CEO 보상 격차가 기업의 혁신에 미치는 영향: 인접성의 조절 효과를 중심으로

Executive compensation has long been a focus of organizational research. This body of work has enhanced our understanding of how top executive compensation impacts various organizational outcomes. However, there are two major gaps in the executive compensation literature. First,this body of research has focused predominately on CEO compensation as opposed to the compensation of the top management team. This is understandable since the CEO is arguably the single most influential as well as the most dominant person in an organization. However,many have argued that our understanding of how strategic leadership influences organizational outcomes can be enhanced by looking at the top management team (TMT) as a whole. Yet,with a few exceptions research examining TMT compensation has been lacking. In this study we examine the compensation gap of the CEO and TMT (CEO paygap) and its impact on firm innovation. In this way, the current study makes an important contribution to the literature by going beyond CEO compensation and considering the compensation of the entire TMT. The degree of participation in mutual and overall interaction by top managers can be facilitated or inhibited by the social context that the TMT faces. And, the degree of participation of TMT in interacting with one another differs according to compensation gap of the TMT members. In our study, the concept of ‘TMT co-location’ is considered to be an important factor that influences the degree of participation in the interaction by TMT members. This is because compared to TMT members working in distant locations, communication and exchange of information can be done more actively when working in the same location. It is implied in the upper-echelons literature that the link between TMT compensation and firm innovation should be more pronounced when there is behavioral integration of the TMT. When the TMT has behavioral integration, the negative effect of CEO paygap on firm innovation should be attenuated because behavioral integration leads to more cooperative behaviors. Yet,no prior study has explored the moderating effects of TMT behavioral integration for the relationship between CEO paygap and firm innovation. Based on a data of 73 firms from 14 industries in the U.S. from 1992 to 1995, our empirical results show that CEO paygap has a negative influence on firm innovation. Additionally,co-location of the TMT moderates the negative relationship between CEO paygap and firm innovation. Innovation is important for firms because it is at the heart of many firms' core competencies,allows firms to respond rapidly to market and technological changes, and provides opportunities to achieve competitive advantage. Despite its importance, managers are reluctant to make the necessary investments for innovation due to the high uncertainty and low success rate often associated with innovation investments. To overcome this situation, the incentive structure for managers should be designed to induce changes in managers' choice for higher risk taking and more capital investment in favor of innovation. This study makes an important contribution to the academia and industry in that it allows an in-depth understanding of the types of influence certain elements have on firm innovation by considering both the content (TMT paygap) and context (TMT co-location) of the TMT and its impact on firm innovation.