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Disloyal Managers and Shareholders' Wealth
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Disloyal Managers and Shareholders' Wealth

Eliezer M. Fich, Jarrad Harford and Anh L. Tran
The Review of financial studies, v 36(5), pp 1837-1888
20 Apr 2023
url
https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/28398/1/Fich%20Harford%20Tran%202023.pdfView
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified) Open

Abstract

Business & Economics Business, Finance Economics Social Sciences
A duty of loyalty prohibits fiduciaries from appropriating business opportunities from their companies. Starting in 2000, Delaware, followed by several other states, allowed boards to waive their duty. We show that public firms covered by waiver laws invest less in R&D, produce fewer and less valuable patents, and exhibit abnormally high inventor departures. Remaining innovation activities contribute less to firm value, a fact confirmed by the market reaction when firms reveal their curtailed internal growth opportunities by announcing acquisitions. Consistent with the laws' intent to provide contracting flexibility to emerging firms, we find evidence of positive impacts for small firms.

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Web of Science research areas
Business, Finance
Economics
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