Dissecting corporate tournaments: Multilayered structures and firm performance
利用韩国上市公司数据，将企业锦标赛按层级分解，发现上层锦标赛的薪酬差距与晋升概率共同正向影响公司绩效，且在高劳动生产率和长平均任期的企业中更显著。
Abstract This study examines the association between firm performance and promotion incentives (i.e., the product of vertical pay disparity and promotion probability) in multilayer corporate tournaments using a unique data set of Korean public firms. We dissect the corporate tournament into layers and separately examine their association with firm performance while also accounting for the role of promotion probability. We find that (1) upper‐layer, rather than lower‐layer, tournaments are the main drivers of the positive association between vertical pay disparity and firm performance and (2) this association becomes stronger with higher promotion probability, consistent with tournament theory, but only in the upper layer. These results are more pronounced in settings where tournament incentives are plausibly more important, such as those characterized by high labor productivity and high average tenure. Our study draws a comprehensive picture of the corporate tournaments that simultaneously accounts for various factors that previous studies have examined only in isolation.