Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

Severin Bonnet and Frank Teuteberg ()
Additional contact information
Severin Bonnet: Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Osnabrück University, Katharinenstraße 3, 49074, Germany
Frank Teuteberg: Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Osnabrück University, Katharinenstraße 3, 49074, Germany

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2024, vol. 21, issue 04, 1-63

Abstract: The coordination and organization of economic activity has always been one of the greatest challenges of humanity. For a long time, centralized models have been the dominant approach, but the emergence of technologies such as the internet, open-source software, peer-to-peer and ubiquitous computing, smart contracts and blockchain is leading to a shift toward decentralization. This trend is now culminating with a new phase of innovation called Decentralized Autonomous Organization (“DAO†). DAOs offer the potential to empower communities, promote decentralization and reliable coordination, and increase transparency and meritocracy in corporate governance using the institutional technology that is blockchain. In this paper, we present a systematic literature review of 195 academic publications on the DAO phenomenon using the PRISMA methodology. We aim to answer the following research questions: What are the characteristics of DAOs? What topics related to DAOs were researched by whom? Why do DAOs show great potential? When do DAOs face limitations? Where can solutions be found for the identified limitation? We also propose a research agenda and suggest future research directions.

Keywords: Decentralized autonomous organization; DAOs; blockchain-based governance; distributed ledger technology; smart contracts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219877024500263
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:ijitmx:v:21:y:2024:i:04:n:s0219877024500263

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219877024500263

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) is currently edited by H K Tang

More articles in International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().