Corporate governance and the governance of knowledge: rethinking the relationship in terms of corporate coherence

Corporate governance and the governance of knowledge were for a long time distinct fields of analysis. Reasons for this incompatibility are linked to the restricted vision of corporate governance supported by shareholder value which essentially refers to information rather than knowledge. In this paper, we argue that other visions of corporate governance exist which are also closer to knowledge dynamics and knowledge governance problems. We elaborate thus on the possible reconciliation between corporate governance and the governance of knowledge. We sustain that each actor (the manager and the investor) embodies a piece of diversified and localised knowledge related to his/her specific domain and field of experience, and these different modules of knowledge have to be recombined by an appropriate mode of corporate governance that stimulates corporate development. In this perspective, the reconciliation really appears essential since managers, by defining and selecting innovative processes, and investors, by determining the money that is invested to sustain these processes, both take part to the creation and governance of new knowledge by the firm. We show that this reconciliation can be based on the notion of corporate coherence of the cognitive firm that allows replacing the conventional conflicting vision of corporate governance by a new vision based on cooperation between managers and investors that collectively contribute to corporate development and coherence.