A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF AGENCY THEORY IN BUSINESS, ECONOMICS AND ACCOUNTING (2023-2025)

Abstract

Agency theory remains as one of the main frameworks to understand the conflicts of interest between principal and agents. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to identify the context in which the theory has been applied, the type of agency theory used, major research areas, combinations with different theories, analytical technique applied, and the research gap found in the recent literature. This study adopts the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach. A total 152 studies published between 2023 to 2025 from Scopus database that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria was selected and analyzed. The result reveal that the majority of studies used classical agency theory and focused on corporate governance context and finance for research. A lot of studies also combined and used agency theory with different types of theories, such as Resourced-Based View, Stewardship Theory, and Institutional Theory. Additionally, there are research gaps identified in literature and this review recommended a few research areas with potential, such as research in smart governance or in rural organization and local SMEs. This review contributes to both scholars and practitioners by offering ideas to develop more adaptive agency theory models suited for modern organization dynamics and highlighting various new research topics in different contexts.

Keywords: Agency theory, systematic literature review, research gap