---
title: "Executive compensation research: papers and trends"
description: "Historical profile (data snapshot 2026-11-04). From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “executive compensation” appeared in 909 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (493), accounting (153) and management (130)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/executive-compensation
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/executive-compensation.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "Historical profile (data snapshot 2026-11-04). From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “executive compensation” appeared in 909 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (493), accounting (153) and management (130)."
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-04T18:03:26+09:00
window: 2026-10-06 to 2026-11-04
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “executive compensation”

[Browse research topics](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/directory/page/3.md)

Historical profile. Data snapshot: 2026-11-04. This profile is outside the current selection; the figures and research below are retained from that snapshot. Browse the directory for other profiles.

Research on “executive compensation” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “executive compensation” appeared in 909 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (493), accounting (153) and management (130).
- 123 of them were published in 2025, against 84 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Renmin University of China (12), Central University of Finance and Economics (10) and City University of Macau (9).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (76), International Review of Economics & Finance (37) and International Review of Financial Analysis (28).
- The most-cited of them is “The effects of board characteristics and sustainable compensation policy on carbon performance of UK firms” (The British Accounting Review, 2017), with 748 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 46 | 32 | 35 | 41 | 35 | 51 | 53 | 76 | 84 | 40 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 18 | 17 | 7 | 13 | 17 | 11 | 19 | 17 | 11 | 23 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 11 | 17 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 16 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 19 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 8 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 16 | 16 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 84 | 77 | 62 | 84 | 80 | 90 | 93 | 118 | 123 | 98 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 76 |
| 2 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 37 |
| 3 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 28 |
| 4 | [Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/review-of-quantitative-finance-and-accounting.md) | 19 |
| 5 | [Journal of Corporate Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-corporate-finance.md) | 18 |
| 6 | [Pacific-Basin Finance Journal](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pacific-basin-finance-journal.md) | 15 |
| 7 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 13 |
| 8 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 11 |
| 9 | [Journal of Banking & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-banking-finance.md) | 10 |
| 10 | [International Journal of Disclosure and Governance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-disclosure-and-governance.md) | 10 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Renmin University of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/renmin-university-of-china.md) | 12 |
| 2 | [Central University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 10 |
| 3 | [City University of Macau](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/city-university-of-macau.md) | 9 |
| 4 | [Hunan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hunan-university.md) | 9 |
| 5 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 9 |
| 6 | [Chongqing University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/chongqing-university.md) | 8 |
| 7 | [Peking University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/peking-university.md) | 8 |
| 8 | [Tongji University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/tongji-university.md) | 7 |
| 9 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 7 |
| 10 | [Beijing Technology and Business University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-technology-and-business-university.md) | 6 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 207 |
| 2 | United States | 117 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 41 |
| 4 | South Korea | 30 |
| 5 | Australia | 28 |
| 6 | Taiwan | 22 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | 20 |
| 8 | Canada | 14 |
| 9 | France | 14 |
| 10 | Germany | 12 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [corporate governance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-governance.md) | 160 |
| 2 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 74 |
| 3 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 51 |
| 4 | CEO compensation | 41 |
| 5 | [firm performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-performance.md) | 33 |
| 6 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 30 |
| 7 | [listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/listed-companies.md) | 21 |
| 8 | [corporate social responsibility](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-social-responsibility.md) | 20 |
| 9 | performance-based pay | 20 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 748 | 6.3 | [The effects of board characteristics and sustainable compensation policy on carbon performance of UK firms](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2017.01.001) | [The British Accounting Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-british-accounting-review.md) | 2017-01-07 | Faizul Haque |
| 2 | 726 | 9.6 | [COVID-19 and the march 2020 stock market crash. Evidence from S&P1500](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2020.101690) | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 2020-07-08 | Mieszko Mazur, Man Dang, Miguel Vega |
| 3 | 335 | 3.4 | [CEO tenure and corporate social responsibility performance](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.08.018) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2018-08-23 | Wanyu Chen, Gaoguang Zhou, Xindong Kevin Zhu |
| 4 | 277 | 4.4 | [Integrating corporate social responsibility criteria into executive compensation and firm innovation: International evidence](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.102070) | [Journal of Corporate Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-corporate-finance.md) | 2021-08-18 | Albert Tsang, Kun Tracy Wang, Simeng Liu et al. |
| 5 | 231 | 2.0 | [CSR-Contingent Executive Compensation Contracts](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2019.105655) | [Journal of Banking & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-banking-finance.md) | 2017-01-01 | Atif Ikram, Zhichuan Frank Li, Dylan B. Minor |

## Research ideas that follow this keyword

- [Pay ratio disclosure and the pay of everyone else](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/ceo-pay-ratio-disclosure.md)

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “executive compensation”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/executive-compensation

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-executive-compensation,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “executive compensation”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/executive-compensation}},
  urldate = {2026-11-04},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).