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Why are Small Firms Different? Managers' Views

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Abstract
Do incentives in small organizations differ from those in large ones? This paper uses a representative survey of compensation managers to shed light on the issues. I find that (i) small establishments rely less on pecuniary incentives, and have a significantly more hostile attitude towards incentive schemes based on competition and relative rewards; (ii) large units are more vulnerable to mechanisms of efficiency wages, effects that remain even as I control for differences in monitoring ability; (iii) large units are more prone to indicate that negative reciprocity is important, and that their employees care about relative pay. I argue that these findings fit with behavioral stories of incentives and motivation, in particular those stressing group interaction effects, inequity aversion and gift exchange.

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  • Agell, Jonas, 2003. "Why are Small Firms Different? Managers' Views," Research Papers in Economics 2003:9, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2003_0009
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    2. Mei-Foong, Wong & Hui-Boon, Tan & Hon, Lee Yoong, 2014. "Firm-Specific Characteristics And Technical Efficiency Of Electronics Manufacturing Firms In China," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 10(1-2), January.
    3. Robert Dur & Amihai Glazer, 2004. "Optimal Incentive Contracts For a Worker Who Envies His Boss," CESifo Working Paper Series 1282, CESifo.
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    5. HansK. Hvide, 2009. "The Quality of Entrepreneurs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(539), pages 1010-1035, July.
    6. Dur, Robert & Non, Arjan & Roelfsema, Hein, 2010. "Reciprocity and incentive pay in the workplace," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 676-686, August.
    7. Fredrik Carlsson & Olof Johansson‐Stenman, 2010. "Why Do You Vote and Vote as You Do?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(4), pages 495-516, November.
    8. Priks, Mikael, 2011. "Firm competition and incentive pay: Rent seeking at work," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 154-156.
    9. Ana Ferrer & Stéphanie Lluis, 2008. "Should Workers Care about Firm Size?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(1), pages 104-125, October.
    10. Alexander Schiersch, 2013. "Firm size and efficiency in the German mechanical engineering industry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 335-350, February.
    11. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2011. "Animal Welfare and Social Decisions," Working Papers in Economics 485, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    12. Parisa Rafiaani & Zoumpolia Dikopoulou & Miet Dael & Tom Kuppens & Hossein Azadi & Philippe Lebailly & Steven Passel, 2020. "Identifying Social Indicators for Sustainability Assessment of CCU Technologies: A Modified Multi-criteria Decision Making," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 15-44, January.
    13. Yang, Sheng-Ping & DeBeaumont, Ronald, 2010. "Pay as incentive or pay as reward? The case of Taiwan," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 76-86, February.
    14. Englmaier, Florian & Wambach, Achim, 2010. "Optimal incentive contracts under inequity aversion," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 312-328, July.
    15. Akinori Tomohara & Akihiko Ohno, 2016. "Domains of reciprocity beyond monetary compensation: How do non-pecuniary factors affect effort and shirking?," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1178884-117, December.
    16. Pedro Rey‐Biel, 2008. "Inequity Aversion and Team Incentives," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(2), pages 297-320, June.
    17. James Zuccollo & Sholeh Maani & Bill Kaye-Blake & Lulu Zeng, 2013. "Private Returns to Tertiary Education - How Does New Zealand Compare to the OECD?," Treasury Working Paper Series 13/10, New Zealand Treasury.
    18. Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2008. "Who are the trustworthy, we think?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(3-4), pages 456-465, December.
    19. Carlsson, Fredrik & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2009. "Voting Motives, Group Identity, and Social Norms," Working Papers in Economics 366, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    20. Paulo Aguiar do Monte, 2019. "Effort Level by Firm Size in a Developing Country," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(1), pages 73-87, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm-size effect; motivation; relative pay; field-survey; matched data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

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