Study on the Effectiveness of Equity Incentive Models Affecting Internal Control

-- Evidence from Chinese Listed companies of Shenzhen A-shares

Abstract

The article studies how the equity incentive affects the effectiveness of internal control of listed companies by taking Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2016 as a sample and using the Shenzhen Dibo internal control index of listed companies from 2011 to 2016 to measure the effectiveness of internal control of listed companies. The following three questions are discussed: (1) Whether the impact of equity incentive model on the effectiveness of internal control is positive? (2) Whether the impact of equity incentive intensity on the effectiveness of internal control is nonlinear? In other words, whether there is excess incentive? (3) Is there any difference in the impact of equity incentives between state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises? The study found: The use of equity incentives has a positive effect on the effectiveness of the internal control of the company. When the incentive is excessive, it will result in over-incentives, that is, the greater the incentive, the less effective the internal control of the company. The relationship between incentives and the effectiveness of corporate internal control is inverted U-shaped. Different from the viewpoint of the existing literature, the study found that equity incentives in state-owned enterprises can further enhance the effectiveness of internal control. The results of the study show that although most people think equity incentives are conducive to reducing agency problems and increasing the effectiveness of internal control, it is still necessary to control the strength of equity incentive and prevent it from backfiring, which helps firms to reduce the conflict of interests between principles and agents.