Publications

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Lawsuits and Litigation; Crisis Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Design; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Crime and Corruption; Business Organization; Business Model; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Governance Compliance; Policy; Compensation and Benefits; Resignation and Termination; Laws and Statutes; Legal Liability; Business or Company Management; Risk Management; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Failure; Agency Theory; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Salesforce Management; Public Opinion; Banking Industry; North and Central America

01 Jun 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Stakeholder Management Facing New Headwinds?

priorities of shareholder management are clear: shareholders have the loudest voice and the greatest influence. Some may argue that this notion became distorted by an element of agency theory that advocated... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2017 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Dennis W. Campbell, Susanna Gallani and Amram Migdal

Set in early 2017, this case examines widespread sales misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank. Wells Fargo's governance and controls are described in the lead up to the September 2016 announcement that Wells Fargo had settled with regulators for $185 million in... View Details

Web

Entrepreneurial Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

2018) William R. Kerr : Included in the 2019 Thinkers50 On the Radar list—a list of "emerging thinkers with the potential to make lasting contributions to management theory and practice." Olivia S. Kim : Recipient of a Mark Kritzman and... View Details

1999
Chapter

Rational Authority Allocation to an Agent

By: M. H. Bazerman

Keywords: Negotiation Participants; Agency Theory

1999
Chapter

Agents in Negotiations: Toward Testable Propositions

By: T. Kurtzberg, D. Moore, K. L. McGinn and M. H. Bazerman

Keywords: Negotiation Participants; Agency Theory

Find at Harvard

Read Now

June 2004 (Revised January 2005)
Background Note

Principals, Agents, and Partners

By: Arthur I Segel, Armen Panossian and Jeff Mandelbaum

The establishment of the principal-agent relationship, the duties owed by the agent to the principal, and the principal's liability for illegal actions or representations made by the agent are all examined. Also covers the creation of partnerships and the duties of... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Agency Theory; Legal Liability

December 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Ben Fiorentino: Selling the Family Business

The caseescribes the challenges Ben Fiorentino, the second-generation head of a family-run equipment business, must deal with as he decides whether and how to sell the business. The business is encountering classic problems that confront family-owned firms: The third... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Negotiation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Management Teams; Agency Theory

June 2017
Article

The Social Trajectory of a Finance Professor and the Common Sense of Capital

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

This paper traces the career of Michael Jensen, a Chicago finance PhD turned Harvard Business School professor to reveal the intellectual and social conditions that enabled the emergence and institutionalization of what we call the “neoliberal common sense of capital,”... View Details

Keywords: Executive Pay; The Firm; Michael Jensen; Neo-Liberalism; Shareholder Value; Agency Theory; Corporate Governance; Executive Compensation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Transformation

Find at Harvard

01 Dec 2011
News

Professors Recognized with New Chair Appointments

Christensen, who joined the faculty after earning his DBA from HBS in 1992, is the author of five bestselling books, including The Innovator’s Dilemma, which laid out his now-famous theory of disruptive innovation. He teaches the elective... View Details

17 Nov 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Self-Interest: The Economist's Straitjacket

Keywords: by Robert Simons

2006
Working Paper

The Limits of Authority: Motivation versus Coordination

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper studies the effects of open disagreement on motivation and coordination. It shows how, in the presence of differing priors, motivation and coordination impose conflicting demands on the allocation of authority, leading to a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Governance Controls; Organizational Culture; Agency Theory; Conflict and Resolution; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

June 2012
Article

Short Termism: Don't Blame the Investors

By: Francois Brochet, George Serafeim and Maria Loumioti

The article presents research on executives and corporation investor relations. A study is conducted of the language used by executives in conference calls discussing earnings with investors and financial analysts. A correlation was found between the use of language... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Business Earnings; Managerial Roles; Investment; Agency Theory; Communication Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations