowding-out effect and sorting in competitive labour markets with motivated workers," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 326-330, February.
    22. Burcay Erus & Burton Weisbrod, 2003. "Objective Functions and Compensation Structures in Nonprofit and For-Profit Organizations. Evidence from the "Mixed" Hospital Industry," NBER Chapters, in: The Governance of Not-for-Profit Organizations, pages 117-142, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Kopel, Michael & Brand, Björn, 2012. "Socially responsible firms and endogenous choice of strategic incentives," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 982-989.
    24. Kopel, Michael & Lamantia, Fabio, 2018. "The persistence of social strategies under increasing competitive pressure," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 71-83.
    25. Vickers, John, 1985. "Delegation and the Theory of the Firm," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 95(380a), pages 138-147, Supplemen.
    26. Arturo Garcia & Mariel Leal & Sang‐Ho Lee, 2020. "Cooperation with a multiproduct corporation in a strategic managerial delegation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 3-9, January.
    27. Brekke, Kjell Arne & Nyborg, Karine, 2008. "Attracting responsible employees: Green production as labor market screening," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 509-526, December.
    28. Michael Kopel & Marco Marini, 2014. "Strategic delegation in consumer cooperatives under mixed oligopoly," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 275-296, November.
    29. Michael Kopel & Marco Marini, 2014. "Erratum to: Strategic delegation in consumer cooperatives under mixed oligopoly," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 297-297, November.
    30. Fershtman, Chaim & Judd, Kenneth L, 1987. "Equilibrium Incentives in Oligopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 927-940, December.
    31. Pu‐yan Nie & Chan Wang & Yan Meng, 2019. "An analysis of environmental corporate social responsibility," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(4), pages 384-393, June.
    32. Steven D. Sklivas, 1987. "The Strategic Choice of Managerial Incentives," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(3), pages 452-458, Autumn.
    33. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2017. "Profit with Purpose? A Theory of Social Enterprise," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 19-58, August.
    34. Zoltan Matolcsy & Anna Wright, 2011. "CEO compensation structure and firm performance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 51(3), pages 745-763, September.
    35. Vanessa C. Burbano, 2016. "Social Responsibility Messages and Worker Wage Requirements: Field Experimental Evidence from Online Labor Marketplaces," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 1010-1028, August.
    36. Yin‐hua Yeh & Tsun‐siou Lee & Tracie Woidtke, 2001. "Family Control and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Taiwan," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 2(1‐2), pages 21-48.
    37. Edward L. Glaeser, 2003. "The Governance of Not-for-Profit Organizations," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number glae03-1, March.
    38. Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2019. "Managerial delegation games and corporate social responsibility," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(6), pages 610-622, September.
    39. Ester Manna, 2017. "Customer‐oriented employees: Blessing or curse for firms?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 842-875, December.
    40. Julio J. Rotemberg, 2014. "Models of Caring, or Acting as if One Cared, About the Welfare of Others," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 129-154, August.
    41. Ballou, Jeffrey P. & Weisbrod, Burton A., 2003. "Managerial rewards and the behavior of for-profit, governmental, and nonprofit organizations: evidence from the hospital industry," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 1895-1920, September.
    42. Chaofan Li & Pin Zhou, 2019. "Corporate social responsibility: The implications of cost improvement and promotion effort," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(6), pages 633-638, September.
    43. Claude Francoeur & Andrea Melis & Silvia Gaia & Simone Aresu, 2017. "Green or Greed? An Alternative Look at CEO Compensation and Corporate Environmental Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 439-453, February.
    44. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2017. "A Note on Managerial Delegation with Asymmetric and Convex Costs," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 279-284, April.
    45. Baojun Jiang & Chang Liu, 2019. "Managerial Optimism in a Competitive Market," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 28(4), pages 833-846, April.
    46. Barreda-Tarrazona, Iván & Georgantzís, Nikolaos & Manasakis, Constantine & Mitrokostas, Evangelos & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2016. "Endogenous managerial compensation contracts in experimental quantity-setting duopolies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 205-217.
    47. Yin-hua Yeh & Tsun-siou Lee & Tracie Woidtke, 2001. "Family Control and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Taiwan," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 2(1&2), pages 21-48.
    48. Constantine Manasakis, 2018. "Business ethics and corporate social responsibility," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 486-497, June.
    49. Patti Collett Miles & Grant Miles, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and executive compensation: exploring the link," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(1), pages 76-90, March.
    50. Michael Kopel & Mario Pezzino, 2018. "Strategic delegation in oligopoly," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume II, chapter 10, pages 248-285, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    51. Frauke Lammers, 2010. "Fairness in Delegated Bargaining," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 169-183, March.
    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. De Chiara, Alessandro & Manna, Ester, 2022. "Firms' ownership, employees’ altruism, and product market competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Jumpei Hamamura & Vinay Ramani, 2023. "Social performance versus relative performance evaluation, asymmetric costs, and quantity competition under managerial delegation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(3), pages 1706-1719, April.
    3. Yasuhiro Arai & Noriaki Matsushima, 2023. "The impacts of suppliers and mutual outsourcing on organizational forms," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 114-132, February.

    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. De Chiara, Alessandro & Manna, Ester, 2022. "Firms' ownership, employees’ altruism, and product market competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Xu Lili & Lee Sang-Ho, 2022. "Corporate Profit Tax and Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Under Foreign Acquisition," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 123-151, January.
    3. Michael Kopel & Marco Marini, 2014. "Strategic delegation in consumer cooperatives under mixed oligopoly," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 275-296, November.
    4. Lisa Planer-Friedrich & Marco Sahm, 2020. "Strategic corporate social responsibility, imperfect competition, and market concentration," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 79-101, January.
    5. Arturo Garcia & Mariel Leal & Sang-Ho Lee, 2021. "Competitive CSR in a strategic managerial delegation game with a multiproduct corporation," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 68(3), pages 301-330, September.
    6. Planer-Friedrich, Lisa & Sahm, Marco, 2017. "Why Firms Should Care for All Consumers," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168257, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Lambertini, Luca & Tampieri, Alessandro, 2015. "Incentives, performance and desirability of socially responsible firms in a Cournot oligopoly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 40-48.
    8. Bian, Junsong & Li, Kevin W. & Guo, Xiaolei, 2016. "A strategic analysis of incorporating CSR into managerial incentive design," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 83-93.
    9. Jumpei Hamamura & Vinay Ramani, 2023. "Social performance versus relative performance evaluation, asymmetric costs, and quantity competition under managerial delegation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(3), pages 1706-1719, April.
    10. Bárcena-Ruiz, Juan Carlos & Sagasta, Amagoia, 2021. "Environmental policies with consumer-friendly firms and cross-ownership," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    11. Planer-Friedrich, Lisa & Sahm, Marco, 2017. "Strategic corporate social responsibility," BERG Working Paper Series 124, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    12. Luca Lambertini & Arsen Palestini & Alessandro Tampieri, 2016. "CSR in an Asymmetric Duopoly with Environmental Externality," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 236-252, July.
    13. Cong Pan & DongJoon Lee & Kangsik Choi, 2020. "Firms’ strategic delegation with heterogeneous consumers," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 199-221, December.
    14. Michael Kopel & Eva Maria Putz, 2021. "Sharing managerial contract information in a vertically related market," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 1037-1047, June.
    15. Laszlo Goerke, 2022. "Trade unions and corporate social responsibility," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(1), pages 177-203, March.
    16. Lisa Planer-Friedrich & Marco Sahm, 2017. "Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility," CESifo Working Paper Series 6506, CESifo.
    17. Barreda-Tarrazona, Iván & Georgantzís, Nikolaos & Manasakis, Constantine & Mitrokostas, Evangelos & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2016. "Endogenous managerial compensation contracts in experimental quantity-setting duopolies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 205-217.
    18. Kopel, Michael & Lamantia, Fabio, 2018. "The persistence of social strategies under increasing competitive pressure," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 71-83.
    19. Yasuhiko Nakamura, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility and endogenous competition structure in an industry composed of firms with biased managers," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 301-321, June.
    20. Nicola Meccheri, 2021. "Biased managers in vertically related markets," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(3), pages 724-736, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Managerial compensation; Intrinsic motivation; Socially concerned firms; Strategic incentives in duopoly;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

    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:eee:ecmode:v:94:y:2021:i:c:p:473-482. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.