Pay Harmony? Social Comparison and Performance Compensation in Multibusiness Firms
研究了多业务公司中部门经理的薪酬水平与绩效敏感性如何受社会比较影响，发现同级和上下级比较都会影响薪酬，且同级比较会降低绩效薪酬的敏感性。
Our study presents evidence that social comparison influences both the level of pay and the degree of performance sensitivity within firms. We report pay patterns among division managers of large, multibusiness firms over a 14-year period. These patterns are consistent with employees comparing pay against both their peers (horizontal comparison) and the chief executive officer (vertical comparison) within their firm. Horizontal comparison also appears to reduce pay–performance sensitivity, in accord with prior theory proposing that performance pay can lead to perceived pay inequity among employees. Taken together, our evidence suggests that agency costs and social comparison jointly influence pay within firms. The evidence also supports the notion that managers of multibusiness firms are constrained in the degree to which they can incentivize employees, given the firm-imposed reference group. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1109 .