The impact of ownership structure on executive compensation: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to highlight the impact of ownership discrepancy and type (managers, chairman, state, foreign) on executive compensation (salary, bonus) in Vietnamese Listed Firms for period 2010 -2016. Based on a sample of Vietnamese listed firms and using panel data regressions, the results show that CEO ownership and Government ownership have significant positive impact on the level of total Executive cash compensation. Lack of control by ownership enables management to extract higher executive compensation. Identity of owners has a significant influence on the level of executive compensation. Furthermore, this study investigated the impact of other governance company (such as firm size, board size, non-executive directors…) determinants on the Executive compensation level for Vietnamese listed firms. In addition, we have found that executive compensation is higher among firms with higher growth opportunities .On the other hand, Our findings highlight the need for future research to control for possible simultaneous interdependencies when estimating the executive pay and performance link.