随着现代企业管理理念的不断演进，股权激励作为一种长期激励机制被广泛应用，其在激发企业高层管理人员与核心员工积极性、提高企业竞争力方面发挥着重要作用。本文以2014—2022年中国A股上市公司为研究对象，探讨了制定股权激励方案时，授予高管与核心员工的人均股权激励之比对企业业绩的影响效应及其作用机制。本研究基于委托代理理论、锦标赛理论、社会比较理论等理论基础，综合运用文献综述法归纳理论框架、提出假设并采用实证研究法对假设进行检验。实证检验结果表明，高管和核心员工这两个层级获授的人均股权激励的比值对企业业绩存在显著的负面影响，这一结果支持了社会比较理论的观点，即过大的股权激励差距可能引发员工间的不公平感，降低员工的工作投入、团队合作效率和团队稳定性，从而对企业的整体业绩产生抑制作用。进一步地，本文通过异质性分析，探讨了这种股权激励差距影响企业业绩的内在机制。研究结果表明，在员工人数较少、员工成长性较高、业务多元化程度较高以及员工波动率较高的企业中，股权激励差距的负面影响更为显著，分别对以上提到的三个机制提供了实证支持。此外，本研究还通过工具变量法对潜在的内生性问题进行了检验，增加了研究结论的可信度。基于实证结果，本文为上市公司在制定和优化股权激励方案时提供了重要参考。建议企业在设计股权激励计划时，平衡好不同层级员工间的激励差距，避免过大的激励差异引发员工的不公平感。同时，建议监管机构关注股权激励差距的合理性，引导企业合理设置激励水平，促进企业薪酬的公平分配。本研究的实证证据也可为政府部门在权衡收入分配时从权益性薪酬的角度提供参考，促进价值的公平分配。

Amid the evolution of corporate management theories, equity incentives are extensively used as a long-term incentive mechanism, notably for stimulating senior management and core employee enthusiasm and augmenting corporate competitiveness. This study, focusing on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2014-2022, investigates the influence and mechanism of the equity incentive gaps between senior management and core employees on company performance.Based on theoretical foundations such as the Principal-Agent Theory, Tournament Theory, and Social Comparison Theory, this study integrates literature review and empirical tests to construct an analytical framework for the relationship between equity incentive gaps and company performance. The empirical study reveals a significant negative impact of equity incentive gaps on company performance, supporting the viewpoint of the Social Comparison Theory that excessive gaps may trigger a sense of unfairness among employees, potentially leading to employee discontent, reduced effort, and decreased team stability.Further, heterogeneity analysis supports the three aforementioned mechanisms. In enterprises with fewer employees, higher employee growth potential, greater business diversification and higher employee turnover, the negative impact was more profound. The results remain robust after potential endogeneity problems were addressed by using the instrumental variable method.These findings provide crucial insights for listed companies in formulating and optimising equity incentive plans, suggesting a balance in incentive gaps among different employee levels to avoid perceived unfairness. Regulators are also advised to pay attention to the rationality of equity incentive gaps, guiding enterprises to set incentive levels reasonably and promote fair distribution of equity-based compensation within the company. The results also offer empirical evidence for government departments addressing income distribution issues to ensure fair distribution.