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Agency Theory and Supply Chain Management: A Literature Review

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Agency Theory and Sustainability in the Global Supply Chain

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Business ((BRIEFSBUSINESS))

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Abstract

The chapter is dedicated to the literature review on agency theory in supply chain management contexts. After an overview on the original formulation of agency theory and a brief description of the most recent development, the review presents the state of the art of theoretical and empirical research on the topic and discusses the areas in which agency theory has been more usefully adopted. The study also shows the explanatory power of the theory for understanding the role of opportunism in supply chain relationships.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “When screening costs and the costs of learning by experience are both high, the principal may have no choice but to assume that all available agents are undesirable types and to adjust the contract offer accordingly. This breakdown, known as the market for lemons, suggests that hidden information problems can sometimes result in losses to both the principal and the agent” (Bergen et al. 1992: p. 6).

  2. 2.

    Some models have relaxed the assumption of the risk averse agent (e.g., Harris and Raviv 1979), thus extending the external validity of hidden action models.

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  1. Department of Human Science, European University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Emanuela Delbufalo

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  1. Emanuela Delbufalo
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Delbufalo, E. (2018). Agency Theory and Supply Chain Management: A Literature Review. In: Agency Theory and Sustainability in the Global Supply Chain. SpringerBriefs in Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72793-6_1

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