Incentive Stock Options Research Articles

Stock Option Incentives and Firm Performance *

Stock Option Incentives and Firm Performance *

Analysis of Executive Compensation Management Strategies of Multinational Enterprises in the Context of RMB Internationalization

Abstract This paper applies the EVA-based bonus incentive model and the EVA-based stock option incentive model to the executive compensation incentive system of multinational enterprise D and calculates the EVA amount by combining the profitability of multinational enterprise D and compares it with the net profit amount of the enterprise to obtain the difference between the two. In order to further investigate the relationship between the EVA amount and the net profit of multinational enterprises, the correlation hypothesis between executive compensation and the management of accrued surplus and the management of actual surplus is carried out, respectively. The countermeasures for the management of executive compensation in multinational enterprises under the background of the internationalization of the RMB are proposed according to the establishment of the research hypothesis. Executive compensation and accrued surplus management are negatively correlated, as shown by regression analysis, and an increase in the former will have a significant inhibitory impact on accrued surplus management behavior. There is a positive correlation between executive compensation and natural surplus management, and the significance level is 5%. This means that the increase in executive compensation has a promotion effect on natural surplus management.

Equity Incentive Model, Source of Subject Matter and Enterprise Performance: Modification Effect Based on Equity Incentive Intensity

For modern enterprises, equity incentive is an important means to solve the principal-agent problem, the choice of incentive mode and the source of the incentive is an inevitable issue in the implementation of an equity incentive scheme. Based on the sample data of A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, this paper constructs a panel two-way fixed effect model, combining regression analysis and three interactions with differential equations (PDE), which empirically explores the relationship between two incentive models of stock option and restricted stock, the source of subject matter and enterprise performance. The study shows that the restricted stock incentive model significantly improved the performance of enterprises, and the intensity of incentives played a significant inverted U-shaped moderating role between the enterprise’s performance and the different incentive models. After adding the subject matter incentive source, it is further found that repurchase, as the source of subject matter, has a positive moderating effect on restricted stock and a negative moderating effect on stock option. The intensity of equity incentives moderates the relationship between stock option incentive models and enterprise performance when enterprises use repurchases as the source. The results of the above-given research provide some reference for enterprises to give appropriate incentive intensities, objective selection of the subject matter source under different equity incentive models based on their characteristics, and facilitation of more efficient use of equity incentive tools.

Bank executive pay limits and discretionary loan loss provisions: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the impact of bank executive pay limits on discretionary loan loss provisions (DLLPs) in the context of a large emerging economy, such as that of China. We find that a bank executive pay limit primarily aimed at temporarily suspending stock option incentive plans leads to a significant rise in income-decreasing DLLPs, whereas a pay limit implemented to restrict the total emoluments leads to a significant decline in income-increasing DLLPs. Moreover, the degree of the impact of pay limits on bank DLLPs varies with CEOs’ personal characteristics and bank executive perquisites.

Compensating Founders and Executives, Unit 13 from open-access book Entrepreneurship Law: Company Creation

Unit 13 covers: • Compensating Owners and Execs in Unincorporated Entities • Compensating Owners and Execs in Corporations • Incentive Stock Options • Non-qualified Stock Options • Stock Appreciation Rights

Stakeholder Agency Relationships: CEO Stock Options and Corporate Tax Avoidance

AbstractInfusing stakeholder agency theory with insights from behavioural agency theory, we describe a frame‐dependent relationship between CEO stock option incentives and tax avoidance. Our theoretical framework highlights the role of competing shareholder demands in providing a salient reference point for a CEO contemplating the implications of tax avoidance for their stock option wealth. In a study of 2,573 publicly listed U.S. firms between 1993 and 2014, we show that the implications of CEO stock option incentives are contingent on whether the firm’s effective tax rate is anticipated to be below or above the tax rate of peer firms – an outcome that the CEO can cast as balancing stakeholder demands. Consistent with our theoretical reasoning, we also show that, both above and below this reference point, the implications of option incentives for corporate tax avoidance are amplified by the level of activist institutional ownership and attenuated by the CEO’s ability to unwind their bond with shareholders through hedging. In doing so, our study offers an impetus for a broader stakeholder approach to governance research examining CEO incentive alignment.

The Control Strategies for Information Asymmetry Problems Among Investing Institutions, Investors, and Entrepreneurs in Venture Capital.

To analyze the problem of information asymmetry between investment institutions, investors, and entrepreneurs, thereby protecting the interests of all parties and ensuring the income under high risks, some companies listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange are taken as research samples. First, the relations between investment institutions, investors, and entrepreneurs, as well as the causes and solutions of information asymmetry in venture capital, are analyzed. Second, based on the residual model, a model that analyzes the information asymmetry and investment efficiency of the enterprise is built. Finally, through two cases, the relation between the information asymmetry and the investment rate is revealed. The research results show that from 2014 to 2018, the investment level of companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange was below 7.69%; the investment levels of different companies varied greatly, with significant differences in the development situations. Besides, information asymmetry is significantly related to investment efficiency. The corresponding regression coefficient is 0.0119. The larger the enterprise is, the higher the investment efficiency will be. The case analysis shows that it is important to understand and seize the market, and the information asymmetry between the actual environment and the investment environment is more serious. To deal with these issues, material incentives, reputation incentives, control incentives, and stock option incentives are substantive measures that can be taken, which are of great significance for improving the decision-making level of investors and investment institutions and reducing the investment risk of investors and entrepreneurs.

Do Incentives Contracts Lead to Higher Risk-taking? The Impact of Executives' Characteristics

Stock-option compensation is coherent with the principle of agency theory, by encouraging risk averse executives to take a more risk neutral stance. However, it is unclear whether the contract is actually more powerful than personal characteristics in shaping decision-making. We compare experimentally the risk aversion and prudence of 100 participants under a stock-option incentive contract and a classic equity granting one. We measure a number of personality variables, as well as cortisol and testosterone levels, which have been related to risk taking in previous studies. We first underline that stock-options contract indeed drives more risk neutral behaviour, both regarding variance and skewness. This effect is mainly driven by a shift in focus from losses to gains. Loss aversion and higher cortisol levels were linked to a preference for the safer equity contract. Second, we show that cortisol and testosterone levels are linked to preferences for variance and skewness, often in a quadratic fashion. Third, we show that this impact is actually stronger than the one of the contract, both in terms of predictive power and economic effect. Therefore, our study highlights the impact of personality and even biological variables on risk taking, and underline the need for a behavioural approach of contract setting.

Readability of 10‐K Reports and Stock Price Crash Risk

ABSTRACTThis study shows that less readable 10‐K reports are associated with higher stock price crash risk. The results are consistent with the argument that managers can successfully hide adverse information by writing complex financial reports, which leads to stock price crashes when the hidden bad news accumulates and reaches a tipping point. Cross‐sectional analyses show that the effect of financial reporting complexity on crash risk is more pronounced for firms with persistent negative earnings news or transitory positive earnings news, greater chief executive officer stock option incentives, or lower litigation risk. Finally, accrual manipulation appears to be positively related to crash risk, even since the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act, if the manipulation is accompanied by complex 10‐K reports.

Motives of Stock Option Incentive Design, Ownership, and Inefficient Investment

This paper analyzes the effects of stock option incentives on inefficient investment. Specifically, based on the motive of design, we divide stock option incentives into incentive-driven and welfare-driven incentives. Our research is based on the panel data of 511 Chinese listed companies that declared stock option incentives from 2010 to 2014, including both incentive-driven and welfare-driven incentives. Our research shows that different types of stock option incentives have different effects on inefficient investment. Generally, incentive-driven stock option incentives reduce inefficient investment, whereas welfare-driven stock option incentives do not reduce inefficient investment, but increase it. However, there is a weakening effect in state-owned enterprises due to two opposite factors, numerous restrictions and more self-interested managers. Additionally, the paper provides implications that some stock options are manipulated by managers in the designing stage in order to pursue self-interests, and therefore monitoring abnormal share price movement and performance hurdles is important to safeguard the wealth of shareholders and promote effective motivation for managers.

The Effect of Shareholder Rights and Information Asymmetry on Stock-Option-Related Repurchase Activity

As stock-option holdings increase, managers alter their firms’ payout composition, choosing stock repurchases rather than dividends to return cash to shareholders. Prior research presents two competing explanations for this behavior: the flexibility hypothesis and the shareholder power hypothesis. In support of the flexibility hypothesis, I document that this executive stock-option incentive to repurchase stock as a substitute for dividends is stronger when firms have weak shareholder rights and when information asymmetry is severe. In addition, I find that option-induced repurchases are associated with lower shareholder wealth when shareholder rights are weak or when information asymmetry is high. These firms also perform worse in the following year but show higher total payouts to shareholders. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive picture of managers’ option-driven repurchase behavior.

The Role of Affect in Shaping the Behavioral Consequences of CEO Option Incentives

We advance behavioral agency theory by exploring the influence of mood or “affect” on the behavioral consequences of stock option incentives. Drawing on insights from psychology and behavioral decision theory, we describe how affect influences agent risk behavior. We argue that positive affect amplifies both the extent to which executives reduce strategic risk taking in response to risk bearing and engage in strategic risk taking in response to incentives for further enrichment. Building again on the psychology literature, we describe how CEO accountability attenuates the influence of affect on CEO risk behavior in response to stock option incentives. We test our expectations in a longitudinal data set of CEO stock option incentives, affect, and strategic risk taking by U.S. firms.

Exploring the relation between family ownership and incentive stock options: The contingency of family leadership, board monitoring and financial crisis

This paper investigates the curvilinear relationship between family ownership and the incentive aim of stock options, considering the effect of family leadership, board monitoring and financial distress. Using Italy as a study setting because of the large number of family businesses, we categorize incentive and rent-extractive stock option plans by their design features. We assume that the co-existence of family and non-family managers expose family firms to underexplored agency problems between owners and managers, and posit that stock options help to mitigate these problems. Our logit model reveals the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between family ownership and the incentive aim of stock options that becomes a U-shaped one in family-led firms. We also find that family firms are more likely to grant incentive stock options at low to intermediate level of family ownership in presence of effective board monitoring and during the global financial crisis. This paper contributes to the existing literature on corporate governance and accounting in family businesses, and also has practical significance for investors, regulators and policy-makers.

Comparative Study on Relevant Theories of the Impact of Management Shareholding on Corporation Performance

Management shareholding, which is an important method in solving principal-agent problem, is widely used in listed companies in our country as the progress of equity division reform. This dissertation studies the three theories related to management shareholding and corporation performance, which finds out: (1) based on human capital theory, management shareholding, in the form of stock option incentive, grants management the residual claim. Thus, a win-win situation is achieved for both managers and shareholders. (2) Based on principal-agent theory, management shareholding makes the utility function of management agree nearly with the objective function of shareholders, which effectively reduces the moral hazard of management. (3) La Porta et al. (1999) found out in the research that tracing enterprise’s ultimate property owner with ultimate property right theory will help to better understand the relationship between ownership, control rights and corporate performance.

Using Sectoral Indexes to Discount the Exercise Price of Employee Stock Options

Abstract Employee stock options (ESOs) are an instrument in compensating top management of corporations. In the literature, they are described as a variable component of remuneration of a long-term character (Borkowska, 2012). There are six characteristic elements of the ESO: a grant date, the ESO plan duration, employees entitled to receive options, vesting criteria, a vesting period, and an exercise price. The article refers to the exercise price. The remuneration of employees is determined by the option’s intrinsic value, i.e. the difference between the current stock price and the exercise price. This difference affects the costs incurred by a company in relation with their incentive stock option plan. In this connection, the exercise price of stock options needs to be analysed. The literature shows that usually the strike price is equal to the stock market’s value at the time the option is granted. The options issued with an exercise price equal to the market value of the company’s stock on the date of the grant usually lead to at-the-money options. Walker (2009) mentions that almost all options issued by US firms have been such type of options. Hence, the options with exercise prices less than the prices of the underlying assets have been rarely observed. One of the solutions can be discounting the exercise price by using sectoral indexes, which are sensitive to changes on a particular market. The purpose of this paper is to address several aspects of specifying the exercise price in ESOs. The research shows how sector indexes can be used to discount it. Using sectoral indexes in determining the exercise price can partly limit the unreasonably high profits from the ESO. The literature does not provide ready-made formulas of exercise prices based on specific variables. The aim of the research is to present and apply the formula of the exercise prices in which sectoral indices are used to discount. The data are from the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and include those companies that revealed the information concerning their incentive programs in 1999–2013. The relevant data come from annual reports, current reports, supervisory boards’ resolutions, and press announcements.

Are Incentive Stock Options Signaling Better Corporate Governance? - An Evidence from Equity Carve-Outs

I analyze the long-run performance and earnings management behavior of equity carve-outs conditioned on whether the executives received incentive stock options at the IPO date. Carve-outs that did not grant incentive stock options subsequently underperform both relative to the overall market and relative to a sample of carve-outs that granted stock options. I show that in absence of incentive stock options, companies adopt more income-increasing Accounting techniques around the IPO. Accruals in years around the IPO explain the cross-sectional variation of the long-run stock market and accounting underperformance. Contrarily, carveouts that grant incentive stock options to their executives at the IPO date do not underperform appropriate benchmarks over three-year period following the IPO and use less aggressive accounting around the IPO. My results point that incentive stock options are signaling better corporate governance to the market that result in better long-run stock market and accounting performance.

Compensation Committee Quality and Effective Executive Remuneration

Grounding in the agency theory, this paper questions whether high quality compensation committee influences the design of executive remuneration towards the alignment of the contrasting interests between managers and shareholders. Relying on a comprehensive approach that captures the compensation committee quality based on different attributes (i.e. independence, interlocking directorates, directors appointed by minorities) we conduct a two-step empirical analysis. First, we illustrate the evolution over time of the stock option plan characteristics and construct an illustrative diagram that shows the linkages between the attributes of the compensation committee quality and the elements of the option plans. Second, we run a probit regression analysis to deeply investigate the picture emerging from the diagram. Our results document that the quality of compensation committee significantly affects the assignment of incentive stock option plans. The paper evidence advances the knowledge in the literature on compensation committee and executive remuneration, by highlighting that structural characteristics of the committee other than independence of its members play a pivotal role in writing effective remuneration contracts for the executives. Our findings are also useful for investors and policymakers.

Corporate Governance and Firm‐specific Stock Price Crashes

AbstractWe investigate whether ownership structure, accounting opacity, board structure & processes and managerial incentives attributes relate to future stock price crash risk. Principal component analysis on the 21 attributes that comprise these four corporate governance dimensions reveals that they can explain between 13.1% and 23.0% of a one standard deviation in crash risk. Transient institutional ownership, CEO stock option incentives and the proportion of directors that hold equity increase crash risk, whilst insiders' ownership, accounting conservatism, board size and the presence of a corporate governance policy mitigate crash risk. Overall these relationships are more pronounced in environments that accentuate agency risk.

Executive Compensation And Ownership Structure

The objective of this paper is to highlight the impact of ownership discrepancy and type (managers, families, institutions) on executive compensation.Basedon a sample of French listed firms and using panel data regressions, the results show that capital concentration (Jensen 1986) negatively affects both the level of total executive compensation and the probability of use of stock option incentive plans. This confirms our theoretical alignment hypothesis. Moreover, the results show no evidence of the existence of a significant effect of ownership discrepancy on managerial compensation.Institutional shareholders are likely to encourage the use of stock option incentive plans and managerial ownership positively and significantly influences the level of total and fixed compensation. Family shareholding negatively affects executive compensation variables.

A Model of Equity Based Compensation with Tax

In this paper, we develop a two-stage continuous time model of employee stock option (ESO) valuation under different tax regimes. We show that tax rules can have significant effects on ESO exercise behavior. In addition, we find that incentive stock options (ISO) are the optimal form of compensation for all levels of employees in the UK. In the US, restricted stock plans are preferred, and tax breaks offered by incentive schemes are only beneficial to employees with high liquid wealth (or small option holdings relative to wealth) or low risk aversion. We also analyze 83b elections for restricted stock plans in the US and find that making an election is a sub-optimal decision for both the employee and the firm.