agency costs
Agency costs
Agency Costs
agency costs
the failure of employees (as ‘agents’), hired by the owners (the ‘principals’) of a business, to fully comply with the terms and responsibilities stipulated in their CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT. For example, operatives may ‘shirk’, indulging in time wasting (long tea breaks etc) thus leading to a loss of potential output. The companies executive directors may fail to put shareholder interests first and pursue other BUSINESS OBJECTIVES of more ‘value’ to themselves. See PRINCIPAL-AGENT THEORY.Strategists are concerned not only with agency costs (internal to the firm) but also with the TRANSACTION COSTS of using external markets. Together these can be important considerations in influencing the extent of VERTICAL INTEGRATION/DISINTEGRATION.