Second, and consistent with our previous results, we find
support for the notion that firm performance is a positive
function of the degree to which top managers’ compensation
design reinforces, or is consistent with, the firm’s strategic
orientation only when high levels of environmental discretion
exist. More specifically, the empirical results indicate
that higher levels of compensation, a longer-term incentives
orientation, and a greater proportion of incentive-based compensation
tend to make a greater contribution to firm performance
when the strategic context confers a high degree
of discretion upon its managers, as in the case of firms with
a prospective market orientation. Such risk-encouraging compensation systems appear to alleviate the problem of the lack
of congruence between managerial and firm interests in highdiscretion
strategic contexts, while combining the benefits
of achieving congruence between the interests of the firm
and its managers without shifting all the risk to the managers
(Rajagopalan, 1997). The results support the statement that
the relationship between managerial compensation and firm
performance may be contingent upon firm strategy only for
firms with high levels of discretion. That is, managerial compensation
systems result in superior performance only if they
match the firm’s context. These results are consistent with
the conclusions obtained in studies formulating similar relationships
for U.S. companies (Balkin & Gómez-Mejía, 1990;
Gómez-Mejía, 1992; Rajagopalan, 1997) and, hence, provide
greater validity of the pay-performance relationships. However,
we cannot confirm links between performance and the
three compensation dimensions in firms with a more “defensive”
strategic orientation. In that sense, there is no positive
effect on firm performance related to relationships between
firms with defensive strategic orientation—low levels
of managerial discretion—and those with risk-discouraging
compensation systems. These findings are consistent with
our previous results and confirm the actual behavior of Spanish
firms in relation to the design of top managers’ compensation.
These results indicate that firms operating in a lowdiscretion
strategic context, due to the lack of fit between
pay and strategic orientation (that we checked in previous
hypotheses), do not obtain benefits in terms of economic
performance. In this respect, when strategic context confers
a low degree of discretion upon its managers, as in the case
of a defensive market orientation, firms are not forced exhaustively
to control managerial behavior or to compensate
excessive managerial risk, and thus are not as concerned with
the design of managerial compensation.