Dynamic Governance: Rethinking the Purpose of the Corporation
Document Type
Editorial
Publication Date
3-6-2018
Abstract
In his classic treatise on the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith noted a discrepancy between the interests of owners and the managers who are handling those “other people’s money.” In the twentieth century, Michael C. Jensen and William H. Meckling—citing Smith as well as Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means’s The Modern Corporation and Private Property—gave new urgency to this issue by introducing the concept of agency costs—the costs of aligning the incentives of these different corporate actors. This led to more than four decades of searching for the best way to align the interests of shareholders and managers.
Publication Title
Blog of the National Association of Corporate Directors
Recommended Citation
Waitzer, Edward J., "Dynamic Governance: Rethinking the Purpose of the Corporation" (2018). Editorials and Commentaries. 148.
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/public_writing/148