3.1.1. Definition of Research Questions

The first stage involves motivating the study and defining the research questions. Blockchain is an ever-evolving technology and is a key part of the digital transformation process for most businesses. Hence, understanding this technology and its impact is important. However, a key part that often gets missed by most prior literature is how blockchain relates to corporate governance, its theories and implications. Furthermore, due to the proliferation of general blockchain adoption literature, it is important to conduct a systematic review to comprehend prior literature and identify insights relevant for blockchain adoption in corporate governance. To this end, the following research questions are formulated.

1: What are the present and future use cases of blockchain applications in corporate governance?

This research question identifies present and future blockchain use cases from a wide range of applications of blockchain across many industries, from general adoption articles and finance-related articles themselves.

2: What are the trends, gaps and similarities between prior industry and academic literature?

#### *Int. J. Financial Stud.* **2020**, *8*, 36

This question is formulated to obtain an overview of over- or under-explored areas and differences of interest between the industry and academic literature with regard to blockchain and corporate governance. The findings related to this research question would aid future researchers and industry practitioners to identify gaps where more research and applications are required and would promote collaborations between industry and academia.

3. What are the implications of adopting blockchain in corporate governance and linking to theories in prior literature?

Clearly identifying the impact of blockchain adoption for corporate governance is key for successful deployment and maintenance of blockchain within the finance industry. By linking existing traditional corporate governance theories to blockchain adoption, this research question aids in better understanding impacts and unintended consequences.

4: What are the advantages, challenges, misconceptions and limitations for blockchain adoption in corporate governance during and post COVID-19?

Due to lockdowns and social distancing, most businesses have been pushed for digital transformation at a faster pace, including those in the financial sector. Blockchain being one of the key fintech technologies, this research question aims to understand the advantages, limitations and barriers of adoption of blockchain in corporate governance during and post COVID-19.

5. What are the links between investments in blockchain internationally and future forecasts?

This empirical research question collates empirical data on blockchain investments from several data sources and forecasts future investments to identify future investment trends.
