Executive compensation measures for corporate Chief Executive Officers and the effectiveness of such measures have been historically modeled by multiple theories, in particular Agency Theory, Stewardship Theory and Resource Dependence Theory. Research of such measures are mostly restricted to USA only.

This study attempts to highlight differences in executive compensation measures and corporate cultures between two distinct economic areas while investigating whether certain compensation measures are favorable to the companies and their stakeholders.

Accounting information from 25 publicly traded Nordic Companies is used to determine Nordic context and additional 25 companies from NYSE index is used in USA context. Timeframe is from between 2011 and 2016 inclusive. Descriptive statistics, correlations and OLS regression analysis is performed for both datasets separately. Analysis results are interpreted and compared for similarities and differences. SPSS statistical software is used during analysis.

Positive relationships is observed between accounting performance as performance pay portion of compensation increases in both Nordic and US contexts, with Nordic effect being more pronounced. We also find total compensation size to have no effect in Nordics while in USA CEO pay has a substantial relationship with multiple accounting metrics. Market effects between Nordics and USA are virtually nonexistent.