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Michael C. Jensen

Michael C. Jensen

Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

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MICHAEL C. JENSEN, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School in 1985 founding what is now the Negotiations, Organizations and Markets Unit in the School. He joined the Monitor Company in 2000 as Managing Director of the Organizational Strategy Practice, became Senior Advisor in 2007 and as of 2009 is no longer associated with Monitor. He was LaClare Professor of Finance and Business Administration at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester from 1984-1988, Professor from 1979-1984, Associate Professor from 1971-1979, and Assistant Professor from 1967-1971. He founded the Managerial Economics Research Center at the University of Rochester in 1977 and served as its Director until 1988.

Professor Jensen earned his Ph.D. in Economics, Finance, and Accounting and his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago and an A.B. degree from Macalester College. He was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees, Docteur Honoris Causa, by Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, July, 1991; by the University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, December 2000; by the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, June, 2001; by the University of Toronto, June 2005 and by the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business in May 2011. He was named Honoris Causa Professor by HEC Business School, Paris, France, Nov. 2006.

Professor Jensen is the author of more than 100 scientific papers, in addition to numerous articles, comments, and editorials published in the popular media on a wide range of economic, finance and business-related topics. Most of his papers are downloadable from his SSRN Author Page at: http://ssrn.com/author=9. He is author of Foundations of Organizational Strategy (Harvard University Press, 1998), and Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms (Harvard University Press, 2000). He is editor of The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance (with Clifford W. Smith, Jr., McGraw-Hill, 1984) and Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets (Praeger Publishers, 1972). His book co-authored with Kevin Murphy and Eric Wruck, CEO Pay and What to Do About It: Restoring Integrity to Both Executive Compensation and Capital-Market Relations will be published by Harvard Business School Press in 2012.

In 1973 Professor Jensen co-founded (with Eugene Fama and Robert Merton) the Journal of Financial Economics, one of the top three scientific journals in financial economics, serving as Managing Editor from 1987 to 1997, when he became Founding Editor. From 1992 through 1998 he served on the steering committee of the Mind Brain Behavior Initiative at Harvard University (a Harvard interfaculty effort to bring together a wide range of scholars interested in understanding the limitations of the human brain and its role in generating counter-productive human behavior). In 1994 he co-founded and is currently Chairman of Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. (SSEP) which is devoted to the electronic publication of scientific working papers in the social sciences http://ssrn.com.. Since 2003 Jensen has been a member of the Barbados Group, a worldwide group of a dozen scholars, including philosophers, economists, psychologists, technologists, and educators to develop the ontological foundations of performance. The group’s work and that of its members is available at http://www.ssrn.com/link/Barbados-Group.html.

Jensen was awarded the 2011 Economics for Management Lecture Series ISES-Fundacion BBVA Prize in May, 2011, and awarded the Morgan Stanley-AFA 2009 Award For Excellence in Financial Economics. (Jensen selected the National Bureau of Economics Research, Harvard Business School and the U. of Rochester Simon School of Business as recipients of the $200,000 total cash grant.) In May 2009 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to Research in the Field of Financial Intermediation by the Financial Intermediation Society. He was awarded the Drexel U. LeBow College of Business Distinguished Scholar Award for his "Outstanding Academic Contributions to Corporate Governance. He was awarded the 2007 Herber Simon Award for outstanding contributions to business research by Rajik Laszlo College, Budapest, Hungary. In March 2006 he received the Drexel U. LeBow College of Business Dean's Leadership Award in Corporate Governance. In 2004 Jensen received the Tjalling C. Koopmans EFACT Conference Award, for "extraordinary contributions to the economic sciences, and to have reached the highest standards of quality of research," and his paper The Agency Cost of Overvalued Equity and the Current State of Corporate Finance received the European Financial Management 2004 Readers Choice Best Paper Award (by vote of the readership of the EFM Journal). In 2002 he was named a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). Dr. Jensen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.He received the Robert F. Greenhill Award, Harvard Business School, June 1996.  In 1990, he was named "Distinguished Scholar of the Year" by the Eastern Finance Association and one of the "Year's 25 Most Fascinating Business People" by Fortune magazine. He received a 1989 McKinsey Award for his paper Eclipse of the Public Corporation, and was awarded the Joseph Coolidge Shaw, S.J. Medal by Boston College in 1984. Dr. Jensen was also awarded (with William Meckling) the Graham and Dodd Plaque given by the Financial Analysts Federation in May, 1979 for their paper Can the Corporation Survive? Dr. Jensen and his co-author, William Meckling, received the first Leo Melamed Prize for outstanding scholarship by business school teachers from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business in March, 1979 for their paper, Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure. In 1984, this paper was identified as one of the most cited items in its field and named a Citation Classic by the Institute for Scientific Information. It also received the Journal of Financial Economics All Star Paper Award, as have the following two papers: The Market For Corporate Control: The Scientific Evidence (co-authored with Richard Ruback), and Some Anomalas Evidence Regarding Market Efficiency.

Dr. Jensen has served as consultant and board member to various corporations, foundations and governmental agencies and has given expert testimony before congressional and state committees and state and federal courts. He currently serves on the Advisory Boards of ESADE Business School and the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research. He has lectured widely at seminars, meetings, conventions and educational institutions. He is Past President of the American Finance Association and the Western Economic Association International.

Professor Jensen's major research interests now include "The Ontological Laws of Human Nature", "A Positive Theory of the Normative Virtues", "Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Approach", and "The Three Foundations of a Great Personal Life, Great Leadership and a Great Company: Integrity, Authenticity, and Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself".

Read or watch an interview about Professor Jensen's life's work at:

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1699862

and

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1863994

Updated: February 15, 2012

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Michael C. Jensen
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Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors

Books
Books

  • Jensen, Michael C. Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. Foundations of Organizational Strategy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. and Clifford H. Smith Jr., eds. The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance. McGraw-Hill, 1984. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Democracy in Crisis." 1977. View Details
  • Jensen, M. C., ed. Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details

Journal Articles
Journal Articles

  • Jensen, M. C. "Corporate Control and the Politics of Finance." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 4, no. 2 (summer 1991): 13–33. (Abridged version forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, (Harvard University Press, Forthcoming).) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 6, no. 4 (winter 1994). (Reprinted in the JACF, (winter 1994); Finanzmarkt und Portfolio Management, (January 1993); and Jensen, Theory of the Firm, (HUP, 2000) & abridged version forthcoming in Management Revolution. . ., (HUP, 2001).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 1." Journal of Applied Finance 20, no. 2 (2010). View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 2." Journal of Applied Finance 20, no. 2 (2010). View Details
  • Jensen, M. C., and Joseph Fuller. "Just Say No to Wall Street: Courageous CEOs Are Putting a Stop to the Earnings Game and We Will All Be Better Off for It." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 14, no. 4 (winter 2002): 41–46. (Excerpts of this article can be found in the Wall Street Journal, "Manager's Journal" column as "Dare To Keep Your Stock Price Low," 12/31/01, and in the Financial Times, as "End the Myth-Making and Return to True Analysis," 1/22/02.) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C. "Corporate Budgeting Is Broken, Let's Fix It." Harvard Business Review 79, no. 10 (November 2001). (This paper is an executive summary of the following: "Paying People to Lie: The Truth About the Budgeting Process," Harvard NOM Research Paper No. 01-01, and HBS Working Paper No. 01-072 (April 2001).) View Details
  • Wruck, Karen H., and Michael C. Jensen. "Science, Specific Knowledge, and Total Quality Management." Journal of Accounting & Economics 18, no. 3 (November 1994): 247–287. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "The Nature of Man." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 7, no. 2 (summer 1994): 4–19. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Self-interest, Altruism, Incentives, and Agency Theory." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 7, no. 2 (summer 1994): 40–45. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Kevin J. Murphy. "CEO Incentives: It's Not How Much You Pay, But How." Harvard Business Review 68, no. 3 (May–June 1990): 138–153. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Kevin J. Murphy. "Performance Pay and Top Management Incentives." Journal of Political Economy 98, no. 2 (April 1990): 225–265. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, Harvard University Press, 1998.) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C. "Is Leverage an Invitation to Bankruptcy?" Wall Street Journal (February 1, 1989), A14. View Details
  • Baker, George P., Michael C. Jensen, and Kevin J. Murphy. "Compensation and Incentives: Practice vs. Theory." Journal of Finance 43, no. 3 (July 1988): 593–616. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, Harvard University Press, 1998.) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C., and R. S. Ruback. "The Market for Corporate Control: The Scientific Evidence." Journal of Financial Economics 11, nos. 1-4 (April 1983): 5–50. (Reprinted in The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance, edited by M.C. Jensen and C. W. Smith. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1984.) View Details

Book Chapters
Book Chapters

  • Fuller, Joseph B., and Michael C. Jensen. "What's a Director to Do?" In Best Practice: Ideas and Insights from the World’s Foremost Business Thinkers, edited by Tom Brown and Robert Heller, 243–250. Basic Books, 2003. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Werner Erhard, and Kari L. Granger. "Creating Leaders: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model." Chap. 16 in The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, edited by Scott Snook, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2012. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Joseph Fuller. "What's a Director to Do?" In Best Practice: Ideas and Insights from the World's Foremost Business Thinkers, edited by Tom Brown and Robert Heller. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2003. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Value Maximization and the Corporate Objective Function." In Breaking the Code of Change, edited by Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. (Forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, Harvard University Press. Reprinted in Business Ethics Quarterly, v 12, No 1, 2001, & European Financial Management, v.7, no.3, September 2001.) View Details
  • Baker, George P., Michael C. Jensen, Carliss Y. Baldwin, and Karen H. Wruck. "Organizations and Markets at Harvard Business School, 1984-1996." In The Intellectual Venture Capitalist: John H. McArthur and the Work of the Harvard Business School, 1980-1995, edited by T. K. McCraw and J. L. Cruikshank. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Divisional Performance Measurement." In Foundations of Organizational Strategy, by Michael C. Jensen, 345–361. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Donald Chew. "U.S. Corporate Governance: Lessons from the 1980s." In The Portable MBA in Investment, edited by P. Bernstein. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995. (Abridged version published in Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms, (Harvard University Press, 2000).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Takeovers: Their Causes and Consequences." In Readings in Mergers and Acquisitions, edited by P. A. Gaughan. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1994. (Also published in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 2, No. 1 (winter 1988); an abridged version forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, (Harvard University Press)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow: Corporate Finance and Takeovers." In Management Buy-Outs, edited by Mike Wright and Keith Bradley, series editor, pp. 3–9. International Library of Management. England and Vermont: Dartmouth Publishing, 1994. (Also in AER, Vol. 76, No. 2 (May, 1986); abridged in Simon Management Rev, (Win, 1986); & forthcoming in Jensen, Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, Harvard University Press.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Eugene F. Fama. "Separation of Ownership and Control." In Management of Non-profit Organizations, edited by S. M. Oster. Dartmouth Publishing, 1994. (Also published in Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 26, No. 2 (June, 1983) and Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Fama, Eugene F., Lawrence Fisher, Michael C. Jensen, and Richard J. Roll. "The Adjustment of Stock Prices to New Information." In Strategic Issues in Finance, edited by Keith Wand. Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993. (Previously published in International Economic Review, Vol. 10 (Feb. 1969) and Investment Management: Some Readings, J. Lorie and R. Brealey, Eds (Praeger Publishers, 1972)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Specific and General Knowledge and Organizational Structure." In Contract Economics, edited by L. Werin and H. Wijkander. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishers, 1992. (Reprinted in Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, (Fall 1995) and Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Arbitrage, Information Theft, and Insider Trading." In New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance, edited by Peter Newman, Murray Milgate, and John Eatwell. London: Macmillan Press, 1992. (Earlier version, Arbitrage, Information Theft, and the Mistaken Attack On Insider Trading, published in "Chief Financial Officer U.S.A.", John Thackray, ed. (Sterling Publications, London: 1988), pp. 114-115.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Eclipse of the Public Corporation." In The Law of Mergers, Acquisitions, and Reorganizations, edited by D. A. Oesterle. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1991. (Forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, (Harvard University Press)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Laura Stiglin, and Steven N. Kaplan. "Effects of LBOs on Tax Revenues of the U.S. Treasury." In The Law of Mergers, Acquisitions, and Reorganizations, edited by D. A. Oesterle. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1991. (Forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, Harvard University Press.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "LBOs and the Reemergence of Institutional Monitoring of Managers." In Leveraged Management Buyouts: Causes and Consequences, edited by Yakov Amihud, pp. 263–268. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1989. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. Comment on "Characteristics of Hostile and Friendly Takeover Targets." Proceedings of Conference on Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, edited by Alan Auerbach. University of Chicago Press, 1988. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Takeover Controversy: Analysis and Evidence." In Knights, Raiders and Targets: The Impact of the Hostile Takeover, edited by John Coffee and Susan Rose-Ackerman. Oxford University Press, 1988. (Also in Midland Corporate Finance Journal, summer 1986; Stern, Stewart, & Chew, eds., Corporate Restructuring & Executive Compensation, Ballinger Pub, 1989; forthcoming in Jensen, Management Revolution, Harvard University Press.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Takeovers: The Controversy and the Evidence." In Proceedings of the William G. Karnes Symposium on Mergers and Acquisitions, edited by Charles M. Linke. University of Illinois: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 1986. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and Clifford W. Smith Jr. "Stockholder, Manager, and Creditor Interests: Applications of Agency Theory." In Recent Advances in Corporate Finance, edited by E. I. Altman and M. G. Subrahmanyam. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1985. (Reprinted in Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms, (Harvard University Press, 2000).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. Comment on "Capital Structure Change and Decreases in Stockholders' Wealth." National Bureau of Economic Research Proceedings of Conference on Corporate Capital Structures in the United States. University of Chicago Press, 1984. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and Clifford W. Smith Jr. "The Theory of Corporate Finance: A Historical Overview." In The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance, edited by Michael C. Jensen and Clifford H. Smith Jr., pp. 2–20. McGraw-Hill, 1984. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and William H. Meckling. "Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure." In The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance, edited by Michael C. Jensen and Clifford H. Smith Jr.. McGraw-Hill, 1984. (Also in Economics of Corporation Law & Securities Regulation, Posner & Scott, Eds, (Little Brown,1980); Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (HUP, 1998); & Theory of the Firm. . . (HUP, 2000) and JFE.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and William H. Meckling. "Corporate Governance and 'Economic Democracy': An Attack on Freedom." In Corporate Governance: A Definite Exploration of the Issues, edited by C. J. Huizenga., 1983. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Reflections on the Corporation as a Social Invention." In Controlling the Giant Corporation: A Symposium, edited by Robert Hessen. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester, Graduate School of Management, Center for Research in Government Policy and Business, 1982. (Reprinted in the Midland Corporate Finance Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (autumn 1983); reprinted in International Institute for Economic Research Reprint Paper 18 (November 1983).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Tests of Capital Market Theory and Implications of the Evidence." In Handbook of Financial Economics, edited by J. L. Bicksler. North-Holland Publishing Company, 1980. (Originally published in Is Financial Analysis Useless? Proceedings of a Seminar on the Efficient Market and Random Walk Hypotheses (The Financial Analysts Research Foundation, 1975).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Toward a Theory of the Press." In Economics and Social Institutions, edited by Karl Brunner. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1979. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and William H. Meckling. "Conflict Between the Political and Private Sectors." In Study of World Economic Change. Booz & Company, 1978. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "The Debasement of Contracts and the Decline of Capital Markets." In The World Capital Shortage, edited by Alan Heslop. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1977. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Reflections on the State of Accounting Research and the Regulation of Accounting." In Conflicts and Compromises in Financial Reporting, edited by John C. Burton.Stanford Lectures in Accounting. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Graduate School of Business, 1976. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Martin J. Bailey. "Risk and the Discount Rate for Public Investment." In Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets, edited by M. C. Jensen. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details
  • Black, Fischer, Michael C. Jensen, and Myron Scholes. "The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Some Empirical Tests." In Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets, edited by M. C. Jensen. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "The Foundation and Current State of Capital Market Theory." In Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets, edited by M. C. Jensen. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details
  • Benington, George A., and Michael C. Jensen. "Random Walks and Technical Theories: Some Additional Evidence." In Security Evaluation and Portfolio Analysis, edited by E. Elton and M. Gruber. Prentice Hall, 1972. (Also published in Journal of Finance (May 1970) and Investment Management: Some Readings, J. Lorie and R. Brealey, Editors (Praeger Publishers, 1972).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Optimal Utilization of Market Forecasts and the Evaluation of Portfolio Performance." In Mathematical Methods in Finance, edited by G. P. Szego and Karl Shell. North-Holland Publishing Company, 1972. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Performance of Mutual Funds in the Period 1945-1964." In Investment Management: Some Readings, edited by J. Lorie and R. Brealey. Praeger, 1972. (Previously published in Journal of Finance (May, 1968)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Risk, the Pricing of Capital Assets, and the Evaluation of Investment Portfolios." In Frontiers of Investment Analysis, edited by E. Bruce Fredrikson. International Textbook Company, 1971. (Previously published in Journal of Business, Vol. 42 (April, 1969)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Time Series Behavior of Earnings: Discussion." In Empirical Research in Accounting: Selected Studies. University of Chicago, Institute of Professional Accounting, 1970. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Determinants of Mutual Fund Performance." In Proceedings of the Seminar on the Analysis of Security Prices. University of Chicago Press, 1967. View Details

Working Papers
Working Papers

  • Erhard, Werner, and Michael C. Jensen. "Putting Integrity into Finance: A Purely Positive Approach." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-074, April 2012. (NBER Working Paper Series, No. 19986, April 2014.) View Details
  • West, Jevin D., Michael C. Jensen, Ralph J. Dandrea, Gregg Gordon, and Carl T. Bergstrom. "Author-Level Eigenfactor Metrics: Evaluating the Influence of Authors, Institutions and Countries within the SSRN community." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-068, February 2012. View Details
  • Murphy, Kevin J., and Michael C. Jensen. "CEO Bonus Plans: And How to Fix Them." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-022, October 2011. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "The Three Foundations of a Great Life, Great Leadership, and a Great Organization." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-122, May 2011. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Werner Erhard. "A 'Value-Free' Approach to Values (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-010, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner H., Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "Course Materials For: 'Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership - An Ontological Model'." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-038, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, and Kari Granger. "Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Model (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-124, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, and Kari L. Granger. "Creating Leaders: An Ontological Model." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-037, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Kari L. Granger, and Joseph J. DiMaggio M.D. "CREATING LEADERS WORKSHOP: Mastering the Principles and Effective Delivery of 'The Ontological Leadership Course' (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-002, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, and The Barbados Group. "A New Paradigm of Individual, Group and Organizational Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-006, July 2010. View Details
  • Fuller, Joseph, and Michael C. Jensen. "Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-090, April 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "Introductory Reading for Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Model." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-091, April 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Kari L. Granger, and Werner Erhard. "A New Model of Integrity: The Missing Factor Of Production (PDF file of Keynote and PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-087, March 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Werner Erhard. "Beyond Agency Theory: The Hidden and Heretofore Inaccessible Power of Integrity (PDF file of Keynote Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-068, February 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner H., Michael C. Jensen, and Steve Zaffron. "Integrity: A Positive Model That Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics, and Legality Abridged." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-061, February 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Allan L. Scherr. "A New Model of Leadership (PDF File of Keynote Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 07-107, February 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Integrity: Without It Nothing Works." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-042, November 2009. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Specific Knowledge and Divisional Performance Measurement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-025, September 2009. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "The Ontological Foundations of Leadership and Performance: Being a Leader, and the Effective Exercise of Leadership, A New Model." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-022, August 2008. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Kevin J. Murphy, and Eric Wruck. "Remuneration: Where We've Been, How We Got to Here, What Are the Problems, and How to Fix Them." ECGI Working Paper Series in Finance, No. 44-2004, July 2004. (Also in the Negotiation, Organizations and Markets Research Paper Series, Harvard Business School NOM Research Paper No. 04-28.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Agency Costs of Overvalued Equity." ECGI Working Paper Series in Finance, No. 39-2004, May 2004. (This paper is drawn from The Agency Cost of Overvalued Equity and the Current State of Corporate Finance (Keynote Lecture, European Financial Management Association), London, June 2002. It is also included in the Negotiation, Organizations and Markets Research Paper Series, Harvard NOM Research Paper No. 04-26.) View Details
  • Holderness, Clifford G., Michael C. Jensen, and William H. Meckling. "The Logic of the First Amendment." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 00-064, March 2000. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Value Maximization and the Corporate Objective Function." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 00-058, March 2000. View Details

Cases and Teaching Materials
Cases and Teaching Materials

  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "Course Materials for: Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership--An Ontological Model." 2009. Electronic. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Willy Burkhardt, and Brian Barry. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners (A): Leveraged Buyouts and Financial Distress." Harvard Business School Case 190-062, November 1989. (Revised March 2000.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners, Video." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 891-509, December 1990. (Revised February 2000.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Gordon Cain." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 899-503, December 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "General Bill Creech at Harvard Business School: October 6, 1995." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 899-504, December 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners Series TN." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 899-050, September 1998. (Revised September 1998.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group Series TN." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 899-051, September 1998. View Details
  • Baker, George P., III, Michael C. Jensen, Karen Wruck, and Perry Fagan. "Value Creation: Abridged." Harvard Business School Case 898-185, March 1998. View Details
  • Baldwin, Carliss Y., Michael C. Jensen, and Karen Wruck. "Case of the Colored Post-It Notes." Harvard Business School Case 897-069, December 1996. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners (B): LBO Associations and Corporate Governance." Harvard Business School Supplement 190-070, November 1989. (Revised December 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Karen Wruck. "Fighton, Inc. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 391-056, September 1990. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Karen Wruck. "Fighton, Inc. (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 391-265, June 1991. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (A)." Harvard Business School Case 492-021, October 1991. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 492-022, October 1991. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Cash, James I., Jr., and Michael C. Jensen. "Newhall Land and Farming Co. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 192-049, November 1991. View Details
  • Cash, James I., Jr., and Michael C. Jensen. "Newhall Land and Farming Co. (B)." Harvard Business School Case 192-050, November 1991. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Karen Wruck. "Fighton, Inc. (A) and (B), Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 491-111, June 1991. View Details

Other Publications and Materials
Other Publications and Materials

  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 2." December 2011. (Barbados Group Working Paper No. 11-05.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 1." December 2011. (Barbados Group Working Paper No. 10-12, Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper No. 11-045.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Joseph Fuller. "What's a Director to Do?" Harvard NOM Research Paper, October 2002. View Details
All Publications

MICHAEL C. JENSEN, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School in 1985 founding what is now the Negotiations, Organizations and Markets Unit in the School. He joined the Monitor Company in 2000 as Managing Director of the Organizational Strategy Practice, became Senior Advisor in 2007 and as of 2009 is no longer associated with Monitor. He was LaClare Professor of Finance and Business Administration at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester from 1984-1988, Professor from 1979-1984, Associate Professor from 1971-1979, and Assistant Professor from 1967-1971. He founded the Managerial Economics Research Center at the University of Rochester in 1977 and served as its Director until 1988.

Professor Jensen earned his Ph.D. in Economics, Finance, and Accounting and his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago and an A.B. degree from Macalester College. He was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees, Docteur Honoris Causa, by Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, July, 1991; by the University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, December 2000; by the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, June, 2001; by the University of Toronto, June 2005 and by the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business in May 2011. He was named Honoris Causa Professor by HEC Business School, Paris, France, Nov. 2006.

Professor Jensen is the author of more than 100 scientific papers, in addition to numerous articles, comments, and editorials published in the popular media on a wide range of economic, finance and business-related topics. Most of his papers are downloadable from his SSRN Author Page at: http://ssrn.com/author=9. He is author of Foundations of Organizational Strategy (Harvard University Press, 1998), and Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms (Harvard University Press, 2000). He is editor of The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance (with Clifford W. Smith, Jr., McGraw-Hill, 1984) and Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets (Praeger Publishers, 1972). His book co-authored with Kevin Murphy and Eric Wruck, CEO Pay and What to Do About It: Restoring Integrity to Both Executive Compensation and Capital-Market Relations will be published by Harvard Business School Press in 2012.

In 1973 Professor Jensen co-founded (with Eugene Fama and Robert Merton) the Journal of Financial Economics, one of the top three scientific journals in financial economics, serving as Managing Editor from 1987 to 1997, when he became Founding Editor. From 1992 through 1998 he served on the steering committee of the Mind Brain Behavior Initiative at Harvard University (a Harvard interfaculty effort to bring together a wide range of scholars interested in understanding the limitations of the human brain and its role in generating counter-productive human behavior). In 1994 he co-founded and is currently Chairman of Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. (SSEP) which is devoted to the electronic publication of scientific working papers in the social sciences http://ssrn.com.. Since 2003 Jensen has been a member of the Barbados Group, a worldwide group of a dozen scholars, including philosophers, economists, psychologists, technologists, and educators to develop the ontological foundations of performance. The group’s work and that of its members is available at http://www.ssrn.com/link/Barbados-Group.html.

Jensen was awarded the 2011 Economics for Management Lecture Series ISES-Fundacion BBVA Prize in May, 2011, and awarded the Morgan Stanley-AFA 2009 Award For Excellence in Financial Economics. (Jensen selected the National Bureau of Economics Research, Harvard Business School and the U. of Rochester Simon School of Business as recipients of the $200,000 total cash grant.) In May 2009 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to Research in the Field of Financial Intermediation by the Financial Intermediation Society. He was awarded the Drexel U. LeBow College of Business Distinguished Scholar Award for his "Outstanding Academic Contributions to Corporate Governance. He was awarded the 2007 Herber Simon Award for outstanding contributions to business research by Rajik Laszlo College, Budapest, Hungary. In March 2006 he received the Drexel U. LeBow College of Business Dean's Leadership Award in Corporate Governance. In 2004 Jensen received the Tjalling C. Koopmans EFACT Conference Award, for "extraordinary contributions to the economic sciences, and to have reached the highest standards of quality of research," and his paper The Agency Cost of Overvalued Equity and the Current State of Corporate Finance received the European Financial Management 2004 Readers Choice Best Paper Award (by vote of the readership of the EFM Journal). In 2002 he was named a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). Dr. Jensen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.He received the Robert F. Greenhill Award, Harvard Business School, June 1996.  In 1990, he was named "Distinguished Scholar of the Year" by the Eastern Finance Association and one of the "Year's 25 Most Fascinating Business People" by Fortune magazine. He received a 1989 McKinsey Award for his paper Eclipse of the Public Corporation, and was awarded the Joseph Coolidge Shaw, S.J. Medal by Boston College in 1984. Dr. Jensen was also awarded (with William Meckling) the Graham and Dodd Plaque given by the Financial Analysts Federation in May, 1979 for their paper Can the Corporation Survive? Dr. Jensen and his co-author, William Meckling, received the first Leo Melamed Prize for outstanding scholarship by business school teachers from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business in March, 1979 for their paper, Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure. In 1984, this paper was identified as one of the most cited items in its field and named a Citation Classic by the Institute for Scientific Information. It also received the Journal of Financial Economics All Star Paper Award, as have the following two papers: The Market For Corporate Control: The Scientific Evidence (co-authored with Richard Ruback), and Some Anomalas Evidence Regarding Market Efficiency.

Dr. Jensen has served as consultant and board member to various corporations, foundations and governmental agencies and has given expert testimony before congressional and state committees and state and federal courts. He currently serves on the Advisory Boards of ESADE Business School and the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research. He has lectured widely at seminars, meetings, conventions and educational institutions. He is Past President of the American Finance Association and the Western Economic Association International.

Professor Jensen's major research interests now include "The Ontological Laws of Human Nature", "A Positive Theory of the Normative Virtues", "Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Approach", and "The Three Foundations of a Great Personal Life, Great Leadership and a Great Company: Integrity, Authenticity, and Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself".

Read or watch an interview about Professor Jensen's life's work at:

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1699862

and

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1863994

Updated: February 15, 2012

Books
  • Jensen, Michael C. Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. Foundations of Organizational Strategy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. and Clifford H. Smith Jr., eds. The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance. McGraw-Hill, 1984. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Democracy in Crisis." 1977. View Details
  • Jensen, M. C., ed. Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details
Journal Articles
  • Jensen, M. C. "Corporate Control and the Politics of Finance." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 4, no. 2 (summer 1991): 13–33. (Abridged version forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, (Harvard University Press, Forthcoming).) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 6, no. 4 (winter 1994). (Reprinted in the JACF, (winter 1994); Finanzmarkt und Portfolio Management, (January 1993); and Jensen, Theory of the Firm, (HUP, 2000) & abridged version forthcoming in Management Revolution. . ., (HUP, 2001).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 1." Journal of Applied Finance 20, no. 2 (2010). View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 2." Journal of Applied Finance 20, no. 2 (2010). View Details
  • Jensen, M. C., and Joseph Fuller. "Just Say No to Wall Street: Courageous CEOs Are Putting a Stop to the Earnings Game and We Will All Be Better Off for It." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 14, no. 4 (winter 2002): 41–46. (Excerpts of this article can be found in the Wall Street Journal, "Manager's Journal" column as "Dare To Keep Your Stock Price Low," 12/31/01, and in the Financial Times, as "End the Myth-Making and Return to True Analysis," 1/22/02.) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C. "Corporate Budgeting Is Broken, Let's Fix It." Harvard Business Review 79, no. 10 (November 2001). (This paper is an executive summary of the following: "Paying People to Lie: The Truth About the Budgeting Process," Harvard NOM Research Paper No. 01-01, and HBS Working Paper No. 01-072 (April 2001).) View Details
  • Wruck, Karen H., and Michael C. Jensen. "Science, Specific Knowledge, and Total Quality Management." Journal of Accounting & Economics 18, no. 3 (November 1994): 247–287. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "The Nature of Man." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 7, no. 2 (summer 1994): 4–19. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Self-interest, Altruism, Incentives, and Agency Theory." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 7, no. 2 (summer 1994): 40–45. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Kevin J. Murphy. "CEO Incentives: It's Not How Much You Pay, But How." Harvard Business Review 68, no. 3 (May–June 1990): 138–153. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Kevin J. Murphy. "Performance Pay and Top Management Incentives." Journal of Political Economy 98, no. 2 (April 1990): 225–265. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, Harvard University Press, 1998.) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C. "Is Leverage an Invitation to Bankruptcy?" Wall Street Journal (February 1, 1989), A14. View Details
  • Baker, George P., Michael C. Jensen, and Kevin J. Murphy. "Compensation and Incentives: Practice vs. Theory." Journal of Finance 43, no. 3 (July 1988): 593–616. (Reprinted in Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, Harvard University Press, 1998.) View Details
  • Jensen, M. C., and R. S. Ruback. "The Market for Corporate Control: The Scientific Evidence." Journal of Financial Economics 11, nos. 1-4 (April 1983): 5–50. (Reprinted in The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance, edited by M.C. Jensen and C. W. Smith. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1984.) View Details
Book Chapters
  • Fuller, Joseph B., and Michael C. Jensen. "What's a Director to Do?" In Best Practice: Ideas and Insights from the World’s Foremost Business Thinkers, edited by Tom Brown and Robert Heller, 243–250. Basic Books, 2003. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Werner Erhard, and Kari L. Granger. "Creating Leaders: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model." Chap. 16 in The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, edited by Scott Snook, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2012. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Joseph Fuller. "What's a Director to Do?" In Best Practice: Ideas and Insights from the World's Foremost Business Thinkers, edited by Tom Brown and Robert Heller. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2003. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Value Maximization and the Corporate Objective Function." In Breaking the Code of Change, edited by Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. (Forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, Harvard University Press. Reprinted in Business Ethics Quarterly, v 12, No 1, 2001, & European Financial Management, v.7, no.3, September 2001.) View Details
  • Baker, George P., Michael C. Jensen, Carliss Y. Baldwin, and Karen H. Wruck. "Organizations and Markets at Harvard Business School, 1984-1996." In The Intellectual Venture Capitalist: John H. McArthur and the Work of the Harvard Business School, 1980-1995, edited by T. K. McCraw and J. L. Cruikshank. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Divisional Performance Measurement." In Foundations of Organizational Strategy, by Michael C. Jensen, 345–361. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Donald Chew. "U.S. Corporate Governance: Lessons from the 1980s." In The Portable MBA in Investment, edited by P. Bernstein. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995. (Abridged version published in Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms, (Harvard University Press, 2000).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Takeovers: Their Causes and Consequences." In Readings in Mergers and Acquisitions, edited by P. A. Gaughan. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1994. (Also published in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 2, No. 1 (winter 1988); an abridged version forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, (Harvard University Press)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow: Corporate Finance and Takeovers." In Management Buy-Outs, edited by Mike Wright and Keith Bradley, series editor, pp. 3–9. International Library of Management. England and Vermont: Dartmouth Publishing, 1994. (Also in AER, Vol. 76, No. 2 (May, 1986); abridged in Simon Management Rev, (Win, 1986); & forthcoming in Jensen, Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, Harvard University Press.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Eugene F. Fama. "Separation of Ownership and Control." In Management of Non-profit Organizations, edited by S. M. Oster. Dartmouth Publishing, 1994. (Also published in Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 26, No. 2 (June, 1983) and Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Fama, Eugene F., Lawrence Fisher, Michael C. Jensen, and Richard J. Roll. "The Adjustment of Stock Prices to New Information." In Strategic Issues in Finance, edited by Keith Wand. Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993. (Previously published in International Economic Review, Vol. 10 (Feb. 1969) and Investment Management: Some Readings, J. Lorie and R. Brealey, Eds (Praeger Publishers, 1972)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Specific and General Knowledge and Organizational Structure." In Contract Economics, edited by L. Werin and H. Wijkander. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishers, 1992. (Reprinted in Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, (Fall 1995) and Michael C. Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (Harvard University Press, 1998).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Arbitrage, Information Theft, and Insider Trading." In New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance, edited by Peter Newman, Murray Milgate, and John Eatwell. London: Macmillan Press, 1992. (Earlier version, Arbitrage, Information Theft, and the Mistaken Attack On Insider Trading, published in "Chief Financial Officer U.S.A.", John Thackray, ed. (Sterling Publications, London: 1988), pp. 114-115.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Eclipse of the Public Corporation." In The Law of Mergers, Acquisitions, and Reorganizations, edited by D. A. Oesterle. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1991. (Forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, (Harvard University Press)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Laura Stiglin, and Steven N. Kaplan. "Effects of LBOs on Tax Revenues of the U.S. Treasury." In The Law of Mergers, Acquisitions, and Reorganizations, edited by D. A. Oesterle. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1991. (Forthcoming in Management Revolution: The Legacy of the Market for Corporate Control, Harvard University Press.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "LBOs and the Reemergence of Institutional Monitoring of Managers." In Leveraged Management Buyouts: Causes and Consequences, edited by Yakov Amihud, pp. 263–268. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1989. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. Comment on "Characteristics of Hostile and Friendly Takeover Targets." Proceedings of Conference on Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, edited by Alan Auerbach. University of Chicago Press, 1988. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Takeover Controversy: Analysis and Evidence." In Knights, Raiders and Targets: The Impact of the Hostile Takeover, edited by John Coffee and Susan Rose-Ackerman. Oxford University Press, 1988. (Also in Midland Corporate Finance Journal, summer 1986; Stern, Stewart, & Chew, eds., Corporate Restructuring & Executive Compensation, Ballinger Pub, 1989; forthcoming in Jensen, Management Revolution, Harvard University Press.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Takeovers: The Controversy and the Evidence." In Proceedings of the William G. Karnes Symposium on Mergers and Acquisitions, edited by Charles M. Linke. University of Illinois: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 1986. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and Clifford W. Smith Jr. "Stockholder, Manager, and Creditor Interests: Applications of Agency Theory." In Recent Advances in Corporate Finance, edited by E. I. Altman and M. G. Subrahmanyam. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1985. (Reprinted in Theory of the Firm: Governance, Residual Claims, and Organizational Forms, (Harvard University Press, 2000).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. Comment on "Capital Structure Change and Decreases in Stockholders' Wealth." National Bureau of Economic Research Proceedings of Conference on Corporate Capital Structures in the United States. University of Chicago Press, 1984. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and Clifford W. Smith Jr. "The Theory of Corporate Finance: A Historical Overview." In The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance, edited by Michael C. Jensen and Clifford H. Smith Jr., pp. 2–20. McGraw-Hill, 1984. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and William H. Meckling. "Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure." In The Modern Theory of Corporate Finance, edited by Michael C. Jensen and Clifford H. Smith Jr.. McGraw-Hill, 1984. (Also in Economics of Corporation Law & Securities Regulation, Posner & Scott, Eds, (Little Brown,1980); Jensen, Foundations of Organizational Strategy, (HUP, 1998); & Theory of the Firm. . . (HUP, 2000) and JFE.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and William H. Meckling. "Corporate Governance and 'Economic Democracy': An Attack on Freedom." In Corporate Governance: A Definite Exploration of the Issues, edited by C. J. Huizenga., 1983. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Reflections on the Corporation as a Social Invention." In Controlling the Giant Corporation: A Symposium, edited by Robert Hessen. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester, Graduate School of Management, Center for Research in Government Policy and Business, 1982. (Reprinted in the Midland Corporate Finance Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (autumn 1983); reprinted in International Institute for Economic Research Reprint Paper 18 (November 1983).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Tests of Capital Market Theory and Implications of the Evidence." In Handbook of Financial Economics, edited by J. L. Bicksler. North-Holland Publishing Company, 1980. (Originally published in Is Financial Analysis Useless? Proceedings of a Seminar on the Efficient Market and Random Walk Hypotheses (The Financial Analysts Research Foundation, 1975).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Toward a Theory of the Press." In Economics and Social Institutions, edited by Karl Brunner. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1979. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael, and William H. Meckling. "Conflict Between the Political and Private Sectors." In Study of World Economic Change. Booz & Company, 1978. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "The Debasement of Contracts and the Decline of Capital Markets." In The World Capital Shortage, edited by Alan Heslop. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1977. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Reflections on the State of Accounting Research and the Regulation of Accounting." In Conflicts and Compromises in Financial Reporting, edited by John C. Burton.Stanford Lectures in Accounting. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Graduate School of Business, 1976. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Martin J. Bailey. "Risk and the Discount Rate for Public Investment." In Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets, edited by M. C. Jensen. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details
  • Black, Fischer, Michael C. Jensen, and Myron Scholes. "The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Some Empirical Tests." In Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets, edited by M. C. Jensen. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "The Foundation and Current State of Capital Market Theory." In Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets, edited by M. C. Jensen. New York: Praeger, 1972. View Details
  • Benington, George A., and Michael C. Jensen. "Random Walks and Technical Theories: Some Additional Evidence." In Security Evaluation and Portfolio Analysis, edited by E. Elton and M. Gruber. Prentice Hall, 1972. (Also published in Journal of Finance (May 1970) and Investment Management: Some Readings, J. Lorie and R. Brealey, Editors (Praeger Publishers, 1972).) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Optimal Utilization of Market Forecasts and the Evaluation of Portfolio Performance." In Mathematical Methods in Finance, edited by G. P. Szego and Karl Shell. North-Holland Publishing Company, 1972. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Performance of Mutual Funds in the Period 1945-1964." In Investment Management: Some Readings, edited by J. Lorie and R. Brealey. Praeger, 1972. (Previously published in Journal of Finance (May, 1968)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Risk, the Pricing of Capital Assets, and the Evaluation of Investment Portfolios." In Frontiers of Investment Analysis, edited by E. Bruce Fredrikson. International Textbook Company, 1971. (Previously published in Journal of Business, Vol. 42 (April, 1969)) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "The Time Series Behavior of Earnings: Discussion." In Empirical Research in Accounting: Selected Studies. University of Chicago, Institute of Professional Accounting, 1970. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael. "Determinants of Mutual Fund Performance." In Proceedings of the Seminar on the Analysis of Security Prices. University of Chicago Press, 1967. View Details
Working Papers
  • Erhard, Werner, and Michael C. Jensen. "Putting Integrity into Finance: A Purely Positive Approach." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-074, April 2012. (NBER Working Paper Series, No. 19986, April 2014.) View Details
  • West, Jevin D., Michael C. Jensen, Ralph J. Dandrea, Gregg Gordon, and Carl T. Bergstrom. "Author-Level Eigenfactor Metrics: Evaluating the Influence of Authors, Institutions and Countries within the SSRN community." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-068, February 2012. View Details
  • Murphy, Kevin J., and Michael C. Jensen. "CEO Bonus Plans: And How to Fix Them." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-022, October 2011. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "The Three Foundations of a Great Life, Great Leadership, and a Great Organization." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-122, May 2011. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Werner Erhard. "A 'Value-Free' Approach to Values (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-010, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner H., Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "Course Materials For: 'Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership - An Ontological Model'." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-038, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, and Kari Granger. "Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Model (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-124, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, and Kari L. Granger. "Creating Leaders: An Ontological Model." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-037, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Kari L. Granger, and Joseph J. DiMaggio M.D. "CREATING LEADERS WORKSHOP: Mastering the Principles and Effective Delivery of 'The Ontological Leadership Course' (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-002, October 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, and The Barbados Group. "A New Paradigm of Individual, Group and Organizational Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-006, July 2010. View Details
  • Fuller, Joseph, and Michael C. Jensen. "Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-090, April 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "Introductory Reading for Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Model." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-091, April 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Kari L. Granger, and Werner Erhard. "A New Model of Integrity: The Missing Factor Of Production (PDF file of Keynote and PowerPoint Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-087, March 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Werner Erhard. "Beyond Agency Theory: The Hidden and Heretofore Inaccessible Power of Integrity (PDF file of Keynote Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-068, February 2010. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner H., Michael C. Jensen, and Steve Zaffron. "Integrity: A Positive Model That Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics, and Legality Abridged." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-061, February 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Allan L. Scherr. "A New Model of Leadership (PDF File of Keynote Slides)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 07-107, February 2010. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Integrity: Without It Nothing Works." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-042, November 2009. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling. "Specific Knowledge and Divisional Performance Measurement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-025, September 2009. View Details
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "The Ontological Foundations of Leadership and Performance: Being a Leader, and the Effective Exercise of Leadership, A New Model." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-022, August 2008. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Kevin J. Murphy, and Eric Wruck. "Remuneration: Where We've Been, How We Got to Here, What Are the Problems, and How to Fix Them." ECGI Working Paper Series in Finance, No. 44-2004, July 2004. (Also in the Negotiation, Organizations and Markets Research Paper Series, Harvard Business School NOM Research Paper No. 04-28.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Agency Costs of Overvalued Equity." ECGI Working Paper Series in Finance, No. 39-2004, May 2004. (This paper is drawn from The Agency Cost of Overvalued Equity and the Current State of Corporate Finance (Keynote Lecture, European Financial Management Association), London, June 2002. It is also included in the Negotiation, Organizations and Markets Research Paper Series, Harvard NOM Research Paper No. 04-26.) View Details
  • Holderness, Clifford G., Michael C. Jensen, and William H. Meckling. "The Logic of the First Amendment." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 00-064, March 2000. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Value Maximization and the Corporate Objective Function." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 00-058, March 2000. View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
  • Erhard, Werner, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari L. Granger. "Course Materials for: Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership--An Ontological Model." 2009. Electronic. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., Willy Burkhardt, and Brian Barry. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners (A): Leveraged Buyouts and Financial Distress." Harvard Business School Case 190-062, November 1989. (Revised March 2000.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners, Video." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 891-509, December 1990. (Revised February 2000.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Gordon Cain." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 899-503, December 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "General Bill Creech at Harvard Business School: October 6, 1995." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 899-504, December 1998. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners Series TN." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 899-050, September 1998. (Revised September 1998.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Brian Barry. "Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group Series TN." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 899-051, September 1998. View Details
  • Baker, George P., III, Michael C. Jensen, Karen Wruck, and Perry Fagan. "Value Creation: Abridged." Harvard Business School Case 898-185, March 1998. View Details
  • Baldwin, Carliss Y., Michael C. Jensen, and Karen Wruck. "Case of the Colored Post-It Notes." Harvard Business School Case 897-069, December 1996. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners (B): LBO Associations and Corporate Governance." Harvard Business School Supplement 190-070, November 1989. (Revised December 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Karen Wruck. "Fighton, Inc. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 391-056, September 1990. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Karen Wruck. "Fighton, Inc. (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 391-265, June 1991. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (A)." Harvard Business School Case 492-021, October 1991. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C. "Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 492-022, October 1991. (Revised November 1996.) View Details
  • Cash, James I., Jr., and Michael C. Jensen. "Newhall Land and Farming Co. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 192-049, November 1991. View Details
  • Cash, James I., Jr., and Michael C. Jensen. "Newhall Land and Farming Co. (B)." Harvard Business School Case 192-050, November 1991. View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Karen Wruck. "Fighton, Inc. (A) and (B), Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 491-111, June 1991. View Details
Other Publications and Materials
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 2." December 2011. (Barbados Group Working Paper No. 11-05.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Ralph A. Walkling. "Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 1." December 2011. (Barbados Group Working Paper No. 10-12, Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper No. 11-045.) View Details
  • Jensen, Michael C., and Joseph Fuller. "What's a Director to Do?" Harvard NOM Research Paper, October 2002. View Details
Research Summary
Leadership and Leadership Development: An Ontological Approach

This summarizes my research program over the last twelve years (with my co-investigators Werner Erhard, Steve Zaffron, and more recently Kari Granger) in which the objective has been to rigorously distinguish leader and leadership and to create a technology for providing access to being a leader and exercising leadership effectively (in short, a technology for reliably creating leaders). Our research program involves not only discovering the technology, but also to create a course that would be available to others to use, experiment with, research, improve on and innovate from. Our efforts thus required an experimental laboratory to discover what will enable us as educators and trainers to efficiently and effectively create leaders. 

Dean Mark Zupan of the U. of Rochester Simon School Of Business provided us with a research/teaching laboratory during the five years (2004 - 2008) we worked there with students, alumni, executives, and faculty from various academic institutions. This laboratory allowed us to investigate leader and leadership as phenomena, and to create technologies for providing actionable access to leader and leadership.  The course is now also taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy, was delivered in 2009 at the Erasmus Academie (Rotterdam), and a version of which is taught at the Erasmus University Law School, and will be taught at the Mays School of Business, Texas A&M University in June 2010.

The course is designed to leave participants being leaders and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self expression, and to contribute to creating a new science of leadership.  We have two or three more years of development left to do and eventually we will produce the product as papers and perhaps a book.

The technology and the course is founded on what we term an ontological model of human nature. The ontological approach is uniquely effective in providing actionable access to being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.

While ontology as a general subject is concerned with the being of anything, here we are concerned with the ontology of human beings (the nature and function of being for human beings). Specifically we are concerned with the ontology of leader and leadership (the nature and function of being for a leader and the actions of effective leadership). Who one is being when being a leader shapes one's perceptions, emotions, creative imagination, thinking, planning, and consequently one's actions in the exercise of leadership.

Being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as one's natural self-expression does not come from learning and trying to emulate the characteristics or styles of noteworthy leaders, or learning what effective leaders do and trying to emulate them (and most certainly not from merely being in a leadership position, or position of authority).

If you are not being a leader, and you try to act like a leader, you are likely to fail. That's called being inauthentic (playing a role or pretending to be a leader), deadly in any attempt to exercise leadership.

An epistemological mastery of a subject leaves you knowing. An ontological mastery of a subject leaves you being.

Gaining access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership as one's natural self-expression also requires dealing with those factors present in all human beings that constrain each person's freedom to be - and constrain and shape one's perceptions, emotions, creative imagination, thinking, planning, and actions. When one is not constrained or shaped by these factors - what we term "ontological constraints" - one's way of being and acting results naturally in one's personal best.  We work with the students so that they accomplish this for themselves.

The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part I

The Three Foundational Elements of Leadership

Integrity (in our model a positive phenomenon):

  • Being whole and complete - achieved by "honoring one's word" (creates workability, develops trust).

 Authenticity:

  • Being and acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others, and who you hold yourself to be for yourself. When leading, being authentic leaves you grounded, and able to be straight without using force.

 Being Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself:

  • Source of the serene passion (charisma) required to lead and to develop others as leaders, and the source of persistence (joy in the labor of) when the path gets tough.

The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part II

A Context That Uses You

·       Our research has led us to distinguish leader and leadership through four different lenses or levels of analysis:  1) as linguistic abstractions, 2) as phenomena, 3) as concepts, and 4) as defined terms.  Viewing leader and leadership in these four dimensions creates leader and leadership as a powerful context.

  • We work with the students to create for themselves what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that uses them. By "a context that uses them", we mean a context that has the power to leave students in any leadership situation being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression. (As it has been said: "the context is decisive".)
  • By "a context that has the power to leave students being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression", we mean the following:
    • A context that has the power in any leadership situation to shape the way in which the circumstances the students are dealing with occur for them such that their naturally correlated way of being and acting is one of being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.
    • Note: being and action are a natural correlate of the way in which the circumstances that a person is dealing with occur (show up) for that person.
  • Students begin to create this context for leader and leadership for themselves by first freeing themselves from the constraints and shaping imposed by their network of unexamined ideas, beliefs, biases, social and cultural embeddedness, and taken-for-granted assumptions relative to what it is to be a leader and what it is to exercise leadership effectively. This then allows students the freedom to create for themselves this new context for Leader and Leadership that has the power to become their natural self-expression.
  • We give students access to creating this new context for leader and leadership by distinguishing Leader and Leadership from the perspective of four distinct aspects, which when taken together as a whole create this new context (as illustrated in the graphic below): the context that in any leadership situation shapes the way in which what is being dealt with occurs for the student such that their naturally correlated way of being and acting is one of being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.

We distinguish Leader and Leadership, each as:

    Linguistic Abstractions (leader and leadership as realms of possibility")

    Phenomena (leader and leadership as experienced; that is, as what one observes or is impacted by, or as exercised)

    Concepts (the temporal domain in which leader and leadership function)

    Terms (leader and leadership as definitions)

  • All founded on Integrity*, Authenticity, and being Committed To Something Bigger Than Oneself.

*See:http://ssrn.com/abstract=1511274

   http://ssrn.com/abstract=1542759

   http://ssrn.com/abstract=920625

   http://ssrn.com/abstract=932255

The Underlying Theory of the Course: Part III

Ontological Constraints

  • Ontological Constraints: Having distinguished what it is to be a leader, and what it is to exercise leadership effectively, as a context that has the power to give students the being of a leader and the actions of effective leadership as their natural self-expression, we provide students with exercises that allow them to become aware of and remove the ontological perceptual and functional constraints imposed on their natural self-expression.
  • Ontological Perceptual Constraints: The source of our ontological perceptual constraints is our network of unexamined ideas, beliefs, biases, social and cultural embeddedness, and taken-for-granted assumptions about the world, others, and ourselves. These ontological perceptual constraints limit and shape what we perceive of what is actually there in the situations with which we are dealing. As a consequence, if we do not remove these perceptual constraints, then in any leadership situation we are left dealing with some distortion of the situation we are actually dealing with.
  • Ontological Functional Constraints: In everyday language the behavior generated by an ontological functional constraint is sometimes referred to as a "knee-jerk reaction". Psychologists sometimes refer to this behavior as "automatic stimulus/response behavior" - where, in the presence of a particular stimulus (trigger), the inevitable response is an automatic set way of being and acting. From a neuroscience perspective, many ontological functional constraints could be termed amygdala hijacks. When triggered in a leadership situation, one's ontological functional constraints fixate one's way of being and acting. Saying the same thing in another way, these ontological functional constraints limit and shape our opportunity set for being and action. As a consequence, the appropriate way of being and appropriate actions may be, and in fact often are, unavailable to us.
  • Thus, gaining access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership requires that we loosen the grip of these debilitating Ontological Constraints. Or to put it more simply, we must take away what is in the way of our being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.

For the pre-course reading assignment see: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1513400  

 And for the full 478 pages of the course material used in the Erasmus Academie course, Rotterdam, NL, June 8-12, 2009 see http://ssrn.com/abstract=1263835

Coordination, Control, and the Management of Organizations
Michael C. Jensen's research is aimed at obtaining a clearer understanding of how the 'organizational rules of the game' affect a manager's ability to accomplish his or her goals and how the rules can be structured to resolve problems and increase productivity. His analysis of centralization, decentralization, transfer pricing, and choices among profit, cost, and budget centers emphasizes the importance of people as self-interested individuals with conflicting goals and the exacerbation or amelioration of these conflicts by the organizational rules of the game. Jensen's approach presumes that individuals are sufficiently resourceful to determine the formal approach and informal rules by which rewards are distributed and will behave so as to enhance the rewards they receive. The approach also emphasizes the often non-rational or harmful effects of actions that individuals take in response to powerful personal defensive mechanisms. The research, which emphasizes the importance of information and its transfer cost to the solution of organizational problems, relies heavily on principles of economics, psychology, and neuroscience.
Organizational Change: The Market for Corporate Control and the Third Industrial Revolution
Michael C. Jensen is conducting research on organizational change and the corporate control market. Specifically, he is investigating the changing role of the corporation and competing organizational forms, such as leveraged buyout organizations, that are replacing the traditional corporation in many parts of the economy. His work highlights the reemergence of active investors who simultaneously hold large equity and/or debt positions and are actively involved in setting the strategic direction of the corporation. Jensen is investigating major changes in the global business environment being precipitated by technological, political, and managerial change that rivals that which occurred during the first and second industrial revolutions in England and the United States during the nineteenth century.
Awards & Honors
Received the 2011 Economics for Management Lecture Series ISES-Fundacion BBVA Prize. The award is given in recognition of contributions to the field of Economics and for the impact of this research on the business world.
Received a 2011 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, from Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
Received the 2009 Morgan Stanley-American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Financial Economics. The award is given biannually to a scholar who has demonstrated outstanding thought leadership and influence in the field of financial economics.
Additional Information
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Professor Jensen's SSRN Author Page
  • Barbados Group
  • Professor Jensen's Personal Home Page (not updated recently)
Areas of Interest
  • agency theory
  • compensation
  • incentives
  • leadership development
  • private equity
  • Additional Topics
  • IT strategy
  • accounting
  • asset pricing
  • bank debt
  • bankruptcy
  • behavioral finance
  • boards of directors
  • business policy
  • business processes
  • capital budgeting
  • capital markets
  • capital structure
  • cash flow analysis
  • cognition
  • competition
  • competitive strategy
  • conflict
  • conflicts of interest
  • contracts
  • control systems
  • corporate accountability
  • corporate finance
  • corporate governance
  • corporate restructuring
  • corporate social responsibility
  • corporate strategy
  • corporate values/value systems
  • corruption
  • cost of capital
  • customer satisfaction
  • debt financing
  • decision support
  • decision-making
  • disclosure
  • disclosure strategy
  • dispute resolution
  • diversification
  • economic institutions
  • economics
  • education
  • emotions
  • entrepreneurial finance
  • entrepreneurial management
  • entrepreneurship
  • equity financing
  • equity-based pay
  • ethics
  • executive development
  • experimental economics
  • financial analysis
  • financial innovation
  • financial management
  • financial reporting
  • financial strategy
  • happiness
  • hedge funds
  • identity
  • individuals and teams
  • information technology
  • innovation
  • invention
  • investment banking
  • investment management
  • investor behavior
  • leadership
  • leveraged buyouts
  • management accounting and control systems
  • management processes
  • managerial cognition
  • mentoring
  • mergers and acquisitions
  • moral leadership
  • motivation
  • mutual funds
  • open source
  • organizational behavior
  • organizational change and transformation
  • organizational design
  • organizational learning
  • organizational strategy
  • organizational structure
  • performance management
  • performance measurement
  • pricing
  • project finance
  • publishing
  • quality of earnings
  • restructuring
  • shareholder activism
  • shareholder value
  • small business finance
  • strategic change
  • strategic planning
  • strategy
  • structure of the firm
  • teams
  • top management teams
  • tradeoffs
  • trust
  • valuation
  • value creation
  • values
  • venture capital
  • Industries
  • education industry
  • electronic publishing
  • information technology industry
  • private equity (LBO funds)
  • venture capital industry
  • Geographies
  • Europe
  • India
  • North America
Additional Information
Curriculum Vitae
Professor Jensen's SSRN Author Page
Barbados Group
 More
Professor Jensen's Personal Home Page (not updated recently)
 Less

Areas of Interest

agency theory
compensation
incentives
leadership development
private equity
 More

Additional Topics

IT strategy
accounting
asset pricing
bank debt
bankruptcy
behavioral finance
boards of directors
business policy
business processes
capital budgeting
capital markets
capital structure
cash flow analysis
cognition
competition
competitive strategy
conflict
conflicts of interest
contracts
control systems
corporate accountability
corporate finance
corporate governance
corporate restructuring
corporate social responsibility
corporate strategy
corporate values/value systems
corruption
cost of capital
customer satisfaction
debt financing
decision support
decision-making
disclosure
disclosure strategy
dispute resolution
diversification
economic institutions
economics
education
emotions
entrepreneurial finance
entrepreneurial management
entrepreneurship
equity financing
equity-based pay
ethics
executive development
experimental economics
financial analysis
financial innovation
financial management
financial reporting
financial strategy
happiness
hedge funds
identity
individuals and teams
information technology
innovation
invention
investment banking
investment management
investor behavior
leadership
leveraged buyouts
management accounting and control systems
management processes
managerial cognition
mentoring
mergers and acquisitions
moral leadership
motivation
mutual funds
open source
organizational behavior
organizational change and transformation
organizational design
organizational learning
organizational strategy
organizational structure
performance management
performance measurement
pricing
project finance
publishing
quality of earnings
restructuring
shareholder activism
shareholder value
small business finance
strategic change
strategic planning
strategy
structure of the firm
teams
top management teams
tradeoffs
trust
valuation
value creation
values
venture capital

Industries

education industry
electronic publishing
information technology industry
private equity (LBO funds)
venture capital industry

Geographies

Europe
India
North America
 Less
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