New pathways for international business governance via blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations

Purpose This study aims to explore the innovative governance structures enabled by blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) in the context of international business (IB). As nonhierarchical entities managed through collective voting and peer-to-peer interactions, DAOs challenge traditional assumptions of multinational corporation (MNC) governance. Design/methodology/approach The authors perform a literature review, which combines qualitative content analysis of both academic papers on DAO and whitepapers with quantitative analysis of bibliometrics using VosViewer. Findings The findings highlight DAOs’ ability to generate new research questions and offer a foundation for future studies on decentralized governance in IB. Through a bibliometric analysis of 73 papers from Web of Science and qualitative content analysis, the authors identify four primary research streams in the DAO literature. A deep dive into financial DAOs, or DeFi DAOs, reveals insights into their governance mechanisms and implications for the studies in the field of IB. Research limitations/implications Research on DAOs is in its early stages, and the practice in IB is nascent. As the regulatory, economic and technological landscape for DAOs changes, more research will be needed on the governance mechanisms and their sustainability. Originality/value This paper advances the field by providing a multilevel analysis of DAOs’ potential impact on IB, considering macro (country), meso (MNC/DPE) and micro (multicultural team and individual) levels.