Technologies financières vers une rupture avec les modes de gouvernance traditionnels : Une revue de littérature

Abstract

Today, we are witnessing the consideration of new issues related to the phenomenon of digitalization. Classically, governance aims at reducing the information asymmetry existing between the principal and the agent. Algorithms are used to decide in a quasi autonomous way, thanks to their unsupervised learning capacity. In this sense, blockchain is another issue that has often been put forward in recent years. This technology proposes a new approach to contracts, and to some extent, a redefinition of the agency relationship.
As a reminder, Jensen and Meckling (1976) consider the firm as a series of contracts and relationships. From this perspective, governance consists in defining contracts in such a way as to align the interests of the principal and the agent. The blockchain then brings a new model of governance, leaving the management of trust between principal and agent to smart contracts. The objective of this paper, with a theoretical scope, is to study the contribution of the implementation of this blockchain technology from the point of view of agency theory.