IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v159y2019i3d10.1007_s10551-018-3807-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

She’-E-O Compensation Gap: A Role Congruity View

Author

Listed:
  • Joyce C. Wang

    (University of Texas at Dallas)

  • Lívia Markóczy

    (University of Texas at Dallas)

  • Sunny Li Sun

    (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

  • Mike W. Peng

    (University of Texas at Dallas)

Abstract

Is there a compensation gap between female CEOs (She’-E-Os) and male CEOs? If so, are there mechanisms to mitigate the compensation gap? Extending role congruity theory, we argue that the perception mismatch between the female gender role (that assumes communal traits) and the leadership role (that assumes agentic traits) may lead to lower compensation to female CEOs, resulting in a gender compensation gap. Nevertheless, the compensation gap may be narrowed if female CEOs display agentic traits through risk-taking, or alternatively, work in female-dominated industries where communal traits are valued. Additionally, we expect that female CEOs’ risk-taking is less effective in reducing the gender compensation gap in female-dominated industries due to the conflicting emphases on agentic and communal traits. Leveraging a sample of Chinese publicly listed firms, we find support for our hypotheses. Overall, this study contributes to the ethics literature on income inequality issues, by highlighting the effectiveness of potential mechanisms to close the gender compensation gap between female and male CEOs.

Suggested Citation

  • Joyce C. Wang & Lívia Markóczy & Sunny Li Sun & Mike W. Peng, 2019. "She’-E-O Compensation Gap: A Role Congruity View," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 745-760, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:159:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-018-3807-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-3807-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-3807-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-018-3807-4?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. James B. Wade & Charles A. O'Reilly & Timothy G. Pollock, 2006. "Overpaid CEOs and Underpaid Managers: Fairness and Executive Compensation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(5), pages 527-544, October.
    2. Elkinawy, Susan & Stater, Mark, 2011. "Gender differences in executive compensation: Variation with board gender composition and time," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 23-45.
    3. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    4. Brent D. Beal & Marina Astakhova, 2017. "Management and Income Inequality: A Review and Conceptual Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 1-23, April.
    5. Martin Bugeja & Zoltan Matolcsy & Helen Spiropoulos, 2016. "The Association Between Gender-Diverse Compensation Committees and CEO Compensation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 375-390, December.
    6. Sunny Sun & Jigao Zhu & Kangtao Ye, 2015. "Board Openness During an Economic Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 363-377, June.
    7. Bugeja, Martin & Matolcsy, Zoltan P. & Spiropoulos, Helen, 2012. "Is there a gender gap in CEO compensation?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 849-859.
    8. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "Gender Differences in Pay," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 75-99, Fall.
    9. Jasmin Joecks & Kerstin Pull & Karin Vetter, 2013. "Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Performance: What Exactly Constitutes a “Critical Mass?”," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 61-72, November.
    10. Arijit Ghosh, 2006. "Determination of Executive Compensation in an Emerging Economy. Evidence from India," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 66-90, May.
    11. Steve Sauerwald & Zhiang (John) Lin & Mike W. Peng, 2016. "Board social capital and excess CEO returns," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 498-520, March.
    12. Mike W. Peng, 2004. "Outside directors and firm performance during institutional transitions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 453-471, May.
    13. Mehdi Nekhili & Héla Chakroun & Tawhid Chtioui, 2018. "Women’s Leadership and Firm Performance: Family Versus Nonfamily Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 291-316, December.
    14. Marianne Bertrand & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "The Gender Gap in Top Corporate Jobs," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(1), pages 3-21, October.
    15. Shamsul N. Abdullah & Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail & Lilac Nachum, 2016. "Does having women on boards create value? The impact of societal perceptions and corporate governance in emerging markets," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 466-476, March.
    16. Pierre-Yves Néron, 2015. "Egalitarianism and Executive Compensation: A Relational Argument," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 171-184, November.
    17. Ajay Palvia & Emilia Vähämaa & Sami Vähämaa, 2015. "Are Female CEOs and Chairwomen More Conservative and Risk Averse? Evidence from the Banking Industry During the Financial Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 577-594, October.
    18. Mike W. Peng & Sunny Li Sun & Lívia Markóczy, 2015. "Human Capital and CEO Compensation during Institutional Transitions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 117-147, January.
    19. João Vieito & Walayet Khan, 2012. "Executive compensation and gender: S&P 1500 listed firms," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 36(2), pages 371-399, April.
    20. Sophia Rabe-Hesketh & Anders Skrondal, 2012. "Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling Using Stata, 3rd Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, edition 3, number mimus2, March.
    21. Shimin Chen & Xu Ni & Jamie Y. Tong, 2016. "Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Risk Management: A Case of R&D Investment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 599-621, July.
    22. Aaron D. Hill & Arun D. Upadhyay & Rafik I. Beekun, 2015. "Do female and ethnically diverse executives endure inequity in the CEO position or do they benefit from their minority status? An empirical examination," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(8), pages 1115-1134, August.
    23. Huang, Jiekun & Kisgen, Darren J., 2013. "Gender and corporate finance: Are male executives overconfident relative to female executives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 822-839.
    24. Faccio, Mara & Marchica, Maria-Teresa & Mura, Roberto, 2016. "CEO gender, corporate risk-taking, and the efficiency of capital allocation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 193-209.
    25. Jun Xia & Xufei Ma & Jane W. Lu & Daphne W. Yiu, 2014. "Outward foreign direct investment by emerging market firms: A resource dependence logic," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9), pages 1343-1363, September.
    26. Guoli Chen & Craig Crossland & Sterling Huang, 2016. "Female board representation and corporate acquisition intensity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 303-313, February.
    27. Simon Ho & Annie Li & Kinsun Tam & Feida Zhang, 2015. "CEO Gender, Ethical Leadership, and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 351-370, March.
    28. Maria Lucas-Pérez & Antonio Mínguez-Vera & Juan Baixauli-Soler & Juan Martín-Ugedo & Gregorio Sánchez-Marín, 2015. "Women on the Board and Managers’ Pay: Evidence from Spain," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 265-280, June.
    29. Firth, Michael & Fung, Peter M.Y. & Rui, Oliver M., 2006. "Corporate performance and CEO compensation in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 693-714, September.
    30. Nancy Mohan & John Ruggiero, 2007. "Influence of firm performance and gender on CEO compensation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(9), pages 1107-1113.
    31. Peggy M. Lee & Erika Hayes James, 2007. "She'‐e‐os: gender effects and investor reactions to the announcements of top executive appointments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 227-241, March.
    32. Markus A. Fitza, 2014. "The use of variance decomposition in the investigation of CEO effects: How large must the CEO effect be to rule out chance?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1839-1852, December.
    33. Elkinawy, Susan & Stater, Mark, 2011. "Gender differences in executive compensation: Variation with board gender composition and time," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 23-45, January.
    34. Robert E. Hoskisson & Michael A. Hitt & Charles W. L. Hill, 1993. "Managerial Incentives and Investment in R&D in Large Multiproduct Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(2), pages 325-341, May.
    35. Lam, Kevin C.K. & McGuinness, Paul B. & Vieito, João Paulo, 2013. "CEO gender, executive compensation and firm performance in Chinese‐listed enterprises," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1136-1159.
    36. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naveen, Lalitha, 2006. "Managerial incentives and risk-taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 431-468, February.
    37. Huasheng Gao & Yaheng Lin & Yujing Ma, 2016. "Sex Discrimination and Female Top Managers: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(4), pages 683-702, November.
    38. N Mohan & J Ruggiero, 2003. "Compensation differences between male and female CEOs for publicly traded firms: a nonparametric analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(12), pages 1242-1248, December.
    39. Brian K. Boyd, 1994. "Board control and ceo compensation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 335-344, June.
    40. Catherine M. Daily & S. Trevis Certo & Dan R. Dalton, 1999. "A decade of corporate women: some progress in the boardroom, none in the executive suite," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 93-100, January.
    41. Daniel Han Ming Chng & Matthew S. Rodgers & Eric Shih & Xiao‐Bing Song, 2012. "When does incentive compensation motivate managerial behaviors? An experimental investigation of the fit between incentive compensation, executive core self‐evaluation, and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(12), pages 1343-1362, December.
    42. Khan, Walayet A. & Vieito, João Paulo, 2013. "Ceo gender and firm performance," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 55-66.
    43. Canan C. Mutlu & Marc Van Essen & Mike W. Peng & Sabrina F. Saleh & Patricio Duran, 2018. "Corporate Governance in China: A Meta‐Analysis," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(6), pages 943-979, September.
    44. Weichieh Su & Mike W. Peng & Weiqiang Tan & Yan-Leung Cheung, 2016. "The Signaling Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Economies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 479-491, March.
    45. Ashish Arora & Michelle Gittelman & Sarah Kaplan & John Lynch & Will Mitchell & Nicolaj Siggelkow & Cristian L. Dezső & David Gaddis Ross & Jose Uribe, 2016. "Is there an implicit quota on women in top management? A large-sample statistical analysis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 98-115, January.
    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. Wang, Joyce C. & Zhao, Yiyi & Sun, Sunny L. & Zhu, Jigao, 2023. "Female-friendly boards in family firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    2. Saskia L. Shirley & Jennifer Feitosa, 2024. "Challenging Assumptions: Gender, Peer Evaluations, and the Broken Rung in Leadership Trajectories," Merits, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-14, August.
    3. Asma Houcine & Imen Derouiche, 2024. "Board gender diversity and corporate social performance: the moderating effect of family firms," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 265-301, June.

    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. Nguyen, Thi Hong Hanh & Ntim, Collins G. & Malagila, John K., 2020. "Women on corporate boards and corporate financial and non-financial performance: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Mohan, Nancy, 2014. "A review of the gender effect on pay, corporate performance and entry into top management," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 41-51.
    3. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Hovakimian, Gayane & Sharma, Zenu, 2023. "Gender pay gap in American CFOs: Theory and evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Canil, Jean & Karpavičius, Sigitas & Yu, Chia-Feng, 2019. "Are shareholders gender neutral? Evidence from say on pay," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 169-186.
    5. Wang, Gang & Holmes, R. Michael & Devine, Richard A. & Bishoff, John, 2018. "CEO gender differences in careers and the moderating role of country culture: A meta-analytic investigation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 30-53.
    6. Paola Belingheri & Filippo Chiarello & Andrea Fronzetti Colladon & Paola Rovelli, 2021. "Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a new semantic indicatorr," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-27, September.
    7. J. Samuel Baixauli-Soler & Maria Belda-Ruiz & Gregorio Sanchez-Marin, 2017. "An executive hierarchy analysis of stock options: Does gender matter?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 737-766, October.
    8. De Amicis, Chiara & Falconieri, Sonia & Tastan, Mesut, 2021. "Sentiment analysis and gender differences in earnings conference calls," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Baixauli-Soler, J. Samuel & Belda-Ruiz, Maria & Sanchez-Marin, Gregorio, 2015. "Executive stock options, gender diversity in the top management team, and firm risk taking," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 451-463.
    10. Hannu Schadewitz & Jonas Spohr, 2022. "Gender diverse boards and goodwill changes: association between accounting conservatism, gender and governance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(3), pages 757-779, September.
    11. Duong, Lien & Evans, John, 2016. "Gender differences in compensation and earnings management: Evidence from Australian CFOs," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 17-35.
    12. Harakeh, Mostafa & Leventis, Stergios & El Masri, Tarek & Tsileponis, Nikolaos, 2023. "The moderating role of board gender diversity on the relationship between firm opacity and stock returns," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    13. Elkinawy, Susan & Hibbert, Ann Marie & Talukdar, Bakhtear, 2023. "Gender differences in CEO risk tolerance: A look at fixed pay," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    14. Liu, Chelsea, 2021. "CEO gender and employee relations: Evidence from labor lawsuits," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    15. Franziska Handschumacher-Knors, 2023. "Does a gender pay gap exist on executive boards? An empirical multilevel analysis of executive board compensation in German listed companies," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 325-357, April.
    16. Ahmed, Shaker & Ranta, Mikko & Vähämaa, Emilia & Vähämaa, Sami, 2023. "Facial attractiveness and CEO compensation: Evidence from the banking industry," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    17. Sungchang Kang & Jeongseok Bang & Doojin Ryu, 2024. "Female CEOs’ risk management and earnings performance during the financial crisis," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 110-138, February.
    18. Ying Zhang & Yuting Guo & Aiman Nurdazym, 2023. "How do female CEOs affect corporate environmental policies?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 459-472, January.
    19. Ahmed Bouteska & Mehdi Mili, 2022. "Women’s leadership impact on risks and financial performance in banking: evidence from the Southeast Asian Countries," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(4), pages 1213-1244, December.
    20. Yusi Jiang & Wan Cheng & Xuemei Xie, 2024. "The Dismissal of New Female CEOs: A Role Congruity Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(2), pages 387-432, October.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:159:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-018-3807-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.