Article Abstract
Broad-based employee share ownership (ESO) plans are a widely used form of employee compensation. Past reviews have focused on employee attitudes and organizational performance, offering limited insight into why employees participate or the duration of their participation. Further, ESO is rarely considered as a dynamic phenomenon despite most plans being a continuing form of employee compensation. These omissions impede theoretical developments and advice to practitioners. In a review of 48 publications, across multiple disciplines, we propose an integrative framework that identifies the antecedents and mechanisms of three interrelated ESO participation decisions (i.e., buy, contributions, and holdings) within the context of employee stock purchase (and similar) plans. Building on this integrative framework, we propose an agenda for future research that we believe to be most promising for theory development and practice: the temporal dynamics of ESO participation, the influence of contextual (i.e., organizational-level) factors, and methodological innovations.
Human Resource Management Review, December 2026
About the researcher
Michelle Brown is a Professor in Human Resource Management in the Department of Management and Marketing. She undertakes research into performance and reward management.
Recent work on reward management examines the causes and consequences of pay secrecy/transparency for organisations and employees and the employee share participation decision making process. Research on performance management has investigated the framing and delivery of negative performance feedback.