Need for Change: Business Functions Affected by the Use of Decentralized Information Systems

Abstract

Driven by economic advantages and the idea of disintermediation of business processes, the decentralization of technical and economic systems has become a highly discussed topic in recent years. Extant research primarily investigated the technical implementations of decentralized information systems (IS) and their use by firms in business networks. It became clear that interorganizational relationships and business functions must be transformed to enable the use of decentralized IS (e.g., those related to how firms can be involved in the design, instantiation, operation, and governance of decentralized IS). However, the impact of transforming business functions of individual firms remains largely unclear, obfuscating a comprehensive understanding of the implication of decentralized IS use on internal organizational structures of firms. In this work, we focus on the identification of challenges for firms in using distributed ledger technology (DLT as a representative for decentralized IS) and their effects on the business functions of firms.