David Pastoriza

When Agents Become Stewards: Introducing Learning in the Stewardship Theory

Stewardship Theory, developed by Donaldson and Davis (1991 & 1993) is a new perspective to understand the existing relationships between ownership and management of the company. This theory arises as an important counterweight to Agency Theory. Though this theory addresses some of the reductionist assumptions of Agency Theory, it suffers from being static as it considers the relationship of principal agent at a single point in time and assumes no learning of individuals as a result of their interactions. This paper brings dynamics into the picture by introducing the learning that occurs within each agent every time they interact. It is argued that individuals learn in the process of interaction and can change their preferences; not necessarily feel betrayed and frustrated. The decision-making theory of P?rez-L?pez (1991 & 1993) gives foundations to the arguments proposed in the paper.

The burden of glory: Competing for nonmonetary incentives in rank-order tournaments

In an environment in which elite, highly paid professionals compete for nonmonetary rewards, we find evidence of underperformance. Our analysis suggests that choking under pressure from high†stakes nonmonetary rewards is behind the underperformance. This implies that high stakes nonmonetary rewards can create meaningful pressure on individuals and lead to worse performance, a distinct issue that has yet to be adequately examined. These findings come from an examination of the behavior of top U.S. golfers competing to earn a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team via their performance in PGA Tour tournaments with differing allocations of Ryder Cup qualifying points.