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korean management review - Vol. 54, No. 4
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korean management review - Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 815-842
Abbreviation: kmr
ISSN: 1226-1874 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Aug 2025
Received 21 Apr 2025 Revised 05 May 2025 Accepted 06 May 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2025.54.4.815

Pay Inequality or Pay Inequity? Disaggregating Executive-Employee Pay Gap and its Effects on R&D Efficiency
Jeongdae Yim
(First Author) Contract Professor, School of Business Administration, Kyungpook National University (jdyim@knu.ac.kr)

경영진-종업원 보상격차와 R&D 효율성
임정대
(주저자) 경북대학교

Copyright 2025 THE KOREAN ACADEMIC SOCIETY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Abstract

This study investigates how the pay gap between executives and employees influences corporate research and development (R&D) efficiency. Moving beyond a traditional focus solely on the size of this gap, the research examines how its formation and perceived legitimacy affect R&D efficiency. Drawing on Rouen (2020), this study decomposes the pay gap into economically explained and unexplained components. Analyzing panel data from Korean listed firms from 2013 to 2022, the study assesses the impact of these components on R&D efficiency, as measured by the research quotient (RQ). The results indicate that the economically explained pay gap is positively associated with R&D efficiency, whereas the economically unexplained pay gap has a significant negative impact. This detrimental effect of the unexplained pay gap is especially pronounced when executives are overpaid and employees are underpaid. These findings suggest that not all pay gaps are detrimental; their effects depend on whether the gap is perceived as legitimate. By incorporating the perspective of pay inequality versus pay inequity into the innovation context, this study offers new empirical insights into compensation structure and its role in fostering efficient innovation investments.

초록

본 연구는 경영진-종업원 보상격차가 R&D(research and development) 효율성에 미치는 영향을 분석한다. 2013년부터 2022년까지 한국거래소에 상장된 기업을 대상으로 분석한 결과, 경영진-종업원 보상격차는 R&D 효율성에 부정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 경제적으로 설명되는 보상격차는 R&D 효율성에 긍정적 영향을, 반면 경제적으로 설명되지 않은 보상격차는 R&D 효율성에 부정적 영향을 각각 미치는 것으로 관찰되었다. 이러한 결과는 경제적으로 설명되지 않는 보상격차의 부정적 영향이 경제적으로 설명되는 보상격차의 긍정적 영향을 상쇄하기 때문으로 해석된다. 나아가, 경제적으로 설명되지 않는 보상격차의 부정적 영향은 경영진이 과대 보상됨과 동시에 종업원이 과소 보상되는 보상 구조에서 특히 두드러졌다. 본 연구의 결과는 보상격차가 항상 부정적인 것이 아니라, 그 형성 및 정당성 여부(즉, 보상격차가 pay inequality인지 pay inequity인지)에 따라 R&D 효율성에 미치는 효과가 달라질 수 있음을 보여준다. 이는 경영진의 과대 보상에만 초점을 맞춘 기존 논의를 보완하고 보상격차의 효과에 대한 이중적인 접근의 필요성을 제시한다.

Keywords: Executive-employee pay gap, pay inequality, pay inequity, R&D efficiency, research quotient
키워드: 경영진-종업원 보상격차, 경제적으로 설명되는 보상격차, 경제적으로 설명되지 않는 보상격차, R&D 효율성, 연구계수
Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the BK21 FOUR (Fostering Outstanding Universities for Research, No. 4199990413953) funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE, Korea) and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF).

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∙ 저자 임정대는 현재 경북대학교 경영학부 4단계BK21 교육연구단의 계약교수로 재직 중이다. 경북대학교 경영학부를 졸업하였으며, 동 대학원에서 경영학석사 및 경영학박사 학위를 취득하였다. 주요 연구분야는 기업재무, 기업혁신, 지식재산 등이다.

 
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