Investigating the associations between executive compensation and firm performance: Agency theory or tournament theory

Abstract Purpose – While there have been extensive empirical investigations of pay-performance sensitivity, the perspective of performance-pay has received less attention to date. While executive compensation is sensitive to firm performance, firm performance is also likely to be affected by executive compensation. Adopting multiple theoretical perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether executive compensation has a greater influence on firm performance or whether the latter has a greater influence on compensation. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from a five-year period (2010-2014) for Financial Times and Stock Exchange 350 companies, the authors employ a set of simultaneous equation modelling to jointly investigate, after accounting for endogeneity problem, the mutual association of executive compensation and firm performance by employing four control variables (board size, non-executive directors, leverage and boardroom ownership). Findings – The authors find strong evidence for the greater influence of executive compensation on firm performance than the pay-performance framework. This finding supports the tournament theory compared with the agency perspective. Research limitations/implications – Inevitably, there are limitations in a wide-ranging study of this nature that could be addressed in future research. As any empirical study utilising company data, there may be concerns to the effect of survivorship bias and the manner in which companies have reorganised, if there is any, themselves during the period under examination. There are also issues as to missing data, some measures relating to both executive compensation and corporate governance are not provided by the BoardEx database. Practical implications – The study results provide evidence that using the tournament perspective by remuneration committees as a guide for determining executive compensation helps in achieving better performance. This helps in developing appropriate mechanisms for setting executive remuneration. Originality/value – This paper combines an empirical investigation of the frameworks of pay-performance and performance-pay and develops a system of six simultaneous equations to examine the associations between executive compensation and firm performance. Keywords Firm performance, Executive compensation, FTSE 350, Simultaneous equations modelling Paper type Research pape

Thermal Performance of the Extensive Green Roofs in Hot Dry Climate

Green roofs have been used as an environmentally friendly product to encourage sustainable construction. Green roofs have a variety of advantages, such as reducing the energy consumption for cooling systems. The performance of these systems depends on the climates. The energy consumption for heating and cooling inside the residential and commercial buildings reach to 70% in hot dry climates such as Riyadh city which the temperature reached 50°C. So, the study aim to examine the efficiency of Extensive Green Roof system for reducing energy consumption of cooling in buildings in hot dry regions by compared it is performance with concrete roof system. The experimental validations were applied on residential building in Riyadh city during the summer season in 2014. The study used two rooms for testing thermal performance - the first room with extensive green roof system and the second room with concrete roof system. The results showed that using environmentally friendly insulation (Extensive Green Roof System) could reduce 12% to 33% for energy consumption of air conditioning in hot dry climates

Comparison between autologous serum eye drops and punctal occlusion for treatment of dry eye syndrome

Background: Dried cornea condition characterized with mispreception regarding eye coat because of slit insufficiency otherwise unreasonable vanishing that makes harm to dried surfaces also visual shell which related to manifestations regarding visual inconvenience.Purpose: Comparing efficiency and safety of AS eye drops and Punctal occlusion for management of dry eye syndrome.Patients and Methods: A prospective study was conducted in, (Al-Hussein and Bab-Elsheryia hospitals), a sum of 40 eyes of 40 patients suffering from Dry eye (24 males, 16 females) were recruited in this study. The first group contain 20 eyes that undergo AS eye drops. The 2nd group contain 20 eyes that undergo Punctal occlusion.Results: The visual acuity in the first group before treatment was 3.5/9.3 ± 1.91/9.2 (mean ± standard deviation) and after treatment in the second visit was 5.25/10 ± 3.75/10 (P < 0.01) with standard improvement 2 Snellen lines. In the second group visual acuity before treatment was 2.85/9.1 ± 2.04/9.2 and after treatment in the second visit was 4.65/9.2 ± 4.37/10, the normal increase is 3 visual letters. The VA become better in both groups Conclusion: In summary, both two methods of management have similar efficiency in reducing discomfortable sensation in dry eyes, and almost have equivalent and improve in subjective symptoms. Punctual occlusion shows many benefits in conserving natural tears and enhancing tear quality and seemed to be better on tear film stabilization. AS eye drops and punctual occlusion improved BCV

Prospects for terahertz imaging the human skin cancer with the help of gold-nanoparticles-based terahertz-to-infrared converter

The design is suggested, and possible operation parameters are discussed, of an instrument to inspect a skin cancer tumour in the terahertz (THz) range, transferring the image into the infrared (IR) and making it visible with the help of standard IR camera. The central element of the device is the THz-to-IR converter, a Teflon or silicon film matrix with embedded 8.5 nm diameter gold nanoparticles. The use of external THz source for irradiating the biological tissue sample is presumed. The converter's temporal characteristics enable its performance in a real-time scale. The details of design suited for the operation in transmission mode (in vitro) or on the human skin in reflection mode {in vivo) are specified.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the FANEM2018 workshop - Minsk, 3-5 June 201

Solutions of Some Difference Equations Systems and Periodicity

In this article, analysis and investigation have been conducted on the periodic nature as well as the type of the solutions of the subsequent schemes of rational difference equations with a nonzero real numbers initial conditions

Dissemination of multiple carbapenem-resistant clones of Acinetobacter baumannii in the Eastern District of Saudi Arabia

It has previously been shown that carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii are frequently detected in Saudi Arabia. The present study aimed to identify the epidemiology and distribution of antibiotic resistance determinants in these bacteria. A total of 83 A. baumannii isolates were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and screened by PCR for carbapenemase genes and insertion sequences. Antibiotic sensitivity to imipenem, meropenem, tigecycline, and colistin were determined. Eight different PFGE groups were identified, and were spread across multiple hospitals. Many of the PFGE groups contained isolates belonging to World-wide clone 2. Carbapenem resistance or intermediate resistance was detected in 69% of isolates. The blaVIM gene was detected in 94% of isolates, while blaOXA–23–like genes were detected in 58%. The data demonstrate the co-existence and wide distribution of a number of clones of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii carrying multiple carbapenem-resistance determinants within hospitals in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia

Risk factors for metabolic syndrome independently predict arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction in patients with chronic kidney disease and minimal comorbidity

OBJECTIVE: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), but its contribution to arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction in CKD is not well defined. We hypothesized that risk factors for MS would independently predict arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction in CKD patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Risk factors for MS, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV) and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) as measures of arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction, respectively, were assessed in 113 minimally comorbid CKD patients and in 23 matched control subjects. RESULTS: CF-PWV correlated with systolic blood pressure (SBP), waist circumference, and plasma glucose (r(2) = 0.25, 0.09, and 0.09; P < 0.01 for all). FMD correlated with SBP (r(2) = 0.09; P < 0.01) and waist circumference (r(2) = 0.03; P < 0.05). CF-PWV increased progressively (r(2) = 0.07; P < 0.01) with increasing number of risk factors for MS. In multiple linear regression, SBP and waist circumference were independent determinants of CF-PWV, whereas only SBP predicted FMD. CONCLUSIONS: The number of MS risk factors is an important determinant of arterial stiffness in CKD patients irrespective of the degree of renal impairment. Although BP remains the major determinant of arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction, waist circumference independently predicts arterial stiffness. MS risk factors, particularly abdominal girth, are potential targets for future interventional studies in patients with CKD

Needs assessment to strengthen capacity in water and sanitation research in Africa:experiences of the African SNOWS consortium

Despite its contribution to global disease burden, diarrhoeal disease is still a relatively neglected area for research funding, especially in low-income country settings. The SNOWS consortium (Scientists Networked for Outcomes from Water and Sanitation) is funded by the Wellcome Trust under an initiative to build the necessary research skills in Africa. This paper focuses on the research training needs of the consortium as identified during the first three years of the project

Evolutionary Constrained Optimization with Dynamic Changes and Uncertainty in the Objective Function

Many real-life optimization problems involve dynamic changes with uncertain parameters and data, which make the decision-making process challenging. Although there are some studies on solving dynamic or uncertain problems, there is limited work on solving problems with both dynamic and uncertain characteristics. Therefore, this paper proposes an evolutionary framework for solving constrained optimization problems where the objective function's coefficients are uncertain and changing over time. In the algorithm, a mechanism is proposed for detecting a change and predicting the magnitude of uncertainty, which helps to generate better initial solutions for the evolutionary search process that improves its performance after a dynamic change. It is evaluated on 13 benchmark problems, with the reported results demonstrating its efficiency in terms of the quality of its solutions