Detail of Textbook:
Corporate Finance, 9th Edition
Stephen A. Ross, MASS INSTITUTE OF TECH
Randolph W. Westerfield, University of Southern California
Jeffrey Jaffe, University of Pennsylvania 2010,
ISBN-13 9780077337629
1. In the corporate form of ownership, the shareholders are the owners of the firm. The shareholders elect the directors of the corporation, who in turn appoint the firm’s management. This separation of ownership from control in the corporate form of organization is what causes agency problems to exist. Management may act in its own or someone else’s best interests, rather than those of the shareholders. If such events occur, they may contradict the goal of maximizing the share price of the equity of the firm.