Given that firms can prevent opportunistic reductions in R&D investment by establishing a greater positive association between R&D investment and CEO compensation, this study examines a sample of Taiwan’s R&D-intensive industries to investigate the impact of founding family ownership on the association between R&D investment and CEO compensation. The results show that CEO compensation of family firms depends more on R&D investment and less on explicit financial performance measures (i.e., return on assets). In addition, in contrast to previous findings, the study provides evidence that family firms invest more in R&D and show greater R&D efficiency relative to nonfamily firms. This result suggests that family firms’ compensation structure based on R&D investment encourages CEOs to engage in value-enhancing R&D investment rather than in empire building to expropriate minority shareholders.