경영자 스톡옵션의 전략적 행사시점선택에 관한 연구

This study explores if executives exercise their stock options strategically to maximize their wealth under the two hypotheses-Informational Timing vs. Exercise Backdating. The related regulation of option exercise in Korea is relatively weak in that there is sometimes timelag between option exercise and the announcement of the event. We analyzed a total of 430 option exercise by executives, selected from the listed companies in Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) and in KOSDAQ Market from year 2002 to year 2010. These data are categorized into three groups by the option exercise strategic-exercise-and-cash paid (n = 70), exercise-and-disposition(n = 87), exercise-and-hold(n = 273). The results are like followings;Firstly, for the group of exercise-and-cash paid and the group of exercise-and-disposition, we observed the strategic option exercise patterns since there is positive stock performance before stock option exercise, and negative thereafter. Meanwhile, There is positive stock performance through all windows. Based on this observations, we can conclude that executives time their exercise strategically. Secondly, the timelag between option exercise date and the announcement date had no effect on CAR, implying that the strategic stock patterns don’t be related with backdating. Therefore, the observerd strategic option exercise pattern is much more related with informational timing hypothesis rather than backdating. This study has an significance in that this is the first to explore the option exercise pattern and the soundness of related regulation in Korea.