Optimal timing of management turnover under agency problems

Abstract

We explore the timing of the replacement of a manager as an important incentive mechanism, using a real options approach in a situation where the timing of the decision to replace the manager is related to a major change in a firm's strategies that involves spending large amounts of various sunk adjustment costs. Using a continuous-time agency setting, we show that when renegotiation is not possible, the early replacement of the manager of a lower quality project (prior to the first-best trigger level) occurs only if a moral hazard or an adverse selection problem exists. We also indicate that the possibility of renegotiation drastically changes the results.