{"id":163857,"date":"2026-06-10T16:59:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitionary.com\/dictionnaire\/what-is-agency-theory\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:23:10","slug":"what-is-agency-theory","status":"publish","type":"dictionnaire-dico","link":"https:\/\/digitionary.com\/en\/dictionnaire\/what-is-agency-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"What is agency theory?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agency theory views a business as a set of contracts between the individuals involved, requiring appropriate management and oversight. It focuses not only on economic relationships but also on all interactions structured so that the actions of one party impact the other. This theory particularly analyzes information imbalances and divergences in interests and motivations between the principal and the agent acting on their behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agency relationships manifest in various contexts, such as employer and employee, shareholders and managers of a company, or patient and doctor. It seeks to assess the costs associated with resolving conflicts between these different parties. The classic definition of an agency relationship, established in 1976 by Michael Jensen and William Meckling, describes it as a contract in which one person engages another to perform a task involving a delegation of decision-making power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">C\u00e9drine Joly Galzin emphasizes that agency theory, used to generate value for both customers and shareholders, presents the company as a set of contracts between stakeholders with sometimes divergent interests. Shareholders, by delegating their authority to managers, must implement disciplinary and incentive measures to control them and mitigate the negative effects of information asymmetries. To protect their investments and minimize the costs associated with these measures, while also monitoring the company&#8217;s direction, corporate governance practices are implemented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories-glossary":[313],"class_list":["post-163857","dictionnaire-dico","type-dictionnaire-dico","status-publish","hentry","categories-glossary-data-analytics-marketing-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitionary.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dictionnaire-dico\/163857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitionary.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dictionnaire-dico"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitionary.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/dictionnaire-dico"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitionary.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categories-glossary","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitionary.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories-glossary?post=163857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}