Abstract. Problematics of performance analysis appear when the researcher begins to examine sensitive dilemmas related to managerial sciences, such as realiability and characteristics of the information source, or choice between different analysis instruments, within the general framework of corporate governance and agency theories. We intend to formulate these interrogations and to present, through critical approach, the classic and new comings of scientific literature on the topic. Beside the theoretical approaches we also intend to present the practice point of view, in order to give a complex image over the topic and to suggest new progress on the matter.

Keywords: performance analysis; financial analysis; corporate governance; information theories; agency problems.