Authors: E.E. Zhernov

Title of the article: The principal-agent theory application to understand the “agency” concept (economic competition instance)

Year: 2026, Issue: 2, Pages: 4-12

Branch of knowledge: 5.2.1 Economics

Index UDK: 330.101:330.342.24

DOI: 10.26730/2587-5574-2026-2-4-12

Abstract: The relevance of the research topic is due to the widespread use of the concept of agency in the digital economy and the problematic nature of its understanding when applied to non-economic fields of activity. The purpose of the study is to show, using the example of competition, the explanatory possibilities of the “principal-agent” economic theory for understanding “agency” in non-economic fields of activity. Methodology: the economic theory of “principal-agent”, the resource approach of “firm as a set of agents”, the theory of agency relations, the idea of agent competition, the idea of the integrity and interrelation of living and inanimate while observing the humanistic principle of “machine for man”. Results: it is shown that the solved problem of extending the concept of “agency” as an agent without a principal to non-economic spheres of activity requires theoretical and methodological substantiation. The scientific novelty of the research consists of: 1) in the formulation of the problem of the “disappeared principal” or “lone agent”; 2) in recognizing the AI agent as a digital agent, a quasi-agent among the participants in the firm’s intellectualization process. It is concluded that normative economic theory, as a science free from value judgments, does not determine the vision of agency as an unambiguously negative or positive phenomenon.

Key words: agent digital agent AI agent principal-agent theory digital economy social and labor relations

Receiving date: 14.01.2026

Approval date: 11.03.2026

Publication date: 11.06.2026

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