David King Boison, Ebenezer Malcalm, Ahmed Antwi-Boampong, Musah Osumanu Doumbia · 5 authors
The study assessed the factors that influence the adoption of blockchain (BC) in Ghana's public procurement delivery. The study adopted correctional design and utilized the extended unified theory of the acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) as the conceptual basis to determine whether performance expectancy (PE), behavioral intent (BI), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), hedonic motivation (HM), price value (PV), and habit (HT) were predictors of the intention of state owned enterprises to adopt blockchain programs in the implementation of the public procurement act. Only four constructs, namely PE, EE, FC, and HT, were found to influence the behavioral intention (BI) of service providers to participate in a BC. This study provides a deeper understanding of the adoption of BC in the delivery of public contracts.
Ahmed Alfatih D. Mohamed, Yazan M. Alkhateeb, Puneet Agarwal, Ahmed R. Abdelwahab · 5 authors
The interest in blockchain technology has grown rapidly, day by day. This is simply because of the security and decentralization that it provides. Nevertheless, most government services around the world run on inefficient systems loaded with heavy bureaucracy. They lead to non-transparent systems and a loss of public confidence in government services. The present systematic review of the literature on this topic aims to highlight the characteristics of blockchain technology that demonstrate its uniqueness, together with the characteristics of the smart government services that are required for efficient service delivery. It was found that the dominant characteristics of blockchain technology that are expected to provide the highest value for customers are decentralization and the capacity to be shared and public, whereas the most desired characteristics for the efficient service delivery of smart government services are speed, trust and participation. The paper went on to examine how the use of blockchain technology in government services is impacting on their delivery to customers by using examples from all around the world and to conduct a SWOT analysis of the use of blockchain in the government sector. Its findings are expected to help governments to develop a blockchain strategy that helps smart government services to adopt blockchain successfully.
With a variety of student and institution focused applications, blockchain technology has the potential to upend existing business processes in higher education. This study aims to investigate educated people's attitudes and actions toward using blockchain technology in higher education. The research recommends expanding the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) to include additional factors like perceived privacy, security, and trust. For the study, a scale that has been verified in the literature has been used. Variance based partial least square structural equation modeling was used to analyze the proposed link in the model, which was based on a survey of 208 respondents. The study's conclusion showed that the model's features have strongly impactable intentions to use blockchain in higher education. Blockchain technology's perception, usefulness, and trustworthiness are all strongly influenced by perceptions of security and privacy. Respondents to the study say that the use of blockchain in higher education makesthe study more secure.
Abstract4 Corruption has had a detrimental impact on the South African economy. The use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in combatting corruption is undervalued in e-government contexts, while insufficient empirical data exists to gauge the effectiveness of distributed digital technology in combatting malfeasance. This study explores perceptions on the use of ICT in the procurement corruption investigation sector. Legal and factual perspectives of ICTs, and specifically on Digital Ledger Technology (DLT)9s usefulness in combatting public sector procurement corruption in South Africa was found to be limited. This empirical study found that most respondents in the corruption investigation field had encounters with it in the Public Procurement field of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) function. Human interference in the ICT system appears to be the main contributing factor in corrupting the system. Monitoring of user activity logs is recommended as well as strict regulations to prevent ghost users from corrupting ICT systems.
Hashem Alshurafat, Hamzah Al‐Mawali, Mohannad Obeid Al Shbail
Purpose Blockchain technology is an indispensable solution for all professionals. However, auditors have not been adequately prepared to use blockchain technology. This study aims to examine the impact of technostress on auditors’ acceptance to use blockchain technology. Design/methodology/approach A model combining the technostress and factors from the technology acceptance model is proposed. Data were obtained from 142 auditors in the Big 4 and non-Big 4 firms through previously tested and validated questionnaires. Findings As hypothesized, the results show that technostress influences the perceived usefulness and ease of use of blockchain technology. This study finds that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are significant predictors of attitudes toward use decisions, while the latter is a significant predictor of behavioral intention to use blockchain technology. The results are valuable to accountants, auditors and audit firm managers. Originality/value This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of technostress on auditor acceptance to use blockchain technology, which is deemed as a debate viewpoint.
Organizations are seeking ways to be more competitive in the market. Globalization also paves the way for additional challenges for firms to compete in today's knowledge-based economy and competitive corporate settings. The psychological contract breach (PCB) of employees could be a possible reason to slow down the firm's innovative performance. Based on the social exchange theory, the present study assumes that a PCB negatively affects a firm's innovative performance. The present study also assessed the mediating role of knowledge hiding (KH) and moral disengagement (MD) in the relationship between PCB and a firm's innovative performance. This study also attempts to check the moderating role of perceived supervisor support (PSS) in the relationship between PCB and KH and between PCB and MD. For empirical investigation, the present study collected the data from 303 employees of various textile organizations in china through a structured questionnaire method using a convenient sampling technique. The present study applied partial least square structural equation modeling for empirical analyses using Smart PLS software. The present study revealed that a PCB does not directly influence a firm's innovative performance. However, the results confirmed that KH negatively mediates the relationship between PCB and a firm's innovative performance. On the other hand, results also confirmed that MD negatively mediates the relationship between PCB and a firm's innovative performance. The finding also acknowledged that the PSS does not moderate the relationship between PCB and KH. Additionally, the findings confirmed that PSS positively moderates the relationship between PCB and moral disengagement. The present study offers important practical, theoretical, and managerial implications.
Diplomski rad predstavlja sintezu teorijskog i istraživačkog rada na temu poduzetništva i kriptovaluta. Utjecaj inovacija na poduzetništvo vidljiv je kroz povijest. Razvoj informacijskih tehnologija utjecao je na želju decentralizacije, bijega od nepotrebnih nameta i uklanjanje suvišnih posrednika, što je omogućila blockchain tehnologija. Decentralizirane platforme i kriptovalute plod su blockchain tehnologije i razvoja poduzetničkih aktivnosti vezanih za iste. Kriptovalute u posljednjih deset godina postavljaju nove postulate poduzetništva. Način plaćanja, decentralizirani prijenos imovine, anonimnost i visoka razina sigurnosti glavne su odlike kriptovaluta. U svrhu ispitivanja informiranosti građana Republike Hrvatske o kriptovalutama provedeno je istraživanje kojim je obuhvaćeno 250 ispitanika. Dobiveni rezultati anketiranih ispitanika pokazali su površno znanje o tehnologijama koje omogućuju uporabu kriptovaluta, no unatoč tome ispitanici imaju povjerenje u sigurnost kriptovaluta i trgovinu kriptovalutama. Utjecaj kriptovaluta na budućnost poslovanja nije upitna. Važno ih je uspješno integrirati u svakodnevni život i globalnu ekonomiju.
In recent years, knowledge hiding has gained much popularity in the knowledge management literature. Apart from that, antecedents and consequences of knowledge hiding are being scrutinized at present. There have been many studies on the triggering forces of knowledge hiding; however, the uncivil behaviors at the workplace have led the organizations and employees in trouble due to its possible associating factors, which is well explained by social influence theory. One such factor that this study has identified is knowledge hiding behavior at the workplace. This is a quantitative cross-sectional study based on a survey. The population taken in this study is the middle and low-level managerial staff of the software houses located in China. The respondents were selected based on convenient random sampling, and a sample size of 287 is used in this study. The data collected were employed with the partial least square structural equation modeling using Smart-PLS 3. The findings of this study show that apart from evasive hiding, playing dumb and rationalized hiding plays a significant role in predicting workplace incivility. In addition, psychological contract breach (PCB) has been taken as the mediating variable. The violation of psychological contracts among employees can indulge them in negative feelings that may convert to workplace incivility at any available opportunity of revenge which is well explained by social influence theory. Workplace incivility cannot be completely eradicated from the organizations; however, it can be controlled by making relevant policies. The civility among the employees can be attained by due managerial interventions and training of the employees considering the protection of victims and due punishment to the perpetrator.
Many activities in our daily lives have been merged with the internet and have become more efficient and flexible as a result of the rapid advancement of information and communication technology. The rapid growth of online users has generated new business concepts, such as bitcoin, which have enabled virtual world concepts to thrive. A new business phenomenon has emerged, which is called cryptocurrency. This paper explores the nuances of cryptocurrency including the pros and cons, investment techniques and its usage in the real world. As an eightyear-old technology, cryptocurrency is an encrypted, peer-to-peer network that facilitates digital bartering.With the invention of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, long-standing and unchanged systems of financial payment have been radically transformed. The paper also analyses investment risks in Bitcoin as well as other currencies for describing the impact on Indian citizens.
Purpose This study aims to broaden the understanding of the blockchain for human resource (HR) managers through use cases. The study presents a plausible solution for HR professionals to effectively manage some of the core processes to focus on more strategic work and be a true HR business partner for the organization. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a case research strategy. The case research strategy is well-suited to capture the practitioner’s knowledge, mainly when focusing on contemporary events (such as COVID-19). Data collected from 12 tech organizations through telephonic conversations and the interviews were recorded and transcribed using NoNotes call recording. Findings This study identifies five use cases to streamline the critical processes, helping HR professionals such as certificates verification, skill mapping, payroll processing, data protection and performance management. These early use cases offer a plausibly superior alternative in managing critical HR functions and associated business processes with blockchain technology. Research limitations/implications Despite the growing number of blockchain applications, its usage in HR activities is limited. By extensive qualitative case study and data triangulation, the study integrates a resource-based view and unified theory of acceptance by explaining how blockchain adoption helps organizations use their internal resources and capabilities to gain a competitive advantage. The study presents five use cases and propositions that can act as building blocks for the HR department in adopting blockchain applications. Lack of empirical validation (quantitative rigor) of the propositions is the limitation and can be a future research scope. Practical implications Adopting new technologies is not new for HR managers. However, most of the technologies are disjointed applications, and therefore, the need for an all-pervasive solution assumes significance. Several of the blockchain concepts are still in the nascent stage. Thus, the study highlights the need for HR leaders to work alongside technical architects to create blockchain applications. Unlike other HR applications, blockchain can integrate all the employees, clients, vendors and businesses seamlessly. This study proposes research propositions that provide research directions for future research. Originality/value Academic literature on connecting blockchain technology with HR functions and applications is notably absent. This research can be considered one of the first academic articles connecting blockchain and HR processes.
Blockchain or distributed ledger technology emerged over ten years ago as the underlying technology of bitcoin. Blockchain is a special kind of database with individual records or blocks linked together in a sequential list called chain of blocks. These records are validated by multiple nodes in peer-to-peer networks and they are immutable. It is a decentralized system, with no need for intermediaries where all decisions are made using different consensus mechanisms. High expectations from blockchain technology, combined with a lack of deeper knowledge about the technology are expressed in the results from the survey conducted on a sample of Croatian C-level and middle managers from various industries. The results appear to indicate that Croatian business leaders perceive that we are still in the early phase of adoption with management expecting some disruption in the future but expecting it to occur mostly in the information technology and financial industry.
Previous research rarely examined the antecedents of employee well-being with the interactive effect of abusive supervision and mediating impact of psychological contract breach especially in the developing country context. Drawing upon the social exchange theory, this study attempts to bridge a research gap by investigating work engagement, work–life balance, and turnover intention with employee well-being directly and through the moderating and mediation effects of abusive supervision and psychological contract breach. To validate these relationships, 208 employees who are working in banks of Pakistan were investigated, through a survey-based questionnaire. The Smart PLS 3.0 was employed to measure the association and test the hypotheses in which structural equation modelling played a role in checking the relationships among variables. The results demonstrate that work engagement, work–life balance, and turnover intention directly affect employee well-being. This study also found that psychological contract breach has a partial mediation effect between work engagement, work–life balance, turnover intention, and abusive supervision with employee well-being. Additionally, this study shows that abusive supervision has a moderating impact between psychological contract breach and employee well-being. This study contributes to the literature and body of knowledge in human resource management and organizational behaviour. This study helps to better understanding employee well-being at micro-level in a service sector especially in developing country context (Pakistan). Finally, this study helps managers to express their feedback, suggestions, and interaction with employees.
Daniel Mago Vistro, Muhammad Shoaib Farooq, Attique Ur Rehman, Mohsin Ali Khan
Taxation department of Pakistan collects and keeps record of legislated taxes imposed by governments. Pakistan is among those countries which still maintain records of taxations in registers, thus maintaining immutability of records is really hard. Tax records have great risk of being lost or altered by someone and results in leading towards committing fraud in taxes. Blockchain has provided advantage to many industries because of its enhanced security and traceability in current trustless environment. We have presented a tax management solution which has an objective to provide secure, efficient and auditable system in Pakistan environment using blockchain technology. Our proposed methodology is about digitizing of the records of taxations using the blockchain distributed ledger based technology. Finally, future work prediction is also given, which will help getting directions for controlling fraud cases from most senior officers posts.
Abstract This research explores blockchain as a competitive advantage (CA) for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. The respondents’ awareness of the relevance of blockchain use was also tested. The researcher aims to verify if blockchain is a foundational technology to be implemented in academe. Theoretical framework was formulated based on the knowledge procurement cycle and distributed learning ledger. The researcher proposes that conceptual framework, centered on blockchain (Ethereum), will enhance recordkeeping in education. Frequency, percentage, and weighted mean determined the degree of relevance of blockchain as CA of Philippine HEIs. One-way ANOVA determined respondents’ significant relationship (SR) with regard to blockchain awareness and identified SR of blockchain as CA over other colleges in terms of cost and differentiation. The results showed that students were most aware of the relevance of blockchain while professors were least aware. Both null hypotheses were accepted. There is no SR on the respondents’ awareness on the use of blockchain. Respondents considered technology relevant and a foundational technology in recordkeeping. The research proposes EduChain Activity Flow Model to enhance recordkeeping in the academe. It will offer ample job opportunities to students in the field of blockchain. Also, the researcher suggests that administrators may incorporate blockchain training as part of faculty development. This research will pave the way for future researchers to study other aspects of blockchain in education. Keywords: blockchain, blockchain technology, EduChain Activity Flow Model
Blok zincir (Blockchain) teknolojisinin bir ürünü olarak ortaya çıkan Bitcoin ve türevi kripto paralar son on yılın en önemli ekonomik yeniliğidir. Bitcoin, eşler arası veri paylaşım ağını (Peer-to-Peer) temel alan, merkezi bir otorite tarafından kontrol edilmeyen (decentralized), kamuya açık hesap kaydı tutma özelliğine sahip (PublicLedger), temelde online ödeme yapmayı sağlayan sanal bir para birimidir. Bitcoin, kripto paraların ekonomik olarak tanınmasında temel teşkil etmiştir. Bununla birlikte günümüzde genel veya özel fonksiyonlu pek çok Bitcoin türevi (Altcoin) kripto para birimi geliştirilmiştir. Kripto paralar her geçen gün daha fazla sayıda ticari işlemde kullanılmaya başlanmıştır. Kripto paralarla yapılan işlemlerin nasıl muhasebeleştirileceğine ilişkin henüz belirgin bir düzenleme bulunmaması farklı yaklaşımları da beraberinde getirmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, mevcut yaklaşımlar ışığında kripto paraların nasıl muhasebeleştirilebileceğini tartışmaktır.<br>
Blockchain applications are considered as “trustless” machines, because they reduce business’s needs of trust in others. The “trustless” nature draws researchers’ attention on investigating the implications of blockchain in a business environment. From a view of business ethics, this paper aims at evaluating the impacts of blockchain applications on trust and business. After expounding the relations between trust in blockchain and trust in business partners, I evaluate the impacts based on a framework of competence trust, contractual trust, and goodwill trust. My conclusion is that full acceptance of trust in blockchain over trust in others is not good and will cause several risks that cannot be neglected. The main contribution of this paper is investigating and summarizing ethical and commercial risks of blockchain applications including disintermediation fallacy, centralization of trust, ambiguous contract, noncognitive trust in untrustworthy partners, and more actions guided by moral minimum.
Mehmet Cihangir, Eray Baysa, Fahrettin Söker, Sevim Ezgi Eroğlu
Araştırmadaüniversite öğrencilerinin, mevcutteknolojisiyle birlikte yeni bir para birimi olarak gündeme gelenBitcoin piyasasına katılım eğilimlerinin ortaya konması ve buna yönelik bir ölçek geliştirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Buamaçla Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, Gaziosmanpaşa Üniversitesi, Kahramanmaraş Sütçüİmam Üniversitesi ve Osmaniye Korkut Ata Üniversitesi öğrencilerine bir anketuygulanmıştır. Araştırmanın örneklemi seçilirken özellikle İktisadi ve İdariBilimler Fakültesi öğrencileri ile Bitcoinle daha alakalı olabileceği düşünülenbazı mühendislik fakültelerinden öğrenciler seçilmiştir. Çalışmada örneklembüyüklüğü ana kütleyi yeterince temsil eder büyüklüktedir. Söz konusuörneklemden elde edilen verilerin analizi aşamasında SPSS 21.0 paket programıkullanılarak katılımcıların frekans ve yüzde değerleri hesaplanmış, ölçeklereilişkin geçerlilik ve güvenirlik analizi yapılmış, ölçekler arasında ilişkinintespitinde ise korelasyon analizinden yararlanılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçlarınagöre, üniversite öğrencilerinin Bitcoin hakkında yeterli bilgiye sahipolmadıkları ancak güncelliği nedeniyle büyük ölçüde ilgilerini çektiği ve işlemyapmaya hazır göründükleri gözlemlenmiştir.
This paper revolves around the evolving policies of India regarding cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are extensively analyzed in this study with an objective to establish a dynamic and sustainable regime.India currently follows an observational or wait-and-watch approach instead of an active regulatory role, as per a review of government statements, legislative measures1, and infrastructure initiatives. The thesis focuses specifically on the taxation of crypto-assets in the Indian scenario. It examines critically the current tax provisions under the Income Tax Act and the Finance Act, 2022,where cryptocurrencies have been categorized as Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs)2, thus making them subject to special taxation and reporting requirements. The research assesses how these provisions relate to wider regulatory and economic goals, including investor protection, financial stability, and technological advancement. This study suggests a two-character regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies depending on their function and usage. This purpose-based, time-bound categorization aims to offer clarity and adaptability so that policymakerscan modify rules for the changing applications of digital assets.
Bitcoin, with its market value among cryptocurrencies and being the biggest in terms of its processing volume, carries great potential in terms of low cost, speedy processing and low level risk while also bringing with it important global-level change and transformation. On the other hand, the fact that cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin specifically are new, of unclear legal status, and carry the risk of being involved in illegal activity, there is the potential for their use as an extremely volatile and speculative investment tool and have environmental effects. This study examines Bitcoin mining and blockchain technology and investigates the high amounts of energy consumed by Bitcoin and its environmental effects. It is argued that the energy consumed as a result of increased Bitcoin mining will have environmental and social consequences, such as global warming and climate change.
Blockchain has received increased attention from both the academic and practitioner worlds. Numerous papers have been written on how blockchain works and its potential applications. However, few studies have focused on fraudulent activities on blockchain. The purpose of this study is to understand common issues and scams related to blockchain. A literature review was conducted to identify top security issues on blockchain. In addition, we collected tweets on blockchain fraud discussion from November 6, 2018 to December 31, 2008. The results of tweets analysis show that the most frequently mentioned words in tweets include scams, crypto/cryptocurrency, ICO, Bitcoin, Ethereum, combat/fight, Asia, Japan, and Germany. The top mentioned sentiment words include scam, combat, guilty, prevent, solution, tired, and fake. In addition, a sentiment analysis shows that the majority of the tweets (69%) on the discussion on blockchain fraud are negative. The findings also shows the majority of top influencers of the topic are the companies that have developed blockchain-based platforms/applications.
Hira Salah ud din Khan, Zhiqiang Ma, Mohammed Abubakari Sadick, Abdul‐Aziz Ibn Musah
This study aims to investigate how a Psychological contract breach can mediate the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes and how political skill and work ethic can influence the negative association between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes. A systematic sampling method was used with a sampling size of 310 faculty members of public sector universities of Pakistan. Data were analyzed by using partial least squares structural equations modeling PLS-SEM to test the hypotheses by Smart PLS software. The findings revealed that the perception of politics is significantly and negatively related to job attitudes and indirectly through psychological contract breach. Moreover, the results indicated a significant moderating effect of work ethic on the relationship between the perception of politics and job attitudes. However, political skill did not moderate the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes. Moreover, research implications and limitations are elucidated.