Innovative Enterprise Solves the Agency Problem

This chapter uses innovation theory to provide both a general theoretical critique and a selective empirical critique of the use of agency theory to rationalize the looting of the U.S. business corporation as enhancing economic efficiency. It focuses on three empirical works, Bebchuk and Fried, Pay Without Performance (2004); Bebchuk, Brav, and Jiang, “The Long-Term Effects of Hedge-Fund Activism” (2015); and Fried and Wang, “Short-Termism and Capital Flows” (2017). The chapter contends that MSV ideology as promulgated by agency theorists has contributed to inferior corporate and economic performance. It then argues that, for analyzing the operation and performance of the economy, innovation theory should replace agency theory.