This dissertation aims to extend existing IT and platform governance perspectives by examining external stakeholders’ governance roles. Motivated by the growing importance of IT in business, Essay 1 investigates financial analysts’ external IT governance role of challenging a firm’s IT initiatives during an earnings conference call. Specifically, this research examines how analysts’ IT-related questions help executives with higher IT competence in (a) disclosing firm’s information related to IT in their response to the challenges and (b) improving the stock market returns to the firm’s future IT decisions. Essay 2 focuses on governance mechanisms in blockchain-based online communities. We specifically investigate the two novel governance mechanisms enabled by blockchain: (a) the cryptocurrency vesting period and (b) users’ self-governing practice of distributing the decision power in the platform. We examine how reducing the cryptocurrency vesting period influences users to become myopic in terms of their self-governing practice. Collectively, this dissertation takes a step into uncovering how external stakeholders influence the value creation process of IT.