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.
Daniel Trauth, Philipp Niemietz, Johannes Mayer, Alexander Beckers · 7 authors
The use of Distributed Ledger Technologies in the field of production optimizes various use cases. Within the framework of the research project “Blockchain Reallabor in the Rheinisches Revier”, five use cases were defined for production in the first year of the project. The confidence in and transparency of stored data, the elimination of central entities and automatic micropayments in real time are revolutionizing auditing, product and process monitoring and life cycle assessment. With the machine data marketplace for trading process data and the rental of machine capacities in the form of subscription, for example, a Distributed Ledger creates new business models.In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the field of users (17 percent) is currently not highly developed in comparison to service providers, infrastructure providers and research alliances (83 percent). Nevertheless, there are some projects that usually contain the described use cases in a less complex way and thus confirm their validity. An analysis of the ecosystem Distributed Ledger Technologies in the Rheinisches Revier provides some insights into the actors involved. There is a trend towards large companies implementing Distributed Ledger Technology projects. It is not possible to make a technology or infrastructure recommendation based on the developed ecosystem, since the identified use cases are handled with different infrastructures depending on the project.Finally, it should be emphasized that the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia can be considered a pioneer in Distributed Ledger Technologies in Germany. A nation-wide comparison of users from the manufacturing industry shows that over 65 percent are located in NRW. The establishment of the Distributed Ledger Technology in the small and medium business sector is, from today‘s point of view, the next step towards reaching the level of perfect productivity according to the Gartner hype cycle.
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.
Smart product-service system (SPSS) is a new business model that integrates smart products and e-services to satisfy customer needs better and improve enterprise competitiveness. In case to reasonably and efficiently manage the products, services, information, and data generated throughout the SPSS lifecycle, it is necessary to conquer the problem of data insecurity and the low-trust between stakeholders. Blockchain can provide solutions because of its characteristics such as decentralized, irreversibility of records and smart contracts, etc. To solve the problem, this paper develops a conceptual framework for smart PSS lifecycle management which consists of four layers: perception layer, business resource layer, blockchain layer, and application layer. Furthermore, this paper introduces the typical improved services at each stage and an illustrative case of smart coffee machine service system. Finally, the paper puts forward the future work combined with limitations. This framework will help stakeholders achieve more secure and efficient SPSS lifecycle management and further enhance enterprise competitiveness.
Markus Schinle, Christina Erler, Adrian Rudolf Vetter, Wilhelm Stork
In order to exchange traceability information within supply chains, the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has recently been discussed in research and industry. As part of the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) chosen for this work, a structured literature review is conducted to provide a knowledge base regarding this topic. By reviewing the proposed approaches, a summary of collected requirements is given and the identified system concepts and design patterns are presented and discussed. The lack of mechanisms to protect trade secrets is identified as the most important challenge for the real-world application of such systems. There is a particular need for solutions when the exchange of information with third parties or the public is required but business-relevant data or metadata could be disclosed. Therefore, the research question arises, how sensitive data could be provided from inside a DLTbased system to external third parties by considering the risk of metadata analysis. As result, we propose an approach using existing mechanisms and design patterns to reduce the risk of competitor analysis. The applicability in real-world scenarios is focused, which is why a proof of concept is implemented as software artifact using Hyperledger Fabric. An evaluation of this artifact regarding the key requirements concludes this paper.
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.
Daniel Ruzza, Francesca Dal Mas, Maurizio Massaro, Carlo Bagnoli
Blockchain is considered as one of the most disruptive technologies, with an estimated growth from USD 1.2 billion in 2018 to USD 23.3 billion by 2023 worldwide. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt all business activities as much as the internet, social media, and mobile technologies did in the past. It enhances the creation of new business models, and forces organizations to work differently. The chapter aims to analyze the potentiality and the effects of blockchain on current and future business models from an intellectual capital perspective, by applying a Structured Literature Review (SRL) on the most recent scientific as well as professional production on the topic. The findings highlight how the design principles of blockchain technology can enhance the intellectual capital of an organization, as well as lead to a business model innovation.
Technische Universität München, Munich, DE, Matthias Buchinger, Dian Balta, Helmut Krcmar
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is seen as an opportunity for the banking sector with high potential to achieve complexity reduction, cost savings, and further benefits in diverse processes. These high expectations and a limited technology know-how lead to bank internal challenges during the selection of suitable use cases for DLT. We apply Design Science Research (DSR) to address this challenge by developing a method for evaluating the business needs and the feasibility of deploying DLT in a certain use case in the banking sector. Devised using the letter of credit (LC) process as reference, our results suggest that various requirements and beside bank internal also external parties should be included in the evaluation. This implicates, that a more detailed study is needed on including external stakeholders in use case evaluation. Our method can be customized and applied as a structured evaluation approach in the banking sector.
Blockchain technology is an enabler of value transactions on decentralized, secure databases (ledgers). Despite still being in its early stages, we expect blockchain's impact on business and society to be disruptive. We provide a theory-based examination of blockchain technology's transformational impact from a business model and ecosystem perspective to accelerate the debate on its potential effects. By conceptualizing blockchain's key features through the lens of value, actor-network and contract (property rights) theories, we develop a theoretical framework for analyzing the implication of blockchain technology on value creation. We posit that blockchain serves as a resource, a capability, and an agent to its users. Blockchain technology thereby enables a range of efficiency gains, novelties, and lock-in reductions that have sustaining, enabling, and threatening implications for the emergence and attractiveness of business models and business ecosystems. These findings contribute to the discussion on how digital technologies, blockchain in particular, transform business models, and business ecosystems. Additionally, we contribute to the discussion of digital technology's agency by conceptualizing the blockchain as a symbiosis of human/organizational and technological actors that join forces and thereby achieve a new form of agency that is distinct from traditional perspectives on human or machine agency.
In the near future, manufacturing industries will be mostly recognised with characteristics like IoT, and massive data transactions. To fulfil these characteristics, paradigms like Cloud manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and smart factory have passed their preliminary steps to become the primary inspirations. Considering the nature of Cloud manufacturing which consists of a vast number of service providers and Service demanders being introduced to the manufacturing cloud, service composition problem is introduced. However, there is a big challenge for fulfilling the dynamic behaviour of parameters which change rapidly over time in the service composition problem. This paper challenges the centralised mechanism of service composition problem and introduces a novel platform entitled Blockchain-based service composition model (Block-SC) based on the Blockchain technology. Block-SC as a novel manufacturing architecture conquers the centralised mechanism by dividing the original service composition problem into multiple sub-problems each of which contains a small fraction of the service/task pool. The capabilities of the proposed platform are remarkable from two perspectives; first, it provides an effective mechanism for collaboration of service composition service providers with a service-oriented approach and from the second perspective, the optimality of service composition problem is profoundly affected considering the dynamic behaviour of Cloud manufacturing.
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.
Roben Castagna Lunardi, Henry Cabral Nunes, Vinicius da Silva Branco, Bruno Lippert · 6 authors
Blockchain emerged as a solution for data integrity, non-repudiation, and availability in different applications, such as in the industry sector. Data sensitive scenarios, such as health care, can also benefit from these blockchain properties. Consequently, different research proposed the adoption of blockchain in health care applications. However, few is discussed about incentive methods to attract […]
Large building projects involve complex on-site logistics regarding materials and subsystems, often encompassing hundreds of vehicles handling incoming and outcoming goods and requiring precise timing and space handling. Such a material flow is generally decoupled from the respective economic flow; however, the integration of the two could, among others, foster a holistic overview of the full construction project production, facilitate the collaboration of the supply chain stakeholders, and optimize constructability. Blockchain technologies can enable an integration of these flows by using the distributed ledger facility inherent in a decentralized blockchain network, as well as smart contracts. This paper aims at reviewing the emerging knowledge on blockchain in construction and identifying different constellations of companies and flows in digital building logistics. Theoretically, the paper draws on a sociotechnical approach, which views the development of digitalization as an intertwined social and technical process, where technology is co-shaped with practice. Building on a literature review and interviews and dialogues with actors active in building logistics within Sweden, at least three digital building logistics constellations with the potential to implement blockchain solutions are identified: (1) large contractors integrating building logistics internally, to overcome transaction challenges and maintain power over business-critical supply processes, (2) clients employing independent third-party logistics consultants acting as convenors of different interests in the building logistics setup, and (3) other thirdparty actors such as construction equipment suppliers, offering customised digital building logistics solutions.
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.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Ingrid Bauer, Liudmila Zavolokina, Fabian Leisibach, Gerhard Schwabe
Blockchain is expected to create a variety of new opportunities for businesses. Yet, little is known about how companies can exploit business value from the technology. However, without a clear understanding of how, and corresponding adaption of business practices, the realization of value is doomed to failure. Hence, we contribute to this gap by analyzing and explicating the specificities of value creation from blockchain in the ecosystem of a car. In the course of an exploratory case analysis we conducted 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, Controlled Customer Intimacy and Shared Operational Efficiency. Further, (2) we derive guidelines and discuss learnings for other businesses aiming to leverage value from blockchain technology.
Silviana Tana, Christoph F. Breidbach, Andrew Turpin
Understanding how digital technologies transform service businesses more generally, and financial services more specifically, is an ongoing research challenge for the Information Systems (IS) discipline. In an effort to gain insight to this problem, we undertook an in-depth ethnographic study of several hundred cryptocurrencies miners, traders and developers. We present a typology of those involved in this cryptocurrency ecosystem, identifying actors as one of 'Knowledge-Seeker', 'Visionary', 'Novice', or 'Fortune Hunter'. This typology exposes the roles individuals in cryptocurrency communities play in transforming financial services by delineating the actions of cryptocurrency service providers, blockchain educators and cryptocurrency communities. By exploring how the roles of actors changed over 8 months, we highlight that learning is a precondition for value cocreation and transformation in financial services, and offer a theoretical and contextual contribution by extending digital transformation insights from customer perspectives. Furthermore, our empirical results contribute to a better understanding of how new customer roles emerge and transform, which we presented as two distinct customer role trajectories in cryptocurrency-enabled service ecosystems.