IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tournament incentives, age diversity and firm performance

Author

Listed:
  • Oleksandr Talavera

    (University of Birmingham)

  • Shuxing Yin

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Mao Zhang

    (University of St Andrews)

Abstract

This study introduces a new dimension, age diversity of non-CEO executives, which moderates the relationship between promotion-based tournament incentives, measured as the pay gap between the CEO and non-CEO executives, and firm performance. For a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2005 to 2015, we find that the tournament incentives for non-CEO executives relate positively to firm performance. This relationship is weaker when non-CEO executives are from different age cohorts, whereas the tournament effect is enhanced when non-CEO executives are from the same age cohort. The negative moderation effect of age diversity is more pronounced in state firms and in the Northern China Plain cultural region. The negative moderation effect disappears in firms with CEOs who have overseas experience. We reason that the peer pressure among the similar-aged non-CEO executives enhances the tournament competition and that age hierarchy reduces incentives for younger executives to compete. Our findings have important implications for firms not only in China, but also in countries and regions where seniority is highly valued when setting executive compensation and optimizing organizational structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Oleksandr Talavera & Shuxing Yin & Mao Zhang, 2020. "Tournament incentives, age diversity and firm performance," Discussion Papers 20-12, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    • Handle: RePEc:bir:birmec:20-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.cal.bham.ac.uk/pdf/20-12.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lazear, Edward P & Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 841-864, October.
    2. Kato, Takao & Long, Cheryl, 2011. "Tournaments and managerial incentives in China's listed firms: New evidence," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-10, March.
    3. Arthur Lewbel, 2012. "Using Heteroscedasticity to Identify and Estimate Mismeasured and Endogenous Regressor Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 67-80.
    4. Mobbs, Shawn & Raheja, Charu G., 2012. "Internal managerial promotions: Insider incentives and CEO succession," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 1337-1353.
    5. Kin Lee & Baruch Lev & Gillian Yeo, 2008. "Executive pay dispersion, corporate governance, and firm performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 315-338, April.
    6. 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.
    7. Son Le & Mark Kroll, 2017. "CEO international experience: Effects on strategic change and firm performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(5), pages 573-595, July.
    8. Christophe Boone & Walter Hendriks, 2009. "Top Management Team Diversity and Firm Performance: Moderators of Functional-Background and Locus-of-Control Diversity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(2), pages 165-180, February.
    9. Haß, Lars Helge & Müller, Maximilian A. & Vergauwe, Skrålan, 2015. "Tournament incentives and corporate fraud," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 251-267.
    10. Goergen, Marc & Limbach, Peter & Scholz, Meik, 2015. "Mind the gap: The age dissimilarity between the chair and the CEO," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 136-158.
    11. Kandel, Eugene & Lazear, Edward P, 1992. "Peer Pressure and Partnerships," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 801-817, August.
    12. Martin J. Conyon & Lerong He, 2016. "Executive Compensation and Corporate Fraud in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(4), pages 669-691, April.
    13. Lin, Ying-Fen & Yeh, Yaying Mary Chou & Shih, Yu-Ting, 2013. "Tournament theory's perspective of executive pay gaps," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 585-592.
    14. Larcker, David F. & Rusticus, Tjomme O., 2010. "On the use of instrumental variables in accounting research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 186-205, April.
    15. David A Ralston & Carolyn P Egri & Sally Stewart & Robert H Terpstra & Yu Kaicheng, 1999. "Doing Business in the 21st Century with the New Generation of Chinese Managers: A Study of Generational Shifts in Work Values in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(2), pages 415-427, June.
    16. Lin, Bing-Xuan & Lu, Rui, 2009. "Managerial power, compensation gap and firm performance -- Evidence from Chinese public listed companies," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 153-164.
    17. Qian Sun & Wilson H. S. Tong & Jing Tong, 2002. "How Does Government Ownership Affect Firm Performance? Evidence from China's Privatization Experience," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1&2), pages 1-27.
    18. Cristian L. Dezsö & David Gaddis Ross, 2012. "Does female representation in top management improve firm performance? A panel data investigation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9), pages 1072-1089, September.
    19. Martin J. Conyon & Simon I. Peck & Graham V. Sadler, 2001. "Corporate tournaments and executive compensation: Evidence from the U.K," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(8), pages 805-815, August.
    20. Bognanno, Michael L, 2001. "Corporate Tournaments," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 290-315, April.
    21. Todd A. Gormley & David A. Matsa, 2014. "Common Errors: How to (and Not to) Control for Unobserved Heterogeneity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(2), pages 617-661.
    22. Dye, Ronald A, 1984. "The Trouble with Tournaments," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(1), pages 147-149, January.
    23. Bernile, Gennaro & Bhagwat, Vineet & Yonker, Scott, 2018. "Board diversity, firm risk, and corporate policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 588-612.
    24. Garen, John E, 1994. "Executive Compensation and Principal-Agent Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1175-1199, December.
    25. Xingqiang Du, 2015. "Does Confucianism Reduce Minority Shareholder Expropriation? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 661-716, December.
    26. Bebchuk, Lucian A. & Cremers, K.J. Martijn & Peyer, Urs C., 2011. "The CEO pay slice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 199-221, October.
    27. Anand M. Goel & Anjan V. Thakor, 2008. "Overconfidence, CEO Selection, and Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2737-2784, December.
    28. 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.
    29. Carl Hsin-han Shen & Hao Zhang, 2018. "Tournament Incentives and Firm Innovation," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(4), pages 1515-1548.
    30. Murphy, Kevin J., 1999. "Executive compensation," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 38, pages 2485-2563, Elsevier.
    31. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2006. "The Role of Family in Family Firms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 73-96, Spring.
    32. Chen, Jing & Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Cai, Ziming, 2011. "Managerial power theory, tournament theory, and executive pay in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 1176-1199, September.
    33. Tian, Lihui & Estrin, Saul, 2008. "Retained state shareholding in Chinese PLCs: Does government ownership always reduce corporate value?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 74-89, March.
    34. Rosen, Sherwin, 1986. "Prizes and Incentives in Elimination Tournaments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 701-715, September.
    35. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    36. Jayant R. Kale & Ebru Reis & Anand Venkateswaran, 2009. "Rank‐Order Tournaments and Incentive Alignment: The Effect on Firm Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(3), pages 1479-1512, June.
    37. Eriksson, Tor, 1999. "Executive Compensation and Tournament Theory: Empirical Tests on Danish Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 262-280, April.
    38. Bebchuk, Lucian A. & Fried, Jesse M., 2003. "Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt81q3136r, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    39. Hu, Fang & Pan, Xiaofei & Tian, Gary, 2013. "Does CEO pay dispersion matter in an emerging market? Evidence from China's listed firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 235-255.
    40. Lucian Arye Bebchuk & Jesse M. Fried, 2003. "Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 71-92, Summer.
    41. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    42. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2485-2563 is not listed on IDEAS
    43. Carolyn P. Egri & David A. Ralston, 2004. "Generation Cohorts and Personal Values: A Comparison of China and the United States," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(2), pages 210-220, April.
    44. Sila, Vathunyoo & Gonzalez, Angelica & Hagendorff, Jens, 2016. "Women on board: Does boardroom gender diversity affect firm risk?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 26-53.
    45. Liu, Yu & Wei, Zuobao & Xie, Feixue, 2014. "Do women directors improve firm performance in China?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 169-184.
    46. Jeffrey L Coles & Zhichuan (Frank) Li & Albert Y Wang, 2018. "Industry Tournament Incentives," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(4), pages 1418-1459.
    47. Mishra, Ram Kumar & Jhunjhunwala, Shital, 2013. "Diversity and the Effective Corporate Board," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 1, number 9780124104976.
    48. Burns, Natasha & Minnick, Kristina & Starks, Laura, 2017. "CEO Tournaments: A Cross-Country Analysis of Causes, Cultural Influences, and Consequences," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 519-551, April.
    49. Qian Sun & Wilson H. S. Tong & Jing Tong, 2002. "How Does Government Ownership Affect Firm Performance? Evidence from China’s Privatization Experience," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1‐2), pages 1-27.
    50. Florian Kunze & Stephan Boehm & Heike Bruch, 2013. "Organizational Performance Consequences of Age Diversity: Inspecting the Role of Diversity-Friendly HR Policies and Top Managers’ Negative Age Stereotypes," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 413-442, May.
    51. John Child, 1974. "Managerial And Organizational Factors Associated With Company Performance Part I," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 175-189, October.
    52. Sanchez-Marin, Gregorio & Baixauli-Soler, J. Samuel, 2015. "TMT pay dispersion and firm performance: the moderating role of organizational governance effectiveness," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 436-459, July.
    53. S. Trevis Certo & Richard H. Lester & Catherine M. Dalton & Dan R. Dalton, 2006. "Top Management Teams, Strategy and Financial Performance: A Meta‐Analytic Examination," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 813-839, June.
    54. Kini, Omesh & Williams, Ryan, 2012. "Tournament incentives, firm risk, and corporate policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 350-376.
    55. Wintoki, M. Babajide & Linck, James S. & Netter, Jeffry M., 2012. "Endogeneity and the dynamics of internal corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 581-606.
    56. Lin, Chen & Lin, Ping & Song, Frank M. & Li, Chuntao, 2011. "Managerial incentives, CEO characteristics and corporate innovation in China's private sector," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 176-190, June.
    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. Irfah Najihah Basir Malan & Lyu Yingkun & Halim Shukri Kamaruddin, 2023. "A Systematic Review on the Executive Compensation Gap and Its Multiple Impacts on the Company," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 15(4), pages 284-298.
    2. Changrong Wang & Lufeng Gou & Xuemei Li, 2022. "Is Education Beneficial to Environmentally Friendly Behaviors? Evidence from CEOs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Natália Vraňaková & Zdenka Gyurák Babeľová & Andrea Chlpeková, 2021. "Sustainable Human Resource Management and Generational Diversity: The Importance of the Age Management Pillars," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Theilen, Bernd & Tomori, Françeska, 2023. "Regulatory commitment versus non-commitment: Electric vehicle adoption under subsidies and emission standards," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    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. Sun, Sophia Li & Habib, Ahsan & Huang, Hedy Jiaying, 2019. "Tournament incentives and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 93-117.
    2. Sun, Sophia Li & Habib, Ahsan, 2020. "Determinants and consequences of tournament incentives: A survey of the literature in accounting and finance," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Colak, Gonul & Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Loukopoulos, Panagiotis & Loukopoulos, Georgios, 2021. "Tournament incentives and IPO failure risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Talavera, Oleksandr & Yin, Shuxing & Zhang, Mao, 2018. "Age diversity, directors' personal values, and bank performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 60-79.
    5. Mahmoud Gad & Trang Nguyen & Mariano Scapin, 2023. "The effect of pay disparities within top management on conservative reporting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 478-504, June.
    6. Hu, Fang & Pan, Xiaofei & Tian, Gary, 2013. "Does CEO pay dispersion matter in an emerging market? Evidence from China's listed firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 235-255.
    7. Cheong, Chee Seng & Yu, Chia-Feng (Jeffrey) & Zurbruegg, Ralf & Brockman, Paul, 2021. "Tournament incentives and institutional ownership," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 418-433.
    8. Vo, Thi Thanh Nha & Canil, Jean Milva, 2019. "CEO pay disparity: Efficient contracting or managerial power?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 168-190.
    9. Shahid Ali & Junrui Zhang & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Farman Ullah Khan & Muhammad Abubakkar Siddique, 2020. "Do tournament incentives motivate chief executive officers to be socially responsible?," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(5), pages 597-619, February.
    10. Talavera, Oleksandr & Yin, Shuxing & Zhang, Mao, 2016. "Managing the diversity: board age diversity, directors’ personal values, and bank performance," MPRA Paper 71927, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Do, Truc & Zhang, Huai & Zuo, Luo, 2022. "Rocking the boat: How relative performance evaluation affects corporate risk taking," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    12. Boubaker, Sabri & Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Habib, Ahsan, 2022. "Organization capital, tournament incentives and firm performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    13. Nguyen, Nam H. & Phan, Hieu V. & Phan, Hung V. & Tran, Dung T.T. & Vo, Hong, 2020. "Tournament-based incentives and mergers and acquisitions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    14. Liu Ping & Hosain Md Sajjad & Li Liyan, 2019. "Does the compensation gap between executives and staffs influence future firm performance? The moderating roles of managerial power and overconfidence," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 55(4), pages 287-318, December.
    15. Zalewska, Anna, 2014. "Gentlemen do not talk about money: Remuneration dispersion and firm performance relationship on British boards," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 40-57.
    16. Haß, Lars Helge & Müller, Maximilian A. & Vergauwe, Skrålan, 2015. "Tournament incentives and corporate fraud," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 251-267.
    17. Ghosh, Chinmoy & Huang, Di & Nguyen, Nam H. & Phan, Hieu V., 2023. "CEO tournament incentives and corporate debt contracting," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    18. Tu Nguyen & Jing Zhao, 2021. "Industry tournament incentives and corporate innovation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1797-1845, October.
    19. Firth, Michael & Leung, Tak Yan & Rui, Oliver M. & Na, Chaohong, 2015. "Relative pay and its effects on firm efficiency in a transitional economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 59-77.
    20. Xianjun Cai & Huifeng Pan & Chengcheng Gao & Chunyang Wang & Liping Lu, 2021. "Top executive tournament incentives and corporate innovation output," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(5), pages 5893-5924, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Executive compensation; Tournament effect; Non-CEO executives; Age diversity; Seniority;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bir:birmec:20-12. 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: Oleksandr Talavera (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/debhauk.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.