defensive firms that design managerial compensation independent of the strategic context, creating a lack of fit between
compensation and context that does not positively affect
firm performance. The peculiarities of the second group
of firms are consistent with the findings of Romero & Valle
(2001) for a set of manufacturing Spanish firms. However,
unlike this work, we have discovered that there is a group of
Spanish firms—the first group—that displays behaviors similar
to U.S. firms with regard to managerial compensation design.
These firms design compensation models for their top
managers that respond to a coherent action line, that match
the firm’s strategic orientation, and that present positive effects
on overall performance from this adaptation.