Abstract: High technology companies are human capital concentrated; the compensation is the main incentive tool to gain human capital advantage. Top management compensation is also the main content of the company governance mechanism. The top management compensation in listed high technology companies and its effectiveness is analyzed empirically. The study reveals that the main factors which determine top management compensation are firm size,firm performance, economic area that firm locates at, and stock percentage of the maximal shareholder. The firm size is the biggest factor. The main factors which significantly affect percentage of stock holding by top management are firm size,firm performance, and stock percentage of the maximal shareholder. The outside director percentage of directorate and the size of intendancy committee do not affect top management compensation in statistics. Top management compensation is positively related to firm performance. Top management compensation,percentage stock ownership and compensation gap among top managements notably influence firm performance. It is also shown that the top management compensation mechanism is effective in the degree. And listed high-tech companies should build up a market-oriented, performance-driven compensation system, carry out equity incentive system, increase compensation gap, and strengthen company governance mechanism.

Key words: high-techn firm, top management compensation, effectiveness, empirical research