Produzierende Unternehmen stehen unter großem Veränderungsdruck, der durch wachsende Produktkomplexität, steigende Kundenanforderungen und digitale Geschäftsmodelle induziert wird. Vorherrschende Trends wie Industrie 4.0 und Digitalisierung müssen genutzt werden, um nicht nur die Produktion effizienter zu gestalten, sondern auch innovative Geschäftsmodelle zu entwickeln. Diese gewährleisten, dass Unternehmen neue Märkte erschließen und neue Kunden gewinnen. Die von Unternehmen in der Vergangenheit fokussierten produktzentrierten Geschäftsmodelle werden durch die Digitalisierung in nutzerzentrierte Geschäftsmodelle transformiert. Zudem ist gerade eine Veränderung im Verhalten der Kunden zu beobachten, die sich zunehmend gezielt für Produkte mit höherem Leistungsumfang in Bezug auf digitale Fähigkeiten entscheiden, sodass sich die Digitalisierung ebenfalls in den Produkten wiederfindet. Dauerhafte Wettbewerbsfähigkeit bedarf folglich erweiterter digitaler Leistungen in Produkten.
Purpose This paper aims to provide a general introduction to Blockchain technology and how it can be used within the global hospitality industry. In particular, this paper speaks to three industry sectors where Blockchain technology is currently in use. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on the perspective of an academic who also continues to serve as an industry practitioner within the field of hospitality technology. To this end, the paper provides several examples as to how Blockchain technology can be used to further advance the hospitality profession within a number of different industry sectors. Findings Blockchain technology is being used now within the hospitality industry for both practical and strategic purposes. It can be used in most sectors of the profession and will continue to be used within the hospitality industry for many years ahead. The technology is still relatively new and will continue to become more advanced and sophisticated with the passage of time. Practical implications Many hospitality industry examples are provided as to how Blockchain technology can be used to improve operational effectiveness, efficiencies and overall profitability. Originality/value This paper adds value and contributes to the literature relating to Blockchain technology applications in the international hospitality industry. It represents current and future use that can and should be taken into consideration by both the hospitality industry and academia.
With the development of cloud computing, a great amount of information is stored on cloud, such as Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Single cloud or company is not reliable enough for permanent information storage. Once the cloud or company is in downtime, users could lost their information. Multiple clouds can store the information with more security. However, in JointCloud environment, it is a big problem for multiple clouds or companies to maintain the common rights of information for each user. In this paper, we propose EtherShare, a blockchain-based application in JointCloud environment. EtherShare enables users to share information with permanent storage and open access. It keeps the rights of users through smart contracts to make consensus between multiple clouds. And this application is open source on Github.
Crowdfunding has become a popular form of collective funding, in which small donations or investments, made by groups of people, support the development of new projects in exchange of free products or different types of recognition. Social network sites, on the other hand, promote user cooperation and currently are at the basis of any individuals cyber-interactions. In this paper, we present LikeStarter, a blockchain-based decentralized platform that combines social interactions with crowdfunding mechanisms, allowing any user to raise funds while becoming popular in the social network. Being built over the Ethereum blockchain, LikeStarter is structured as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), that fosters crowdfunding without the intervention of any central authority, and recognizes the active role of donors, enabling them to support artists or projects, while making profits.
The blockchain web platform, most famous for its use in support of Bitcoin, is a sophisticated and unique technology, which many believe is the next disruptive technology that will span across a vast range of industries. Scholars identified more than ten features of this technology that makes it, like no other: open-ledger, encrypted, everlasting, accessible to all, enables peer to peer transactions, fast, global, trustworthy, decentralized, consensus mechanisms, and irreversible. By embracing all of these features, blockchain technology offers an alternative tool to traditional multi-player economic models for conducting transactions without the necessity of relying on third parties.
This article addresses the misperception of blockchain, perceiving it, similarly to the common understanding of the Internet, as an open platform, accessible to the public, with free entry and most important, in the public domain. Hardly anyone thought to consider protected intellectual property (IP) rights in regard to this technology, that was coined democratic. However, this concept, that there is only one public domain blockchain platform that serves all or that blockchain platforms are free from any IP rights is false. This article alleges, for the first time, that unlike the common perception, not only is blockchain technology patentable, but the U.S. Patent Office granted patents in blockchain platforms and keeps on examining inventions of new and different types of blockchain technologies.
This false assumptions may be based on misunderstanding the technology of different types of blockchain platforms or on the legend about the unknown figure, entity or artificial intelligence (AI) system, named Satoshi Nakamoto, who mysteriously created the technology and donated this platform technology, in 2009, without identifying him/her/itself, for the benefit of society.
Additionally, this paper innovatively takes a step further and investigates, the implications of patent law concerning blockchain technology, in order to unveil the emerging risks of patent infringements, which users are unaware of while naively using blockchain platforms. By understanding the peer-to-peer multi-player structure of these platforms, one can evaluate the threat the inevitable patent infringements may cause. This article further argues that this threat will become more crucial and weighty with the rising popularity of blockchain platforms. Finally, this research not only points out unexpected legal and economic risks, but also proposes a simple solution to mitigate this potential patent minefield.
We developed a blockchain-based E-marketplace. A decentralized E-marketplace platform utilizing the blockchain technology is implemented. We use the self-enforcement of smart contracts to secure the deposit and process the payment. Each transaction is verified through the blockchain and is recorded to the decentralized ledger. This enables trustless transactions since the smart contract is self-executed. The smart contract is able to perform credible transactions without trusted third parties, and the transactions on the blockchain are trackable and irreversible. Therefore, both the buyer and the seller cannot breach the contract. All processes are recorded on the blockchain including the product launch, purchase, delivery, and payment. It is trackable and could be submitted to courts as electronic evidence to solve the transaction disputes.
Ki-Chan Nam, Christopher S. Dutt, Prakash K. Chathoth, M. Sajid Khan
Blockchain is one of the latest network-based technologies, which will have significant impact on most industries including tourism. Even though blockchain technology is at the infancy stage of development, tools such as cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and Decentralised Applications have begun to influence tourism transactions. This paper makes an attempt to highlight the key characteristics of blockchain technology in conjunction with the smart city/tourism framework while making propositions of how the technology would evolve and influence the industry. Major issues related to the technology as well as challenges are also discussed, including some misconceptions.
The emergence of blockchain technology and increasing penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) have created a new opportunity for peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. However, challenges arise in such transactive markets to ensure individual rationality, incentive compatibility, budget balance, and economic efficiency during the trading process. This thesis creates an hour-ahead P2P energy trading network based on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain and explores a comparative analysis of different auction mechanisms that form the basis of smart contracts. Considered auction mechanisms are discriminatory and uniform k-Double Auction with different k values. This thesis also investigates effects of four consumer and prosumer bidding strategies: random, preference factor, price-only game-theoretic approach, and supply-demand game-theoretic approach. A custom simulation framework that models the behavior of the transactive market is developed. Case studies of a 100-home microgrid at various photovoltaic (PV) penetration levels are presented using typical residential load and PV generation profiles in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Results indicate that regardless of PV penetration levels and employed bidding strategies, discriminatory k-DA can outperform uniform k-DA. Despite so, discriminatory k-DA is more sensitive to market conditions than uniform k-DA. Additionally, results show that the price-only game-theoretic bidding strategy leads to near-ideal economic efficiencies regardless of auction mechanisms and PV penetration levels.
This document outlines our approach to conducting a rapid realist review to identify evidence for potential impacts on people and society of peer-to-peer energy trading (and of distributed ledger technology used in this context). Our motivation for the study is to help anticipate who might stand to win or lose (and how and why), inform policy/regulation to help maximize benefits and minimize harm, and identify research gaps. While our focus is in the energy sector, we also plan to draw on evidence (where relevant) from examples of sharing economy models in non-energy sectors. We have already developed and engaged around a provisional programme theory (presented as a set of Context-Mechanism-Outcome statements), which we will develop as the review progresses. We set out where and how we will seek to identify evidence (through online searching, reference checking and calling for evidence). In line with our exploratory and iterative approach, we propose broad inclusion criteria. We will assess evidence quality subjectively on the basis of relevance and rigour for each Context-Mechanism-Outcome group, not at document level. Synthesis will be achieved through developing our programme theory and connecting evidence to it. We will disseminate findings through an academic paper (or papers), one or more policy briefings (with associated engagement events), one or more public blogs, and materials will be openly shared on an ongoing basis through an Open Science Framework page.
María Claudia Solarte-Vásquez, Mait Rungi, Katrin Nyman-Metcalf
Purpose This paper aims to report on signs of public awareness and empowerment among the general public that are presumed to determine the viability of the smart contracting (SC) approach and identifies prevailing concerns regarding individual transactional experiences. Design/methodology/approach A mixed approach was followed to explore perceptions of self-regulation and transaction friendliness by using an interpretative multiple case study method and by presenting a descriptive summative analysis of the data. Findings On self-regulation, the study reveals spread awareness, empowerment, contractual competences and responsibility. Regarding transaction friendliness, subject matter influences transaction experiences the most, and trust and engagement are the most problematic factors. The findings support the viability of SC, endorsing the application of proactive perspectives in legal and managerial practice. Research limitations/implications The study confirms the foundational assumptions of SC, identifies key transactional issues that should be further addressed to improve the functionality of digital trade environments and contributes to the consolidation of the legal design research field on transaction usability. Practical implications The findings point to the viability of SC. Organizations and practitioners are given indications on transaction upgrade priorities and invited to adopt and help disseminate the proposal. Social implications The expansion of a collaborative transactional culture can reduce legal disputes, improving the legal environment of business and strengthening private governance regulatory models. Originality/value This is the first empirical study on the viability conditions of the SC-approach, identifying transactional usability testing and intervention priorities.
Raheleh Hassannia, Ali Vatankhah Barenji, Zhi Li, Habib Alipour
The purpose of the study is to design and develop a recommended system based on agent and web technologies, which utilizes a hybrid recommendation filtering for the smart tourism industry. A hybrid recommendation system based on agent technology is designed by considering the online communication with other sectors in the tourism industry, such as the tourism supply chain, agency etc. However, online communication between the sectors via agents is designed and developed based on the contract net protocol. Furthermore, the design system is developed on the java agent development framework and implemented as a web application. Case study-based results considering two scenarios involving 100 customers illustrated that the proposed web application improves the rate of the recommendation for the customers. In the first scenario without disturbances, this rate was improved by 20% and the second scenario with disturbances yielded a 30% rate of acceptable recommendation. In addition, based on the second scenario, real time data communication on the system occurred, thus the proposed system supported real time data communication.
Can the blockchain be the infrastructure of the circular economy paradigm? In the present paper, we first explore the concepts of the blockchain and circular economy and consider why and how they could interact. Our inquiry of the literature provides a positive theoretical answer. However, shortcomings are also reviewed in terms of their practical implementation. Much will depend on how the blockchain technology and its functionalities (e.g., smart contracts, distributed autonomous organizations) will be able to support the circular economy ecosystem.
For the sake of enhancing repurchase rate and customer loyalty, plenty of enterprises have issued reward points. However, as there are more enterprises issuing reward points, customers become less and less interested to collect them. Even though there are companies forming a business alliance to make reward points more attractive, it is usually managed by a central leading company. In other words, there still exists a security concern for a centralized system. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based cross-organizational integrated platform (BCOIP) for issuing and redeeming reward points. BCOIP provides customers an electronic reward point system that is easier to collect and manage and could circulate in many enterprises. Besides, since BCOIP deploys the smart contract to operate the reward point and make all point transactions stored on the permissioned blockchain, it provides more interoperability and security to enterprises and more credibility for costumers. Moreover, goods providers joining the BCOIP could not only improve the diversity of the reward market but also reach more costumers. Finally, we conduct two experiments to evaluate the efficiency and stability of the BCOIP. Results indicate that points transactions are stable regardless of the number of parallel processes and the other shows the number of nodes has nothing to do with the efficiency of this system.
The inception of blockchain catapulted the development of innovative use cases utilizing the trustless, decentralized environment, empowered by cryptocurrencies. The envisaged benefits of the technology includes the divisible nature of a cryptocurrency, that can facilitate payments in fractions of a cent, enabling micropayments through the blockchain. Micropayments are a critical tool to enable financial inclusion and to aid in global poverty alleviation. The paper conducts a study on the economic impact of blockchain-based micropayment systems, emphasizing their significance for socioeconomic benefit and financial inclusion. The paper also highlights the contribution of blockchain-based micropayments to the cybercrime economy, indicating the critical need of economic regulations to curtail the growing threat posed by the digital payment mechanism.
Blockchain has been around for over a decade, however, the technology does not seem to have been adopted after a long time being in existence. The goal of this thesis was to get to study what are the barriers of the blockchain adoption. Furthermore, the thesis also indicated one use case that seems to stand out from the rest, smart contract, by implementing one specific example for demonstration purpose. \n The thesis went through an in-depth concept of blockchain technology, studied the most well-known use cases being, including cryptocurrency, initial coin offering and smart contract and figured out their limitations particularly and blockchain’s generally. Finally, one example of Ethereum smart contract was implemented to indicate how this particular use case could fit what is needed nowadays. \n As a result, the studies showed that blockchain is promising and can be applied through developing decentralized applications by smart contracts but the use cases must be chosen very carefully due to the problems of privacy and data protection. Otherwise, the main obstacle for the adoption is the lack of serious regulations, resulting the lack of trust, therefore, as long as blockchain-related businesses are not clearly regulated, the mass adoption is probably still far away since no one gets fully protected in the game, neither the companies nor the customers.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Pascal Mehrwald, Theresa Treffers, Maximilian Titze, Isabell M. Welpe
Combining blockchain technology and smart contracts has the potential to facilitate disintermediation and realize true peer-to-peer transactions provided that sufficient trust is build. An advanced research model of blockchain-mediated trust is conceptualized by incorporating extant trust building concepts. The conceptualized model helps to advance future empirical trust research in connection with blockchain technology in the sharing economy by suggesting moderating and mediating effects on trust in online settings.
We live in a digital world where technological innovations have dramatically changed our lives. Each day, new potentially disruptive offerings and ideas appear. On a tectonic scale, some of these innovations are minor tremors that will quickly subside and be forgotten, while others are major earthquakes that will reshape our economic landscape completely. Wi-Fi and smartphones are among the examples of huge seismic changes in the recent past. Together with the Internet, search engines and interactive Web 2.0, they have changed the ways we buy, search, communicate, date, entertain ourselves, do business and much more. In ...