Performance criteria The pay-performance relationship appears to be the most
studied topic in Asian executive compensation research, similar to those studies in
Western countries. Consistent with agency theory, some studies in the context of
Asia find empirical evidence that executive compensation is linked to firm
performance. For example, Groves, Hong, McMillan, and Naughton (1995) and
Mengistae and Xu (2004) find positive relationships between executive compensation
and accounting performance measures in 769 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in
China from 1980 to 1989. Using a sample of 942 firms listed in China’s emerging
stock market from 1999 to 2002, Kato and Long (2006b) document that executive
pay is related to shareholder value and sales growth. In addition, Buck, Liu, and
Skovoroda (2008) find that executive compensation is positively affected by share
and accounting performance measures, using a sample of 601 Chinese listed firms
from 2000 to 2003. Using data from firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
from 1994 to 2002, Cheng and Firth (2006) find that executive directors’ pay is
positively related to accounting performance but not to stock returns. In a
comparative study of executive turnover and compensation in the largest Japanese
and US firms from 1980 to 1988, Kaplan (1994) finds that Japanese executive
turnover and compensation are affected to a greater extent by stock and earning
performance measures but to a lesser extent by sales performance measures. Kato,
Kim, and Lee (2005b) analyze a sample of 246 KOSPI200 firms and find that cash
compensation of Korean executives is related to stock market performance. Ghosh
(2006) uses data on 462 firms for 1997 to 2002 in the Indian manufacturing sector,