Abstract
This study assesses the impact of incentive-based compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, this study compares the influence of incentive-based compensation on performance for SMEs to larger organizations as well as younger to older organizations. The sample included over 24,000 CEO observations from ExecuComp. The results indicate partial support for a greater benefit on performance of using incentive-based pay for SMEs over larger organizations and full support for a greater benefit on performance for younger organizations than older organizations.