Beyond the Code: Governance Configurations and Resilience in Blockchain Platforms

Yunjung Pak is a Ph.D. candidate in Strategic Management at the Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta. His research lies at the intersection of organizational theory, entrepreneurship, and technological innovation, with a focus on how blockchain platforms evolve governance mechanisms to address internal and external challenges. His dissertation explores how blockchain governance evolves with imaginaries, transforms their technical affordances, and responds to social and environmental demands by reconfiguring both technical and cultural governance mechanisms. He employs interpretive approaches to data science, primarily using large-scale text mining and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). He has presented his research at the Academy of Management and the European Group for Organizational Studies. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from Yonsei University and worked on civic tech and social innovation initiatives. 

As blockchain platforms scale and face growing internal and external pressures—including market volatility, regulatory shifts, and sustainability concerns—their ability to adapt and maintain resilient governance becomes increasingly critical. This study investigates how blockchain platforms evolve governance mechanisms in response to such challenges and how these adaptations contribute to their resilience. Through a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of 25 blockchain platforms from 2020 to 2024, the study identifies three distinct governance configurations—traditional decentralized, profit-maximizing, and intermediary-aligned—that enable blockchain platforms to maintain resilience under challenges. The findings highlight how combinations of structural and cultural mechanisms—decentralized decision-making processes, incentive architectures, consensus mechanisms, decentralization narratives, and the role of intermediaries—interact to sustain platform stability and legitimacy. The research demonstrates that resilient blockchain governance depends not only on formal rules and technical protocols, but also on cultural mechanisms, particularly the imaginaries and narratives surrounding decentralization and the mediating role of intermediaries. This work contributes to organizational theory by showing how diverse governance mechanisms jointly support adaptation, accountability, and sustainability in decentralized digital ecosystems.