During the 1980s and 1990s the argument that "maximizing shareholder value" results in superior economic performance came to dominate the corporate governance debates. This shareholder-value perspective represents an attempt to construct a theory of corporate governance that is consistent with the neoclassical theory of the market economy. I outline the rationale for the shareholder-value perspective, and show that, rooted in agency theory, it lacks a theory of innovative enterprise. To go beyond agency theory and its shareholdervalue perspective, I present a framework for analyzing the functions of the stock market in the business corporation and the influence of these functions on the innovation process. I then apply this framework to the experience of the US ICT industries over the past decade to consider empirically the influences of the five functions of the stock market-summarized as "creation", "control", "combination", "compensation", and "cash"-on innovative enterprise in US high-technology industries. In the conclusion, I draw out the implications of the changing functions of the stock market for the governance of innovative enterprise.