IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/euract/v24y2015i4p727-752.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Boards' Response to Shareholders' Dissatisfaction: The Case of Shareholders' Say on Pay in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Walid Alissa

Abstract

In 2002, the UK adopted a regulation allowing shareholders to cast non-binding (advisory) votes on their firm's Directors' Remuneration Report during annual general meetings (the 'Say-on-Pay' rule). This study evaluates a decade of this regulation and examines how it affected the behavior of shareholders and boards in a sample of Financial Times Stock Exchange 350 firms during the period 2002-2012. I find evidence that shareholder dissatisfaction increases with excess Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation. This relationship does not exist for the expected level of compensation, suggesting that shareholders take a sophisticated approach when casting their vote. Boards do not appear to respond to shareholder dissatisfaction systematically; however, they do respond selectively by reducing the excessiveness of CEO compensation when performance is poor. Boards also seem to respond swiftly to shareholder dissatisfaction. There is evidence that the probability of CEO turnover increases with shareholder dissatisfaction. Overall, the evidence suggests that 'Say-on-Pay' regulation addressed regulatory concerns about transparency, accountability, and performance linkage.

Suggested Citation

  • Walid Alissa, 2015. "Boards' Response to Shareholders' Dissatisfaction: The Case of Shareholders' Say on Pay in the UK," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 727-752, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:24:y:2015:i:4:p:727-752
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180.2015.1058719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638180.2015.1058719
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638180.2015.1058719?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexander Dyck & Luigi Zingales, 2002. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media," NBER Working Papers 9309, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laurent Bouton & Aniol Llorente-Saguer & Antonin Macé & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2021. "Voting Rights, Agenda Control and Information Aggregation," NBER Working Papers 29005, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Lozano-Reina, Gabriel & Sánchez-Marín, Gregorio & Baixauli-Soler, J. Samuel, 2022. "Say-on-Pay voting dispersion in listed family and non-family firms: A panel data analysis," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(1).
    3. Tzouvanas, Panagiotis & Kizys, Renatas & Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Sagitova, Roza, 2020. "Environmental and financial performance in the European manufacturing sector: An analysis of extreme tail dependency," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    4. Marquardt, Blair B. & Myers, Brett W. & Niu, Xu, 2018. "Strategic voting and insider ownership," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 50-71.
    5. Essam Joura & Qin Xiao & Subhan Ullah, 2023. "The moderating effects of CEO power and personal traits on say‐on‐pay effectiveness: Insights from the Anglo‐Saxon economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4055-4078, October.
    6. Gregorio Sánchez‐Marín & María Encarnación Lucas‐Pérez & Samuel Baixauli‐Soler & Brian G.M. Main & Antonio Mínguez‐Vera, 2022. "Excess executive compensation and corporate governance in the United Kingdom and Spain: A comparative analysis," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2817-2837, October.
    7. Cheng, Xu & Kong, Dongmin & Kong, Gaowen, 2022. "Foreign institutional investors and executive compensation incentives: Evidence from China," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Canil, Jean & Karpavičius, Sigitas, 2020. "Compensation consultants: Does reputation matter?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. Li, Xia & Gupta, Jairaj & Bu, Ziwen & Kannothra, Chacko George, 2023. "Effect of cash flow risk on corporate failures, and the moderating role of earnings management and abnormal compensation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Meera Behera & Vikram Nanda & Oded Palmon, 2022. "Disciplinary shocks: say-on-pay and the role of large shareholders," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1453-1499, November.
    11. Li, Wanyun, 2022. "Disclosure of internal control material weaknesses and optimism in analyst earnings forecasts," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    12. Correa, Ricardo & Lel, Ugur, 2016. "Say on pay laws, executive compensation, pay slice, and firm valuation around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 500-520.
    13. James Borthwick & Aelee Jun & Shiguang Ma, 2020. "Changing board behaviour: The role of the ‘Two Strikes’ rule in improving the efficacy of Australian Say‐on‐Pay," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 827-876, April.
    14. Marcos Vizcaíno-González & Susana Iglesias-Antelo & Noelia Romero-Castro, 2019. "Assessing Sustainability-Related Systematic Reputational Risk through Voting Results in Corporate Meetings: A Cross-Industry Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-11, March.
    15. Ivana Marinovic Matovic & Danijela Pavlovic & Jana Cvijic Rodic, 2020. "Importance of Stakeholders for Balanced Executive Compensation and Shareholder Value Maximization," Proceedings of the 19th International RAIS Conference, October 18-19, 2020 006im, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies.
    16. Juan Pineiro-Chousa & Marcos Vizcaíno-González & Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete, 2019. "Using voting decisions to identify shocks in the financial services industry," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(2), pages 419-431, June.
    17. Joura, Essam & Xiao, Qin & Ullah, Subhan, 2021. "The impact of Say-on-Pay votes on firms' strategic policies: Insights from the Anglo-Saxon economy," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    18. Nicola Cucari, 2019. "Determinants of say on pay vote: a configurational analysis," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 837-856, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Russell S. Sobel & Nabamita Dutta & Sanjukta Roy, 2010. "Beyond Borders: Is Media Freedom Contagious?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 133-143, February.
    2. James D. Westphal & David L. Deephouse, 2011. "Avoiding Bad Press: Interpersonal Influence in Relations Between CEOs and Journalists and the Consequences for Press Reporting About Firms and Their Leadership," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 1061-1086, August.
    3. Di Giuli, Alberta & Laux, Paul A., 2022. "The effect of media-linked directors on financing and external governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 103-131.
    4. Bang Dang Nguyen, 2015. "Is More News Good News? Media Coverage of CEOs, Firm Value, and Rent Extraction," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(04), pages 1-38, December.
    5. Robert M. Bushman & Christopher D. Williams & Regina Wittenberg‐Moerman, 2017. "The Informational Role of the Media in Private Lending," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 115-152, March.
    6. An, Zhe & Chen, Chen & Naiker, Vic & Wang, Jun, 2020. "Does media coverage deter firms from withholding bad news? Evidence from stock price crash risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Yang, Shuai & Wu, Chao, 2021. "Do Chinese managers listen to the media?: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    8. Baloria, Vishal P. & Heese, Jonas, 2018. "The effects of media slant on firm behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 184-202.
    9. Brian J. Bushee & John E. Core & Wayne Guay & Sophia J.W. Hamm, 2010. "The Role of the Business Press as an Information Intermediary," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 1-19, March.
    10. Tsileponis, Nikolaos & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos & Walker, Martin, 2020. "Do corporate press releases drive media coverage?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    11. Otten, J.A. & Heugens, P.P.M.A.R., 2007. "Extending the Managerial Power Theory of Executive Pay: A Cross National Test," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-090-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    12. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Alexander Dyck & Natalya Volchkova & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1093-1135, June.
    14. Dal Bó, Ernesto & Dal Bó, Pedro & Di Tella, Rafael, 2006. "“Plata o Plomo?”: Bribe and Punishment in a Theory of Political Influence," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 100(1), pages 41-53, February.
    15. El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Wang, He & Kwok, Chuck C.Y., 2016. "Family control and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 131-146.
    16. Siddiqui, Sayla & Shams, Syed, 2023. "Media coverage and patent trolls: A study on US high-tech firms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    17. Yu, Yin & Chi, Jing, 2021. "Political embeddedness, media positioning and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    18. Giovanni Cespa & Giacinta Cestone, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Managerial Entrenchment," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 741-771, September.
    19. Roumeen Islam, 2006. "Does More Transparency Go Along With Better Governance?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 121-167, July.
    20. Xu, Weidong & Luo, Zijun & Li, Donghui, 2024. "Investor–firm interactions and corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:24:y:2015:i:4:p:727-752. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REAR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.