Agency Theory Essay

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Question 2 (a)
According to Investopedia, agency theory explains the relationship between principals and agents in business. The theory is based on two elements, the principals and the agents of principals. Principals are parties such as shareholders and agents of principals are parties such as company executives. Agency theory is mainly about resolving the problems that could occur in agency relationships. There are two problems that agency theory points out; they are 1.) Problems occurred when the goals of both the principals and agents are in any kind of conflict, and the principal is unable to do verification on what the agents are doing due to the difficulties faced; and 2.) Problems arise when there are differences in points of views and opinions on risks. Both principals and agents possess different tolerance for risks, and both of them may take different kinds of actions. Since agency problems present themselves all the time, the CFA Institute has promoted code of ethics to reduce agency problems. The codes are such as standard V: Investment Analysis, Recommendations, and Actions. Candidates must acquire a reasonable and adequate basis supported by appropriate research and investigation for every investment analysis, recommendation and actions. On top of that, candidates must use reasonable and undisturbed judgment in identifying factors that are at the utmost importance to every investment analysis, recommendations and actions. Having high professionalism in this field is very important because if misrepresentation relating to investment analysis, recommendations or actions might cause severe damage towards the outcome of any decision making. This would reduce agency problems where all parties acquire the same and most ex...

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... characteristics. If an investment is accepted, it is important that the correct operating decisions are to be made. Care should be taking in order to provide operating management with guidelines about what decisions are optimal, if valuing option provides an operating rule as a byproduct of valuation procedure. 2) There are also hidden assumptions with using this approach. Large option value might cause a change in decisions, but cash flow assumptions may be covered, not allowing the management to form effective assumptions. 3) There’s consequence for R&D as well. Generally, a firm that spends large amount of money on R&D has a pessimistic NPV when cash flows evaluated. R&D should offer high hope since its variance is positively correlated with the value of the call option, and because the yields of R&D gives high returns since it is in a very volatile industry.

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