Turning Agents into Psychological Principals: Aligning Interests of Non-Owners Through Psychological Ownership

Sieger, Philipp; Zellweger, Thomas; Aquino, Karl (2013). Turning Agents into Psychological Principals: Aligning Interests of Non-Owners Through Psychological Ownership. Journal of Management Studies, 50(3), pp. 361-388. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/joms.12017

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Principals who delegate tasks to agents face the perennial challenge of overcoming agency problems. We investigate whether feelings of ownership among senior managers in the absence of formal ownership can align agents' interests with those of principals, thus turning agents into psychological principals. Using a moderated mediation model, we find that psychological ownership is positively related to company performance through the mediating effect of individual-level entrepreneurial behaviour. We also find that the effect of psychological ownership on individual-level entrepreneurial behaviour and, ultimately, company performance is weaker for high levels of monitoring compared to low levels. These findings offer important contributions to agency, psychological ownership, and entrepreneurship literatures.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Business Management > Institute of Innovation Management > Management

UniBE Contributor:

Sieger, Philipp

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics
600 Technology > 650 Management & public relations

ISSN:

0022-2380

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Language:

English

Submitter:

Philipp Sieger

Date Deposited:

27 Jul 2016 16:49

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:57

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/joms.12017

Uncontrolled Keywords:

agency theory; interest alignment; psychological ownership; psychological principals; entrepreneurial behavior

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.84183

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/84183

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