Andrea Sestino, Luca Giraldi, Elena Cedrola, Seyedeh Zahra Zamani ¡ 5 authors
Blockchain is a buzzword today, and its application is daily increasing. Recently, literature has proposed the new concept of the Internet of Value (IoV), which refers to a view of the Internet as a means where value is transferred as easily, cheaply and reliably as data is now transferred. The ever-growing interest in Blockchain research and practice has given rise to disorganized knowledge around its application, especially for business purposes. To qualitatively assess this gap, we conducted a literature review by investigating a final number of 169 original contributions produced in the last half-decade. The insights have been analysed and systematized considering the possible contribution of the Blockchain application to the Internet of Value, to shed light on Blockchain opportunities in business value creation regarding five basic topics: Blockchain exploitation in the energy sector; Blockchain exploitation in healthcare; Blockchain exploitation in supply chain management (SCM); Blockchain exploitation in industrial marketing; and Blockchain exploitation in data privacy protection.
Blockchain technology creates the possibility for developing knowledge-intensive goods. Only a few studies in Affordance theory deal with investigating blockchain. This paper aims to discover affordances in blockchain when designing an AI-based financial recommendation system as a decision support system. The design thinking methodology was extended with machine learning and business process modelling to discover financial offerings, digital objects to be tokenised, advantages gained from the tracing affordances and consensus mechanism, and the role of smart contracts for each persona. The implementation of discovered blockchain-based applications requires a multichain framework to meet the requirements of design affordances.
Manuel Utz, Simon Johanning, Tamara Roth, Thomas Brßckner ¡ 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 âgreenâ 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.
Sunil Erevelles, Kriti Bordia, Brian Whelan, Julia R. Canter ¡ 5 authors
Purpose The blockchain represents a seminal paradigm shift, likely to radically transform business in the future. While the paradigm associated with the World Wide Web and Big Data is focused on the âsharing of information,â the paradigm associated with blockchain is focused on the âsharing of assets.â Intellectual assets are among the most valuable of assets, and customer co-creation is a key approach for creating new value for firms. This paper aims to draw on blockchain-centric logic to develop an initial theoretical framework, with managerial recommendations, for the use of blockchain in customer co-creation. Design/methodology/approach Building upon established indigenous theory development and inductive realist approaches, the authors develop an original two-step methodology to create the initial theoretical framework. This methodology, involving foundational premises and propositions, is ideal for relatively new areas of research and is well suited to serve as a relatively faster catalyst for future research. Findings Despite the substantial potential impact of blockchain in innovation, no theoretical foundation for blockchain in customer co-creation exists. To fill this gap, the authors present an initial theoretical framework, using blockchain-centric logic in customer co-creation. The proposed theoretical framework highlights how key prerequisites in customer co-creation, including trust, security, transparency, identity and immutability, can be enhanced with blockchain-centric logic. Originality/value It is hoped that the initial theoretical framework, based on blockchain-centric logic, can contribute to future academic research on blockchain in customer co-creation and help practitioners better exploit the blockchain in co-creation. Directions for future research, the larger agenda for this paper, are presented in the conclusion.
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.
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 MBBâs 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 Yunusâ 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 Yunusâ 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.
To solve compliance issues for its procurement/direct-buy processes, Blockchain Technology is helpful in its existing environment. Blockchain can be characterized as a distributed ledger technology that can keep track of transactions among various parties involved in the transaction. By sharing data among multiple parties involved in a business, Blockchain works as a trust-able technology providing tempered proof transaction tracking of order, payment and other functions associated with the logistics. Blockchain is helping logistics to be more proficient and straightforward. Blockchain&s;s distributed ledger characteristics makes it the ideal technology to manage the logistics having functions of payment tracking, order management, shipment and many more critical information.. Blockchain is useful only where multiple entities are collaborating and sharing information. Blockchain is very good and suitable approach for logistics . The technology is supportive in involving multiple entities to synchronize information among all the entities involved in logistics . In logistics, information is shared among provided by manufacturer, wholesaler and customer and helps in standardizing the procedure to identify suspect, illegitimate and improving the products and the system is completely traceable.
Abstract Coâcreation and open innovation have become an important source of competitive advantage. Over the past decades, huge amounts of information have become accessible to the external stakeholders of the organizations, changing the traditional value creation processes. However, coâcreation comes with its challenges, including the complex engagement of stakeholders, difficulties in opening up value chains and issues of trust and intellectual property. The arrival of blockchain and cryptographic assetâdriven decentralized technologies has brought to the world an entirely new spectrum of possibilities regarding social, financial and technological innovations. Now it is possible to achieve superior levels of transparency, security and fairness to the public, especially when compared with the rather limited business models that dominate Web 2.0 commercial products. While the first applications of blockchain technology were for digital currency transactions, that same technology is now being applied to the development of the blockchainâbased decentralized platforms. This calls for research to integrate other relevant fields such as organizational management, public policy, community engagement and marketing. This qualitative preliminary study aims to build an integrative and transdisciplinary framework of blockchain service ecosystems based on theoretical premises of Service Science through which blockchainâbased value coâcreation can be analysed. The systemic approach presented in this paper provides muchâneeded guidance for developers of decentralized organizations on how to create sustainable platforms and to maintain them profitable in the long run. The focus of the proposed conceptual model is to initiate a scholarly curiosity in understanding possible solutions and potential impact of blockchain technology in the way we collaborate as a society.
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 industryâs 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 âgoodâ 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 âWhat are the secondary effects in business model that stem from DLT adoption?â 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 âCircular Economyâ (CE) business model with a view to balancing manufacturersâ economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Business models based on âIndustrial Symbiosis Networksâ (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 modelâs 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.