|
Abstract:
|
he use of share option compensation as a type of incentive pay has been growing in Denmark
as well as Great Britain over the past 10-15 years, and due to this there has been an
increasing focus on the regulation of the area, especially in accounting and tax matters. This
has led to some development and changes within the share option compensation system;
however, in both countries there is an official wish to increase the use of share option
compensation, which is reflected in the regulation.
Because of the growing globalisation, there is an increasing need to understand the systems in
other countries as well as to be able to communicate about specific subjects or concepts in a
foreign language, e.g. British, and thus it is important to know the correct technical terms.
Therefore, the overall purpose of this thesis is to give detailed background knowledge of the
subject share option compensation and of a number of relevant terms, thereby helping the
reader to be able to translate a Danish text into British using the correct concepts and
technical terms.
The thesis has two aims: first, to carry out a comparative analysis of the Danish and British
share option compensation systems in order to identify differences and similarities, and
second, to analyse whether these differences and similarities have any influence on the
terminological aspects of the subject, including in translation matters.
The first part of the thesis forms the framework of the comparative analysis. The analysis has
shown that the Danish system operates with three types of share option compensation which
are all similar and very flexible, and the main difference between these plans is the involved
tax privileges which benefit either the employee or the employer. The British system, on the
other hand, operates with four very different share option compensation plans. The four types
each have their particular advantages and may be used for different purposes and employees
whereas the tax implications are very similar (except for the non-approved plans which are
taxed more heavily). In accounting matters, the two countries are both subject to the
international financial reporting standard IFRS 2, but must also live up to certain national
regulations, mainly a number of disclosure requirements. All in all, it may be concluded that
there are certain similarities between the Danish and British systems, but that there are also a
number of significant differences.
In the second part of the thesis, a terminological analysis has been conducted of 14 Danish
terms that seemed to be relevant for the subject as well as interesting from a terminological
and translational perspective. The main purpose of the analysis was to find appropriate
translations of the Danish terms. The study showed that some of the terms did not involve
particular translational difficulties, but that others were rather complex with a number of
synonyms in Danish and/or British. This may create challenges in connection with translation
since some of the terms that are used as synonyms are in fact not always completely
equivalent. Especially one British term (Vesting period) showed to be problematic as the
Danish sources do not agree on one definition, but use a number of differing terms in various
contexts. However, it appeared that all of the selected Danish terms had British counterparts,
and thus it was not necessary to give translation proposals. The study also proved that it is
very important to have a good level of knowledge about share option compensation, both in
Danish and in British, to be able to select the most appropriate terms in order to produce a
correct translation.
In conclusion, the hypothesis of the thesis has been confirmed, in that a great development of
the regulatory framework of share option compensation has taken place in both Denmark and
Great Britain, and that the rules and regulations in the two countries are not identical.
However, even though these differences have some influence on the applied terminology and
thus may create certain translational challenges, this is not considered to be a large problem. |
