However, to examine subsidiaries’ executive compensation decision mechanism, we need to collect data on
the corporate governance of subsidiaries in business groups. Because non-public companies are not required
to disclose their data, traditional research on business groups generally assumes that one business group has
only one listed subsidiary company, and examines the operation or economic consequences based on this
assumption,1 which may not describe the business group comprehensively and objectively. In this study, we
use a unique dataset of China business groups to examine executive compensation in business groups. In
China, one special kind of business group, the so-called XiZu JiTuan in Chinese, has sprung up like bamboo
in the past 20 years. XiZu JiTuan is defined as more than one listed company under the control of the same
ultimate shareholder, which is the output of the development of business groups in the capital markets (Ma
and Chen, 2013; Shao and Liu, 2007).