Purpose Blockchain possesses the potential to disrupt and reshape a plethora of industries in the next decade. However, blockchain adoption rates in technology developed countries, such as Ireland, are relatively low. Motivated by blockchain’s potential to transform sociotechnical systems, the lack of systematic inquiry pertaining to blockchain studies from an information system perspective, the authors propose the following research question: “How do organizational factors influence blockchain adoption in organizations based in a developed country?” Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to elucidate the impact of organizational factors on the adoption of blockchain and the adoption of blockchain in companies based in Ireland. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive literature review was conducted, and the methods of qualitative content analysis were used to identify the most important technology–organization–environment (TOE) blockchain adoption factors. Organizational factors are often viewed as the most significant determinants of IT innovation adoption in organizations. Consequently, using a multiple-case study of 20 companies based in Ireland, the authors investigate how the top three organizational factors identified from the blockchain literature affected these companies decision to adopt or not adopt blockchain. Findings The literature review on blockchain adoption identified specific technological, organizational and environmental factors. Furthermore, the case study findings identified three patterns: top management support and organizational readiness are enablers for blockchain adoption, and large companies are more likely to adopt blockchain than small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors explain these patterns by examining the nature of blockchain and the characteristics of Ireland as a developed country. Practical and scientific contributions are also presented. Research limitations/implications This study makes several important scientific contributions. First, the findings revealed that top management support and organizational readiness are significant enablers of blockchain adoption. Ireland is recognized as a technology developed country; however, the findings in relation to top management support contradict existing IT adoption literature pertaining to developed countries. Second, previous IT innovation adoption literature suggests that organizations size has a positive influence on a company’s IT innovation adoption process. This study demonstrates that large organizations are more likely to not only adopt blockchain but are also more likely to conduct increased levels of blockchain research and development activities. Finally, and most significantly, the authors identified several patterns, which relate specifically to Ireland as a developed country that influenced the findings. These findings could hold particular relevance to governments and organizations of other developed countries in terms of accelerating blockchain adoption. Practical implications The findings about the low level of blockchain awareness and the lack of information pertaining to viable business use cases indicate that the Irish government could play a more significant role in promoting the benefits of blockchain technologies. Further, the findings could also encourage IT providers to formulate enhanced strategies aimed at disseminating information pertaining to blockchain technologies. Second, the positive influence of top management support and organizational readiness, particularly about core competencies, on blockchain adoption suggests that equipping managers with the requisite knowledge and skills will be crucial in adopting these IT innovations. Finally, organizations who adopted blockchain used cloud-based blockchain platforms and tools to overcome the constraints of their initial low levels of organizational readiness. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to identify specific TOE blockchain adoption factors. Further, the authors examine how the three most identified organizational adoption factors impact organizations decisions to adopt blockchain. Finally, the authors discuss how the resulting three patterns identified by examining the nature of blockchain and the characteristics of Ireland as a technology developed country.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the emergence of blockchain to determine its feasibility for electronic transfer payments. An integrated conceptual framework is developed for blockchain electronic transfer. The three “markers” of classic money (store of value, medium of exchange and unit of account and efficiency) are assessed in the case of blockchain technology. A survey is also conducted among the executives of financial vs manufacturing sectors with respect to five major variables for the emerging distributed financial data based on blockchain. Design/methodology/approach Conducting a literature review and using prior knowledge from the works of those well-versed and knowledgeable in the field. This research is also supported by collecting and analyzing the results of a behavioral survey of the executives in two different industries. Findings Blockchain technology has the potential to have widespread change in how firms operate and implement a new method for electronic payments transfer through cryptocurrencies. Although the community for blockchain technology is deregulated and has drawbacks, it is expected that the limitations will gradually be mitigated through its growth. The results of the behavioral survey show that there are significant differences between the expectations/perceptions of participants in the sectors of finance vs manufacturing. Namely, the knowledge/awareness of participants about blockchain, the value-added convenience for end users, and participants’ willingness to embracing and accepting new applications are significantly different between the two sectors. Originality/value The reach and applications for Blockchain are not limited to business or any particular sector. Blockchain technology may contribute to the operations of different types of organizations and industry sectors. Since the perception of participants about blockchain is different between selected industries, this research suggests the need for more education and building awareness among the participants in different sectors of the economy.
BACKGROUND: Nowadays, a number of mechanisms and tools are being used by health care organizations and physicians to electronically exchange the personal health information of patients. The main objectives of different methods of health information exchange (HIE) are to reduce health care costs, minimize medical errors, and improve the coordination of interorganizational information exchange across health care entities. The main challenges associated with the common HIE systems are privacy concerns, security risks, low visibility of system transparency, and lack of patient control. Blockchain technology is likely to disrupt the current information exchange models utilized in the health care industry. OBJECTIVE: Little is known about patients' perceptions and attitudes toward the implementation of blockchain-enabled HIE networks, and it is still not clear if patients (as one of the main HIE stakeholders) are likely to opt in to the applications of this technology in HIE initiatives. Thus, this study aimed at exploring the core value of blockchain technology in the health care industry from health care consumers' views. METHODS: To recognize the potential applications of blockchain technology in health care practices, we designed 16 information exchange scenarios for controlled Web-based experiments. Overall, 2013 respondents participated in 16 Web-based experiments. Each experiment described an information exchange condition characterized by 4 exchange mechanisms (ie, direct, lookup, patient-centered, and blockchain), 2 types of health information (ie, sensitive vs nonsensitive), and 2 types of privacy policy (weak vs strong). RESULTS: The findings show that there are significant differences in patients' perceptions of various exchange mechanisms with regard to patient privacy concern, trust in competency and integrity, opt-in intention, and willingness to share information. Interestingly, participants hold a favorable attitude toward the implementation of blockchain-based exchange mechanisms for privacy protection, coordination, and information exchange purposes. This study proposed the potentials and limitations of a blockchain-based attempt in the HIE context. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this research should be of interest to both academics and practitioners. The findings propose potential limitations of a blockchain-based HIE that should be addressed by health care organizations to exchange personal health information in a secure and private manner. This study can contribute to the research in the blockchain area and enrich the literature on the use of blockchain in HIE efforts. Practitioners can also identify how to leverage the benefit of blockchain to promote HIE initiatives nationwide.
Despite cryptocurrency is deemed as a core evolution to the field of financial technologies, its legal status remains debatable over the globe. While the Malaysian government has launched cryptocurrency regulations in 2019, it is expected cryptocurrency will still be around in the near future. However, there is a lack of cryptocurrency acceptance study in Malaysia context. The primary goal of this study is to propose a research model that combines cryptocurrency variables with the constructs embedded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology2 (UTAUT2) to investigate the influencing factors of cryptocurrency acceptance in a developing country context.
We propose TickEth, a system that aims at mitigating some of the problems encountered by the ticketing industry. The name TickEth is built by combining the words ticket, its application domain, and Ethereum, the underlying platform we adopted for the development of the prototype.
Purva Grover, Arpan Kumar Kar, Marijn Janssen, P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan
Although blockchain has attracted a great deal of attention from academia and industry there is a lack of studies on acceptance drivers. This study explores blockchain acceptance by mining the collective intelligence of users on Twitter. It maps blockchain user acceptance drivers to technology acceptance constructs. The analysis shows that users are attracted by security, privacy, transparency, trust and traceability aspects provided by blockchain. On Twitter more discussions on blockchain benefits than on drawbacks. Initial coin offering (ICO) is extensively discussed. The study provides guidelines for managers and concludes by presenting the limitations of the study along with future research directions.
Mario Arias-Oliva, Jorge Pelegrín Borondo, Gustavo Matías-Clavero
The first commercial transaction with the first cryptocurrency in 2010 marked the start of a revolution in transactions. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies will dramatically transform how we do transactions, just as the Internet revolutionized how we communicate. Currently, more than 2,000 cryptocurrencies are quoted on the market, and many more are being launched in initial coin offerings for use as an exchange method in a specific business ecosystem or as rights to assets or liabilities. As an emerging fintech, cryptocurrencies open up many opportunities, but they also pose significant challenges and limitations. This paper analyzes the key factors for the successful development of a cryptocurrency from a consumer-behavior perspective. Using a technology acceptance theoretical framework, we test a model able to explain almost 85% of the intention to use cryptocurrencies. Surprisingly, risk was not a significant factor. This could be because most of the respondents considered operating with cryptocurrencies to be risky; the lack of variability in their responses to the questions about perceived risk would explain this lack of explanatory power. However, willingness to manage cryptocurrency risk could be a precondition for adoption. The performance expectancy for a given cryptocurrency was the most important factor for its success. The research was conducted in Spain with college-educated adults with basic knowledge of the Internet.
Cryptocurrencies are around for less than a decade but their usage steadily increases. There is no doubt that functional, social (cool-factor) and financial (high risk -high reward investment) motives drive its adoption and usage. But it is also worth to investigate whether personality and demographics can play some role in the adoption. The research have focused on impact of personality traits (according to the Big Five Inventory framework) on the usage of cryptocurrencies. The research was conducted in the Czech Republic. Respondents were university students, 478 in total (272 male, 206 female; 20.5 years old on average), of whom 62 respondents indicated that they use cryptocurrencies. Gender, age, and type of student job were used as control variables. With regards to the results, openness to experience, gender, and type of student job influence the adoption. Subjects more open to experience, male, and working full time in the field they study use cryptocurrencies more.
Systems that use blockchain technology to improve the know-your-customer (KYC) process have only been proposed at a conceptual level and all share certain attributes that make their adoption very difficult. We propose and program a blockchain-based system that reduces and shares out among the financial institutions (FIs) that work with a customer the costs of the KYC process and also makes it possible for FIs to dynamically update information related to customers and disseminates this information among participating FIs. Additionally, our system addresses some of the attributes that hinder the adoption of previously proposed solutions by FIs. The result is a stand-alone solution that reduces the cost of the KYC process without requiring any central instance to store the customer's data, and in which FIs share the initial costs of the KYC process as well as the running costs of keeping the information about customers up to date.
Falilat O. Jimoh, Usman Gambo Abdullahi, Isa Ali Ibrahim
Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology is a peer-reviewed international journal, which publishes original papers promoting theoretical, methodological and empirical developments in the discipline of socio-cultural anthropology.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
While interest in blockchain technology and applications increases, research studying the role of trust as an element that leads potential users and consumers to adopt and accept the technology remains scarce. This study conducts acceptance research that expands beyond traditional acceptance models and explores the role of trust from the user/consumer perspective. It provides comprehensive insights from the user/consumer angle and a deeper understanding of the role of trust in blockchain adoption. Using an inductive research approach that builds theory from qualitative empirical data, this paper identifies trust as a critical benefit of blockchain technology and applications, encompassing both functional (economic and system-/ process-related) as well as emotional benefits (social and personal). As trust spans across functional and emotional benefit dimensions, this study suggests that trust is a key driver for user/consumer adoption of blockchain technology and applications.
The aim of this study is to understand the blockchain adoption behaviour in Brazilian supply chains. Specifically, the study aims to unlock the potential of social influence; taking into consideration workers from the Brazilian supply chains. We proposed a model using constructs from a unified theory of acceptance and the use of technology (UTAUT). The models were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and the findings indicated the power of social influence in predicting other UTAUT constructs. In addition, this study shows the mediation effect of effort expectancy and the facilitating conditions in the relationship between social influence and the behavioural intention to adopt blockchain. Finally, our findings bring essential theoretical and managerial implications.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
How to keep customers motivated in participative behaviors remains one major challenge in extant loyalty program (LP) studies. While some companies have initiated efforts to utilize blockchain-based distributed ledgers and smart contract capabilities to enhance customer experience and improve LP efficiencies, academic assessment of blockchain application in the LP context remains scarce. This research attempts to establish a theoretical overview of how the key natures of blockchain influence customers’ varying motivations (economy, autonomy, competence and relatedness) and perceived value, which consequently induce participative behaviors in a loyalty points context. Then, using an exploratory case study of Bubichain in China, we verify that the blockchain-enabled loyalty points scheme not only improves customers’ economic perceived value by meeting their economic motives, as the traditional one does, but also enhances their social interaction and psychological self-fulfillment value perception by meeting their intrinsic motivations, thus increasing customers’ experience and participation behaviors.
The past few years have seen an explosion in the business use of blockchain. The technology has great potential to drive simplicity and efficiency in financial services, and it is poised to drive the next wave of financial service innovation. Interest in exploiting blockchain in other industries, such as manufacturing and healthcare, is increasing, and deployments are gaining momentum. Yet, the adoption rate is slow, and organisations are only beginning to scratch the surface in regards to the potential applications of this technology. Implemented properly, the business benefits can be substantial. This article explores the changing dimensions of blockchain, highlights the importance of this technology, reviews its timeline from inception to maturity, identifies determinants of implementation success, and covers some of the potential benefits of this technology. Finally, this study highlights the successful implementation of blockchain solutions in the manufacturing and service industries.
Decentralized applications (DApps) – digital applications that operate on blockchain and smart contract technologies – have proliferated across diverse industrial sectors. With the recent surge in DApp adoption, we have yet to understand the impetus behind this rapid expansion. Our research aims to bridge this gap by examining the role and extent of peer influence on individual decisions to adopt DApps. Given the inherently peer-to-peer nature of blockchain and the robust sense of community amongst users, this influence is expected to be significant. To identify evidence, we empirically study Ethereum, the world's largest DApp platform. We utilize an unprecedented dataset encompassing the entire lifetime of Ethereum, from inception to the present day. Our findings reveal a positive correlation between DApp adoption and the decisions of proximate peers. We further uncover that the magnitude of peer influence varies depending on network structure characteristics, including network size, density, and the degree of decentralization. These results substantiate the powerful role of peer influence in driving the diffusion of DApps, operating through a variety of mechanisms. Such insights could offer valuable guidance for industry practitioners to devise targeted marketing strategies that capitalize on this peer influence to optimize DApp adoption rates.
Although adoption of cryptocurrencies has received much attention in recent literature, little is known about what factors affecting adoption of Bitcoin. Since the context of cryptocurrencies is different from traditional technologies, several factors derived from the Blockchain technology may play important roles in adoption. We conducted email interviews with 165 students to identify the positive utilities (benefits) and negative utilities (risks) attached to Bitcoin. Then, based on a literature review and the results of our explorative research, we propose a qualitative theoretical model which extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and utility theory. Our theoretical model consists of correlations amongst the following constructs: positive and negative utilities, structural provisions, perceived value, attitude, personality traits, and intention to adopt Bitcoin. The proposed model can serve as a foundation for future studies addressing factors shaping individuals’ Bitcoin adoption decisions. Further research is required to empirically test the model to articulate Bitcoin adoption at the individual level.