Purpose The study aims to investigate the impact of technological innovation, such as blockchain, in the music field from a value co-creation perspective, highlighting how it is determining a radical change in the business model and value creation process. Design/methodology/approach To shed light on how blockchain adoption is reconfiguring the music industry, the authors adopted a qualitative-based approach based on a case study, allowing us to investigate value co-creation at three levels (macro, meso and micro) through exchange and integration of multi-actor resources. Findings The authors found that blockchain adoption in the music industry can singularly shape the business model, representing a powerful tool to enhance inter-organizational cooperation in value creation. It effectively deals with operational and business issues, besides financial transactions, profoundly impacting both the creation and distribution of value within the supply chain. Research limitations/implications The research contributes to a better understanding of innovation adoption in a specific setting, the music industry, giving support and guidance for players working in this ecosystem. The blockchain-music link helps close the gap between music and society through technology, thus providing a foundation for future research. Originality/value The paper provides new insights into the antecedents and mechanisms of value co-creation, spanning macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of context. It also illustrates the factors underpinning Bitsong viability to embed the value co-creation perspective in designing the business model within a value network.
The objectives of this paper are to analyse how blockchain can help in transaction time reduction and quality improvement in supply chains. It also aims to identify the social and technical capabilities needed by the service providers for blockchain implementation and how those capabilities vary between the projects. To achieve the above mentioned objectives, a multiple case study approach is followed, and data are collected from the service providers that have implemented blockchain technology with their customers. We conduct task-technology fit (TTF) analysis to assess the suitability of blockchain to address the tasks to be completed, considering customer needs. The TTF analysis shows that some additional technological solutions related to communication support and user experience design need to be implemented together with the blockchain platform. We then identify common social and technical capabilities, such as empathising with customers and system design, to facilitate implementation and contingent capabilities that vary across different types of blockchain implementation projects. We also develop a process model, a generalisable framework for blockchain implementation and related propositions. The findings from this study will provide guidance to the blockchain service providers to emphasise social and technical capabilities for quality improvement and transaction time reduction from blockchain implementation.
Manuel Utz, Simon Johanning, Tamara Roth, Thomas Brückner · 5 authors
Global initiatives on climate protection and national sustainability policies are accelerating the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. Many electricity suppliers are engaged in efforts to monetize this transition with ‘green’ services and products, such as Green Electricity Tariffs. These promise customers that their supply includes a specific share of green electricity, yet since electricity suppliers often fail to deliver on those promises, many customers have lost trust in their suppliers. Further information asymmetries may not only exacerbate this loss of trust, but also spark distrust and lead to an overall feeling of ambivalence. Eventually, ambivalent customers may feel inclined to switch suppliers. To prevent this domino effect, electricity suppliers must eliminate ambivalence by increasing customer trust and reducing customer distrust. Here, we discuss how these challenges can be met with a customer loyalty program built on blockchain technology. We developed the program following a Design Science Research approach that facilitated refinement in four iteration and evaluation cycles. Our results indicate that the developed customer loyalty program restores trust, reduces distrust, and resolves customer ambivalence by providing four features: improved customer agency, sufficient and verifiable information, appropriate levels of usability, and unobstructed data access.
Ioannis Karamitsos, Maria Papadaki, Marinos Themistocleous, Cornelius Ncube
The adoption of Blockchain has caused the organization to rethink how it operates and adds value to its current processes. Some scholars refer to Blockchain as the Black Swan of the 21st century, which will have a greater impact than the introduction of the Internet. Currently, there is little discussion about Blockchain technology and the value model approach and how organizations can close the gap between strategy and operational planning to successfully implement this technology in organizations. This paper explores the relationship and implications of Blockchain technology in relation to the value chain model in education. This paper proposes a value modeling approach for implementing Blockchain in the education sector and demonstrates how a solution works in practice. The novelty of the research will be from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The study will appraise enhancement that can be made within the existing literature on Blockchain and the value chain model, and how the alignment of the two concepts can be used to improve the use of the current value chain model in the education sector.
Yingli Wang, Jean-Paul Skeete, John Barker, Maxim Filimonov
This paper reports the main findings from a design science research project that sets out to explore and understand the need for a more scientific and democratised process for preselecting, vetting, and engaging start-up and SME suppliers in a manufacturing environment. The project, using aerospace manufacturing as a test case will investigate the feasibility of using artificially intelligent web-scraping, third-party APIs, and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) to provide a localised and highly automated manufacturing marketplace. This paper's findings lend insight into emerging digital platform engagements between participating supply chain actors in open innovation environments.
The formation of blockchain industrial ecology can help improve the open and efficient value synergy network, and this paper seeks to clarify the value relationship among industrial units and the trend of synergistic evolution of blockchain industrial ecosystem. Based on value co-creation theory, the blockchain industrial ecosystem synergy evolution process is analyzed, and the composite system synergy model is used to empirically investigate the evolution synergy of China’s blockchain industrial ecosystem from 2015 to 2020. The results show that: although the development level of China’s blockchain industry ecosystem continues to improve, it is still at a low level, and the policy-driven effect is obvious. There is a large disparity in the orderliness level of each subsystem of the blockchain industry ecosystem, and the industrial integration and application implementation are in a good situation, while the blockchain enterprises, located in the value pivot subsystem, are in a relatively tough position, and China’s blockchain industry ecosystem is overall in a state of reconciliation and has not yet formed a synergistic effect. Handling the synergistic relationship between the government, the market and other value-supporting units, and blockchain enterprises is the top priority for further promoting the synergistic evolution of the blockchain industry ecosystem.
This paper aims at investigating the main factors behind advancing the integration of products and services in the Brazilian subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz (MBB), and how Smart PSS has been perceived by other business units of the Daimler Group. We conducted an in-depth qualitative single-case study research to investigate the critical steps preceding the implementation of a smart PSS. The study was based on the main tactical areas of a PSS business model which was applied to MBB’s possible integration of their equipment (called Fleetboard) in a smart PSS solution. The findings demonstrate that the internal culture of a product-centric automotive manufacturing firm can prohibit the sales of services, even when service technologies are available. On the other hand, financial pressures can create the sense of urgency required for the firm to appreciate the necessity of change. The process of change is too complex, since it requires capabilities in key areas such as the law, marketing, networking/partnerships, design, sustainability, and organisation and human resources management. Our study shows how the company considers alternative options in order to reduce organisational barriers, develop partnerships and legal competence to offer PSS contracts, as well as seeking alignment between design, marketing and sustainability requirements.
Anthony Devine, Abdul Jabbar, Jonathan Kimmitt, Chrysostomos Apostolidis
In this paper we explore how blockchain and smart contracts can build trust and act as catalysts for sustainable social businesses by supporting the coexistence of social and economic logics of social ventures. To achieve this we draw upon Yunus’ seven principles of social business to present six emergent questions challenging how blockchain can improve the sustainability of social ventures and support the fulfilment of the principles. Our contribution is a social business blockchain model, codifying Yunus’ principles as smart contract functions, offering novel insights into how blockchain could be utilised to promote the coexistence of social and economic logics (i.e. the defining characteristics of a social business). In addition, it demonstrates that implementation of this technology elicits new types of trust relationships between stakeholders, social businesses and the blockchain, which can be facilitated through the use of smart contracts.
Purpose The authors seek to understand the process of digital servitization as a shift of manufacturing companies from the provision of standard products and services to smart solutions. Specifically, the authors focus on changes in the business model (i.e. the value proposition, the value delivery system and the value capture mechanism) for digital servitization. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine a Chinese air conditioner manufacturer, Gree, who became the global leader with their smart solutions. These solutions included performance-based contracts underpinned by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered air conditioners that automatically adjust to environmental changes and are capable of remote monitoring and servicing thanks to its Internet of things (IoT) technology. Findings To successfully offer smart solution value propositions, a manufacturer needs an ecosystem value delivery system composed of suppliers, distributors, partners and customers. Once the ecosystem relationships are well aligned, the manufacturer gains value with multiple value capture mechanisms (i.e. efficiency, accountability, shared customer value and novelty). To arrive at this point, a manufacturer has to pass through different stages that are characterized by both discontinuous and continuous interplay between business models and digital technologies. At the beginning of each stage, new value propositions and value delivery systems are first discontinuously created and then enabled with digital technology. As a result, new value capture mechanisms are activated. Meanwhile, the elements of the existing business model are continuously improved. Research limitations/implications By combining process-perspective and business-model lenses, the authors offer nuanced insights into how digital servitization unfolds. Practical implications Executives can obtain insights into the business model elements, they need to change over the course of digital servitization and how to manage the process. Originality/value A longitudinal case study of a traditional manufacturer that has achieved stellar success through digital servitization business models development.
Traditional business models involve cost, market development, distribution channels, business partnerships, and supply chain management. The development of the digital economy and digital network technology has engendered a shift away from the traditional model of operation. Intermediaries have long played an essential role in promoting the benefits of economic activities, but new technology is increasingly replacing intermediaries in their roles of connecting players, such as, involving, committing, and mobilizing players. Potential conflicts of interest must therefore be further resolved, avoided, or mitigated. Blockchain technology, as a tool for keeping immutable and digital records, can address increasingly complex issues in global value chains to pursue sustainable development. It attempts to realize the trust mechanism and has been redefining the function of intermediaries. This study used a multiple-case study approach to examine how blockchain technology affects intermediate functionality. We evaluated the industry’s use of blockchains to assess how the processes were reshaped and how the intermediary roles were refined. On the basis of the findings, we propose three potential changes for the roles of intermediaries to improve operational efficiency.
Blockchain projects have been developed to extend the reach of distributed ledger technology (DLT) beyond cryptocurrency to achieve “good” in the world. Such projects may make a claim for moral, ethical, and responsible intent, but many researchers have not critically examined what good means in context. The concept of good has been debated for centuries and whilst we will not conclude the argument, we should engage in the discourse. We propose the idea that exploration across micro, meso, and macro levels of value creating ecosystems is needed. The implications, both practical and theoretical, of the use of blockchain for good require analysis. As the ambition for blockchain innovations to transform society for the better becomes practical reality, understanding of such change will come from transdisciplinary researchers able to bridge knowledge of social and technical systems.
As blockchain technology is maturing to be confidently used in practice, its applications are becoming evident and, correspondingly, more blockchain research is being published, also extending to more domains than before. To date, scientific research in the field has predominantly focused on subject areas such as finance, computer science, and engineering, while the area of service management has largely neglected this topic. Therefore, we invited a group of renowned scholars from different academic fields to share their views on emerging topics regarding blockchain in service management and service research. Their individual commentaries and conceptual contributions refer to different theoretical and domain perspectives, including managerial implications for service companies as well as forward-looking suggestions for further research.
The significance of supply chain collaboration, communication and data exchange along with the importance of the relationships established among interconnected parties in a digital connected world, indicates the power of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to transform the business model. In our study we set out to advance our understanding on how DLT impacts the business model. Since DLT is in its primitive stage of development, most studies focus into the implementation aspect of the technology and limited research has been done into the business model implications. Our research closes that knowledge gap in the literature by answering the question of “What are the secondary effects in business model that stem from DLT adoption?” Due to the inherent characteristics of the DLT, in respect to its network facet and the network effects created, we argue for a business ecosystem approach for our research. The main contributions of this paper are twofold. It presents implicit effects on business model beyond the direct trust and data openness aspects, and it also provides managers and scholars a process model for assessing how each implicit effect impacts the various business model dimensions.
The proliferation of industrialisation and its environmental consequences over the last decades dictate the need for transitioning to a “Circular Economy” (CE) business model with a view to balancing manufacturers’ economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Business models based on “Industrial Symbiosis Networks” (ISNs), within which traditionally independent industries continually exchange energy, materials and by-products, with no or minimum waste produced, have the potential to proceed in this direction. However, due to various cultural, organisational and managerial barriers, their state of development in Greece, similarly to rest of the world, is very low. That is exactly where this paper sets its objectives, aiming to alleviate these barriers and contribute in establishing cross-sectoral synergies by introducing an innovative business model, supported by an exchange platform in the form of a blockchain-based B2B digital marketplace. The proposed business model will detail a plan for creating symbiotic relationships among manufacturing companies in Greece and will be supported by a blockchain-based marketplace, which will enable material, by-product and energy exchanges in a reliable and secure way. Blockchain will act both as an exchange platform and a trust mechanism, since its decentralised nature, which is manifested in all its capabilities, i.e. smart contracts, tokenisation etc., will increase the business model’s reliability and facilitate its adoption and market penetration. The successful implementation of the porposed business model will bring about a multifaceted positive impact ranging from its contribution to exceeding the current state of the art in the intersection of environmental science and information technology, to benefiting society and economy through fostering sustainable regional development.
A strong need for evidence-based practice in the blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) research, development and action domains is currently clarifying. Literature highlights a lack of transparency around the outputs, outcomes and impacts of blockchain projects. As previously cited in this journal for example, the US Agency for International Development studied 43 projects, and found that nearly all did not want to share their results [1]. The Centre for Evidence Based Blockchain recently completed a study of 517 companies to see if their blockchain projects could be defined as evidence-based practice. Over four, years they measured companies using the PCIO framework (what evidence is there of Problem – Comparison – Intervention and Outcomes) of evidence-based practice. The studies concluded that almost half of blockchain companies showed “no explicit evidence of the problem to be solved. Approximately one-third fail[ed] to cite a comparison and intervention analysis, and less than 2% demonstrate[d] evidence of outcomes backed by filtered (critically appraised, peer reviewed) information” (Naqvi & Hussain, p. 8 [2].) This paper presents how qualitative research design and methodologies can help companies and academics achieve evidence-based practice. It presents a case study, in the PCIO framework, of a small-scale agriculture sector project to assure a specific quality. The case study is a conclusion of a project that was run as participatory action research (PAR), involving a consortium including academics, farmer practitioners and a technical DLT platform developer, between 2018 and 2020. The findings show that PAR is an appropriate research method for any democratic collaborative consortia to achieve evidence-based practice through dialogue, discussion, co-development and trusting relationships.
While digital transformation is still a challenge for many companies when introducting digital technologies in existing processes and business models, digital ubiquity stands for the next step in digitalization. It characterizes the omnipresence of a large range of digital technologies, connectivity, and data as well as entirely digital organizations. This includes for example upcoming technologies such as distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence or augmented reality and according interfaces and data sources as well as decentralized apps and autonomous organizations. The challenge thus becomes to optimally deal with these opportunities and deploy them efficiently in business scenarios. In this paper we will investigate the role of enterprise modeling under this paradigm and how it can contribute to a well-structured, systematic understanding of complex digital phenomena for supporting business and technological decisions.
S. Sridevi, G. R. Karpagam, Vinoth Kumar B., Uma Maheswari J
The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value. Blockchain technology makes breakthroughs in business intelligence in many areas such as banking sector, finance, judiciary, commerce, and information technology. Web service compositions have a revolutionary impact on business intelligence by enabling loose coupling, data consolidation from diverse sources, consolidation of information under a single roof, easing ad-hoc querying and reporting. The objective of current work is to investigate the applicability of blockchain for the semantic web service composition process. The paper focuses on design of conceptual architecture and the algorithm for QoS-aware semantic web service composition (SWSC) using blockchain.
Organizations are utilizing new technologies including distributed ledgers to challenge value accounting within global capitalism. This paper investigates new radical digital accounting practices underpinning this form of organizing and explores the development of new technologies of value accounting practices enabled by distributed ledger technologies, such as generative value accounting. This theory paper makes use of the concept of the sociotechnical imaginary as it offers a framework for understanding how a technologist’s vision of the ideal future influences their design choices in the present with Holochain as a specific case.
Ingrid Bauer, Liudmila Zavolokina, Fabian Leisibach, Gerhard Schwabe
Blockchain technology is expected to create a variety of new opportunities for businesses. Yet, little is known about how the technology actually enables to create value and how companies will be able to exploit true business value. However, without a clear understanding of the value creation potential from the technology, and corresponding adaption of business practices, the realization of value is doomed to failure. Hence, we contribute to this gap by exploring and explicating the specificities of value creation from blockchain in the ecosystem of a car. In the course of an exploratory case study analysis, over a time period of 2 years, we conducted three iterations of interviews and workshops with industry and blockchain experts from five diverse stakeholder groups. In brief, we provide early evidence that (1) blockchain enables value creation through: Distributed Product Innovation, Shared Operational Efficiency, and Controlled Customer Intimacy. Furthermore, we discuss our learnings for businesses in other domains aiming to leverage value from blockchain technology. We do so, by deriving guidelines for each blockchain value discipline. Furthermore, we give recommendations on how blockchain projects in ecosystems should approach multiple blockchain value potentials.
Xiuqin Shang, Xi Chen, Lulu Niu, Gang Xiong · 9 authors
This paper proposes the social manufacturing based on Blockchain, which realizes precise and efficient customization through smart contract and distributed accounting. It is a new manufacturing mode of service-oriented, distributed and collaborative customization. This paper proposes the definition of SM based on Blockchain. In the process of using to Blockchain, it can form a strong trust relationship, so that multiple nodes / roles in SM can save the complete copy of the whole database, rather than a centralized permission / role. Secondly, the Blockchain-based SM system is developed for customized manufacturing. Finally, its application case and the optimization results are given. In SM, it is the key that how to transform customized manufacturing actions into socialized actions of manufacturing resources through internet communities and interconnect Socialized Manufacturing Resources (SMRs) in upstream and downstream. In this paper, the smart contract relationship is established based on Blockchain between SMRs to build credit mechanism in SM, Which can ensure the effective circulation and association of SMRs.
For the automotive industry, promoting more value-adding services in usage stage is a long-standing challenge for global manufacturers. As many cars have an unknown history, it is proven difficult, if not impossible, to prevent scams and frauds when offering car services. As an emerging technology, blockchain is characterized by high immutability, transparency, security, and traceability. Such characteristics make blockchain a highly promising empowering technology to maintain mutual trust among stakeholders in vehicle product-service system (PSS). This paper presents a blockchain-based PSS framework, which is intended to address the trust issue vehicle PSS.
A product lifecycle can be understood as a chain of events experienced by a product. These events do not only include the actual production but also service offerings which accompany the product throughout its life. This leads to integrated product and service offerings and Industrial Product Service Systems (IPS2). Major challenges in this context are product tracking and tracing, the triggering of service and the delivery of service. A new technology that holds much promise in addressing these challenges is blockchain. In response, this study first introduces blockchain technology before it discusses major opportunities in the context of IPS2. For example, blockchain inherently creates a synchronized database of all transaction at each node while smart contracts allow for responsive action. However, there are also challenges. For example, large amounts of redundant data, irreversible contracts and, consequently, reduced competition. While blockchain holds much promise, more needs to be done to unlock its full potential in the context of IPS2.