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The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical historical analysis of the business (mis)behaviors and influencing factors that discourage enduring cooperation between principals and agents, to introduce strategies that embrace the social values, economic motivation and institutional designs historically adopted to curtail dishonest acts in international business and to inform an improved principal–agent theory that reflects principal–agent reciprocity as shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, strategic and ideological forces

The critical historical research method is used to analyze Chinese compradors and the foreign companies they served in pre-1949 China.

Business practitioners can extend orthodox principal–agent theory by scrutinizing the complex interactions between local agents and foreign companies. Instead of agents pursuing their economic interests exclusively, as posited by principal–agent theory, they also may pursue principal-shared interests (as suggested by stewardship theory) because of social norms and cultural values that can affect business-related choices and the social bonds built between principals and agents.

The behaviors of compradors and foreign companies in pre-1949 China suggest international business practices for shaping social bonds between principals and agents and foreign principals’ creative efforts to enhance shared interests with local agents.

Understanding principal–agent theory’s limitations can help international management scholars and practitioners mitigate transaction partners’ dishonest acts.

A critical historical analysis of intermediary businesspeople’s (mis)behavior in pre-1949 (1840–1949) China can inform the generalizability of principal–agent theory and contemporary business strategies for minimizing agents’ dishonest acts.

This study classifies and estimates safety costs in Arctic shipping.

Based on the literature review, the paper details shipping prevention costs into five categories (infrastructure and facilities, measures, technologies, personnel and management) and groups marine accidents into injury and death, property damage, environmental damage and others.

The proposed classification and estimation allow for a comparison of prevention costs and accident expenses. Estimating safety expenses in the Arctic presents challenges, such as data inadequacies. However, the method has been tested with data provided by an Arctic ship operator.

Thus, shipping companies can verify the effectiveness of their investments and reorientate whenever necessary, becoming a decision-support system to best allocate safety investments. Combined with company safety performance, the tool can help identify the safety areas requiring enhanced attention.

This paper presents the first classification and a tool to assess safety costs in relation to Arctic shipping, potentially supporting safety investment decisions.