The paper examines the economic essence and theoretical evolution of digital governance in joint-stock companies, with a focus on joint-stock banks, under transformation. It argues that digital governance goes beyond IT adoption by reducing information asymmetry as well as agency and transaction costs, strengthening control and accountability, and enabling early risk identification. Using comparative and content analysis, the study contrasts key concepts, proposes an evolutionary model and a factor system, and formulates an author’s definition of digital governance. The results provide conceptual implications for improving governance architecture in banking organizations