IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v44y2023i6p3625-3644.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

R&D expenditures and CEO compensation policy: The effect of corporate control and market competition on managerial opportunism

Author

Listed:
  • Hsiao‐Wen Wang
  • Hsin‐Yu Chen
  • Shu‐Hsing Li

Abstract

China and Taiwan (so‐called Greater China) are representative of two of the fastest‐growing economies in the Pacific Rim region. This study uses Taiwanese high‐tech firms as sample and explores whether boards of directors attempt to avoid opportunistic reductions in research and development (R&D) investments by CEOs. This study considers a scenario in which high‐tech firms face a small earnings decline or a small loss but their CEOs could opportunistically cut R&D investments to improve financial results. The focus of this study is to examine how corporate control (whether or not a firm is controlled by a family) and market competition affect the relationship between R&D investments and CEO compensation schemes. Overall, we find that the stock‐based incentive compensation is more effective than the cash compensation in deterring managerial opportunism. In non‐family firms, we find there exists a positive significant relationship between changes in R&D expenditures and changes in CEO stock‐based compensation when a firm is faced with a small earnings decline or a small loss. Specifically, compared to family firms, the boards of directors of non‐family firms face more severe agency problems (as a result of the separation of ownership and control) and therefore tend to significantly adjust the incentive components in CEO compensation schemes to deter managerial opportunism. Regarding the effect of market competition, we find that incentives to adjust compensation plan to remove CEOs from opportunistically reducing discretionary R&D investments are greater in firms facing more intense market competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Hsiao‐Wen Wang & Hsin‐Yu Chen & Shu‐Hsing Li, 2023. "R&D expenditures and CEO compensation policy: The effect of corporate control and market competition on managerial opportunism," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(6), pages 3625-3644, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:44:y:2023:i:6:p:3625-3644
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.3899
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3899
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.3899?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. Stein, Jeremy C, 1988. "Takeover Threats and Managerial Myopia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(1), pages 61-80, February.
    2. O’Connor, Matthew & Rafferty, Matthew & Sheikh, Aamer, 2013. "Equity compensation and the sensitivity of research and development to financial market frictions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2510-2519.
    3. Huang, Hung-Yi & Yan, Cheng & Ho, Kung-Cheng, 2022. "Does managerial compensation influence price efficiency?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Jeremy C. Short & David J. Ketchen & Timothy B. Palmer & G. Tomas M. Hult, 2007. "Firm, strategic group, and industry influences on performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 147-167, February.
    5. Garen Markarian & Juan Santalo´, 2014. "Product Market Competition, Information and Earnings Management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5-6), pages 572-599, June.
    6. Zhang, Xiang & Zhou, Han, 2022. "The effect of market competition on corporate cash holdings: An analysis of corporate innovation and financial constraint," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    7. Lin, Hsuan-Chu & Chou, Ting-Kai & Wang, Wen-Gine, 2012. "Capital structure and executive compensation contract design: A theoretical and empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 209-224.
    8. Jones, Charles I & Williams, John C, 2000. "Too Much of a Good Thing? The Economics of Investment in R&D," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 65-85, March.
    9. Rajesh K. Aggarwal & Andrew A. Samwick, 1999. "Executive Compensation, Strategic Competition, and Relative Performance Evaluation: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 1999-2043, December.
    10. Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "Does Competition Destroy Ethical Behavior?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 414-418, May.
    11. Sunder, Jayanthi & Sunder, Shyam V. & Zhang, Jingjing, 2017. "Pilot CEOs and corporate innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(1), pages 209-224.
    12. Demsetz, Harold & Lehn, Kenneth, 1985. "The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1155-1177, December.
    13. Croci, Ettore & Gonenc, Halit & Ozkan, Neslihan, 2012. "CEO compensation, family control, and institutional investors in Continental Europe," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 3318-3335.
    14. Dechow, Patricia M. & Sloan, Richard G., 1991. "Executive incentives and the horizon problem : An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 51-89, March.
    15. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger, 2009. "Founder-CEOs, Investment Decisions, and Stock Market Performance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 439-466, April.
    16. Clinch, G, 1991. "Employee Compensation And Firms Research-And-Development Activity," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 59-78.
    17. Rudy Santore & Martin Tackie, 2017. "Equity‐based incentive contracts and behavior: Experimental evidence," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(8), pages 1194-1200, December.
    18. Klaus M. Schmidt, 1997. "Managerial Incentives and Product Market Competition," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(2), pages 191-213.
    19. Karuna, Christo, 2007. "Industry product market competition and managerial incentives," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 275-297, July.
    20. Florian Ederer & Gustavo Manso, 2013. "Is Pay for Performance Detrimental to Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1496-1513, July.
    21. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, April.
    22. Shujun Ding & Zhenyu Wu & Yuanshun Li & Chunxin Jia, 2010. "Executive compensation, supervisory board, and China’s governance reform: a legal approach perspective," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 445-471, November.
    23. Livne, Gilad & Markarian, Garen & Mironov, Maxim, 2013. "Investment horizon, risk, and compensation in the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3669-3680.
    24. Cubbin, John S & Leech, Dennis, 1983. "The Effect of Shareholding Dispersion on the Degree of Control in British Companies: Theory and Measurement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(37), pages 351-369, June.
    25. Geoffrey Martin & Joanna Tochman Campbell & Luis Gomez-Mejia, 2016. "Family Control, Socioemotional Wealth and Earnings Management in Publicly Traded Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 453-469, February.
    26. Regina M. Lizares, 2022. "Ownership concentration and board structure: Alignment and entrenchment effects in an emerging market," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2557-2569, September.
    27. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon & Lang, Larry H. P., 2000. "The separation of ownership and control in East Asian Corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 81-112.
    28. Guifeng Shi & Jianfei Sun & Li Zhang, 2018. "Product market competition and earnings management: A firm†level analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5-6), pages 604-624, May.
    29. Villalonga, Belen & Amit, Raphael, 2006. "How do family ownership, control and management affect firm value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 385-417, May.
    30. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    31. Haroon ur Rashid Khan & Waqas Bin Khidmat & Muhammad Danish Habib & Sadia Awan, 2022. "Academic directors in board and corporate expropriation: Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 372-397, March.
    32. Michael Raith, 2003. "Competition, Risk, and Managerial Incentives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1425-1436, September.
    33. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    34. Pankaj C. Patel & Maria João Guedes, 2022. "Do family firms perform better under financial constraints? Financial constraints, family firms and performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(4), pages 933-949, June.
    35. Adhikari, Binay Kumar & Agrawal, Anup, 2016. "Religion, gambling attitudes and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 229-248.
    36. Ali, Ashiq & Zhang, Weining, 2015. "CEO tenure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 60-79.
    37. Fama, Eugene F. & Jensen, Michael C., 1985. "Organizational forms and investment decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 101-119, March.
    38. David Scharfstein, 1988. "Product-Market Competition and Managerial Slack," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(1), pages 147-155, Spring.
    39. Katherine A. Gunny, 2010. "The Relation Between Earnings Management Using Real Activities Manipulation and Future Performance: Evidence from Meeting Earnings Benchmarks," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 855-888, September.
    40. Fan, Joseph P. H. & Wong, T. J., 2002. "Corporate ownership structure and the informativeness of accounting earnings in East Asia," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 401-425, August.
    41. Lambert, Ra & Larcker, Df, 1987. "An Analysis Of The Use Of Accounting And Market Measures Of Performance In Executive-Compensation Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25, pages 85-129.
    42. Chen, Fang & Jia, Jianjun & Lin, Yuen & Xiang, George, 2022. "Should managers be incentivized with stock or options? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    43. Hussein Abdoh & Yu Liu, 2021. "Executive risk incentives, product market competition, and R&D," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 133-156, February.
    44. Weidong Zhang & Pengbo Hu & Jenny J. Wang & Zeyu Li & Hongrui Zheng & Xue Gao, 2022. "Equity incentive plans and R&D investment manipulation: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 4157-4183, September.
    45. Shuping Li, 2018. "Increased non‐family ownership in family‐owned firms: How does it affect CEO turnover‐performance sensitivity?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(13), pages 3434-3457, December.
    46. DeFond, Mark L. & Park, Chul W., 1999. "The effect of competition on CEO turnover1," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-56, February.
    47. Ying Guo & Boochun Jung & Yanhua Sunny Yang, 2019. "On the nonlinear relation between product market competition and earnings quality," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(7), pages 818-846, November.
    48. Bettis, J. Carr & Bizjak, John & Coles, Jeffrey L. & Kalpathy, Swaminathan, 2018. "Performance-vesting provisions in executive compensation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 194-221.
    49. Augustine Duru & Raghavan J. Iyengar & Alex Thevaranjan, 2002. "The Shielding of CEO Compensation from the Effects of Strategic Expenditures," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 175-193, June.
    50. Ali, Ashiq & Chen, Tai-Yuan & Radhakrishnan, Suresh, 2007. "Corporate disclosures by family firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 238-286, September.
    51. Emmanuel Adu‐Ameyaw & Albert Danso & Linda Hickson, 2022. "Growth opportunity and investment policy: The role of managerial incentives," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3634-3646, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Eugster, Nicolas, 2019. "Family firms and financial analyst activity," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    2. Babar, Md. & Habib, Ahsan, 2021. "Product market competition in accounting, finance, and corporate governance: A review of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Chen, Ching-Lung & Weng, Pei-Yu & Fan, Hung-Shu, 2023. "Exploring the role of excess control rights on real earnings management in family-controlled firms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    4. Jiang, Fuxiu & Cai, Xinni & Nofsinger, John R. & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2020. "Can reputation concern restrain bad news hoarding in family firms?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    5. Andres, Christian, 2008. "Large shareholders and firm performance--An empirical examination of founding-family ownership," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 431-445, September.
    6. Chen, Chao-Jung & Hsu, Chung-Yuan & Chen, Yu-Lin, 2014. "The impact of family control on the top management compensation mix and incentive orientation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 29-46.
    7. Ujjayini Roy & Indrani Chakraborty, 2024. "Market concentration, promoter ownership and firm performance: evidence from Indian corporate firms," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 27-85, June.
    8. Attig, Najah & Chen, Ruiyuan & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck & Pittman, Jeffrey, 2020. "Are insiders equal? Evidence from earnings management in closely held East Asian firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. Ko, Hin-cheung Annie & Tong, Yixing (Jamie) & Zhang, Feida (Frank) & Zheng, Guojian, 2016. "Corporate governance, product market competition and managerial incentives: Evidence from four Pacific Basin countries," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 491-502.
    10. González, Maximiliano & Guzmán, Alexander & Pombo, Carlos & Trujillo, María-Andrea, 2012. "Family firms and financial performance: The cost of growing," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 626-649.
    11. Henrik Cronqvist & Fredrik Heyman & Mattias Nilsson & Helena Svaleryd & Jonas Vlachos, 2009. "Do Entrenched Managers Pay Their Workers More?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 309-339, February.
    12. Zeineb Barka & Taher Hamza, 2020. "The effect of large controlling shareholders on equity prices in France: monitoring or entrenchment?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(3), pages 769-798, September.
    13. Bushman, Robert M. & Smith, Abbie J., 2001. "Financial accounting information and corporate governance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 237-333, December.
    14. Richardson, Grant & Wang, Bei & Zhang, Xinmin, 2016. "Ownership structure and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from publicly listed private firms in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 141-158.
    15. Jun-Koo Kang & Jungmin Kim, 2020. "Do Family Firms Invest More than Nonfamily Firms in Employee-Friendly Policies?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1300-1324, March.
    16. Waisman, Maya, 2013. "Product market competition and the cost of bank loans: Evidence from state antitakeover laws," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 4721-4737.
    17. Sabri Boubaker & Hind Sami, 2011. "Multiple large shareholders and earnings informativeness," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(3), pages 246-266, August.
    18. El Diri, Malek & Lambrinoudakis, Costas & Alhadab, Mohammad, 2020. "Corporate governance and earnings management in concentrated markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 291-306.
    19. Barontini, Roberto & Bozzi, Stefano, 2018. "Family firm heterogeneity and CEO compensation in Continental Europe," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-18.
    20. Goergen, Marc & Manjon, Miguel C. & Renneboog, Luc, 2008. "Recent developments in German corporate governance," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 175-193, September.

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:44:y:2023:i:6:p:3625-3644. 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: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.