The ‘Unmediated’ and ‘Tech-Driven’ Corporate Governance of Today's Winning Companies

Abstract

Recent corporate governance initiatives encourage a culture of long-term value creation and growth but cannot work as intended by policymakers. The current discussion about corporate governance ignores the transition from a centralized to a decentralized, unmediated, and interconnected world and from a world of vertical hierarchies to a world of horizontal, open, and autonomous networks. This transition process was initiated and is increasingly accelerated by rapid technological change, including developments in social media, blockchain-based smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations, big data, and artificial intelligence. This paper shows how policymakers, regulators, business people, consultants, and other corporate governance experts can re-conceptualize corporate governance in a technology-driven and interconnected world.

Keywords: Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Blockchain, Board of Directors, Communication, Corporate Culture, Corporate Governance, Decentralization, Decentralized Autonomous Organization, Dialogue, Platform Company, Social Media, Stewardship Codes, Technology, Trust

JEL Classification: D20, D23, F60, G30, K20, K22, L20, L25, L29, O10, O30, O40