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Disrupting the Disruptors or Enhancing Them? How Blockchain Re-Shapes Two-Sided Platforms
Abstract and Figures
The importance of platform-based businesses in the modern economy is growing continuously and becoming increasingly relevant. Specifically, the deployment of digital technologies has enhanced the applicability of two-sided business models, enabling companies to act not just as builders and owners of assets, but as orchestrators of external resources. Management research has therefore focused increasingly on the unique aspects of this model. At the center of a two-sided platform there is a platform provider that enables a transaction between the sides, reducing the relative transaction costs. However, in recent years, a new technology emerged that challenges some of the underlying assumptions of this model: the blockchain. Blockchain enables the creation of a peer-to-peer network that is able to authenticate transactions, upon which applications and services may be built. It allows users to conduct transactions without the need for a central platform. We explore how blockchain technology reshapes two-sided platforms, focusing in particular on the role of the platform provider. The research is based upon multiple case studies, using an inductive approach to explore this emerging phenomenon. Our findings show there is a significant shift in the role of Accepted Article
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... By decoupling the blockchain platform provider role in two different actors, new links and relationships are established. Blockchain network provider represents a key partner for a service provider who relies on its technical knowledge and supplied blockchain network (key resource) for designing value propositions to be offered to the final customers (Chong et al., 2019b;Trabucchi et al., 2020;Weking et al., 2019). ...
... Taking the perspective of blockchain providers, they offer a complete distributed ledger-based network on top of which customized business solutions can be designed, providing indeed great application design flexibility. On the other hand, service providers purchase access to such blockchain network that enables them to offer highly flexible applications to their customers to solve a vast set of customers' business needs (Trabucchi et al., 2020). In blockchain 3.0 the technology is offered as an open-source platform to developers that can leverage existing blockchain networks thanks to dedicated APIs that are proposed to developers without any specification of asset or channel for distribution (Weking et al., 2019) that can foster cooperative innovation aimed at developing customized business applications independently from the application field (Chen and Bellavitis, 2020). ...
... The presence of multiple service providers and the multiple roles played by users in a blockchain environment allows increasing direct network externalities in two-sided blockchain-based platforms, increasing the attractiveness of such solutions and addressing the chicken and egg paradox (Trabucchi et al., 2020). ...
Blockchain is becoming an increasingly relevant topic and companies are beginning to build business solution using this technology. Despite the relevance of the changes that blockchain could bring to business and management, current research is still predominantly focused on technological aspects and practical applications. Knowledge is lacking also both for academics and practitioners who, still struggle to have a clear understanding of the potential impacts of blockchain. Moreover, scientific literature addressing the business adoption of blockchain does not seem to consider the increasing differentiation of blockchain real-world applications This study hence aims to start filling this gap by investigating the existing body of knowledge systematically through a review in which the potential impacts of blockchain are presented and future avenues of research are set out. The review is based on 61 scientific articles published between January 2008 and January 2020. The review has been structured considering two frameworks: the business model elements of value creation, delivery, and capture and the different stages of evolution of blockchain applications. The results provide evidence and future direction for research that are valuable for both academics and managers.
... Addressing this matter, new forms of platform-based business models, so-called decentralized platforms (DP) (Tumasjan & Beutel, 2019), emerged, building upon technological innovation, the blockchain technology. DP are considered to have a disruptive potential (Brennan, Subramaniam, & van Staden, 2019), thereby becoming the harbinger of a new economic era, the 'true' platform economy (Belk, 2014), where monopolistic companies, in their role as the platform owner, become obsolete (Trabucchi, Moretto, Buganza, & MacCormack, 2019;Voshmgir, 2019) while the value produced is being directly distributed among the platform users (Wright & De Filippi, 2015). ...
... In addition to decision-making, DO also involve users in the development and evolution of the business model, e.g., in the case of DP, by making the platform's source code publicly available and providing channels such as GitHub through which users can contribute by suggesting ideas or even writing source code (Tumasjan & Beutel, 2019). Users of DP mostly belong to a particular niche of technically affine individuals interested in this new technology and motivated by the idea (idealistic value) of a community-based platform without a monopolistic intermediary (Trabucchi et al., 2019;Wörner et al., 2016). Operating very closely to its customer networks enables DP to align its value proposition, respectively (Kim & Chung, 2019;Trabucchi et al., 2019). ...
... Users of DP mostly belong to a particular niche of technically affine individuals interested in this new technology and motivated by the idea (idealistic value) of a community-based platform without a monopolistic intermediary (Trabucchi et al., 2019;Wörner et al., 2016). Operating very closely to its customer networks enables DP to align its value proposition, respectively (Kim & Chung, 2019;Trabucchi et al., 2019). Most DP offer some unique selling propositions, such as a high level of data security (Davidson, De Filippi, & Potts, 2016;Esmat, de Vos, Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Palensky, & Epema, 2021), resulting from the absence of a central operator being able to collect and sell obtained data to third parties, as well as a high degree of corporate transparency enabled by the public disclosure of the source code (Chen & Bellavitis, 2020;Schweizer, Schlatt, Urbach, & Fridgen, 2017). ...
Digital platforms connect producers and consumers worldwide. The platform itself acts as a trusted intermediary matchingmarket participants and assisting the conclusion of contracts. Today, most platforms have become quasi-monopolies, exploiting their market power by charging monopoly fees and monetizing customer data.With the advent of blockchain technology, a new form of platform-based business model, so-called decentralized platforms (DPs), emerged. Using self-executing digital contracts (smart contracts) and blockchain technology, DPs automate the matching process and contract execution without the need for a centralized intermediary. By doing so, DPs drastically reduce transaction fees and return data sovereignty to the platform user.Consequently, DPs are considered to potentially disrupt the platform economy. To analyze DPsdisruptive potential, the characteristics distinguishing DPs from their centralized counterparts were identified and analyzed followingChristensen's theory of disruptive innovation. The findings attest that DPs have the potential to disrupt the platform economy in the sense of a low-end or even new-market disruption. In particular, the increasing popularity of blockchain and cryptographic tokens accelerates the growing prevalence of DPs, paving their way to become a severethreat to centralized platforms.
... Blockchains thereby create algorithmic trust and enable a system that allows multiple organizations that do not trust one another to interact without opportunistic repercussions under preset conditions (Werbach 2016, Schmeiss et al. 2019, Lemieux et al. 2020. Therefore, in contrast to platforms, blockchains allow the digital governance of interorganizational networks through peer-to-peer, algorithmically-trusted transactions that reduce agency costs and facilitate direct growth (Trabucchi et al. 2020). The archetypical blockchain characteristics diverge from the characteristics of multisided digital platforms, but both digital governance modes require active considerations on behalf of participating network organizations. ...
... We refer to instances where a digital platform is combined with a blockchain to enable an immutable, distributed, peer-verified, and secure transaction layer on the platform while maintaining a platform-mediated (i.e., multisided) characteristic. Lately, scholars have started to cover promising ground at the periphery of this debate, for instance, the role of platform providers in blockchain-based platforms (Trabucchi et al. 2020), the decentralized governance of digital platforms (Y. Chen et al. 2020), and the decentralized vs. distributed organization of platforms (Vergne 2020). ...
... We thereby develop a novel perspective on hybrid forms of governance that integrate elements of platforms and blockchains, and we thus contribute to the debates in this developing field (Y. Chen et al. 2020, Trabucchi et al. 2020, Vergne 2020). More broadly, our typology of hybrid forms also enriches the longstanding debates on centralized versus decentralized forms of governance, which recently have revolved around platforms as centralized and blockchains as decentralized ways of organizing transactions (Cennamo et al. 2020, Halaburda andMueller-Bloch 2020). ...
Digital platforms and blockchains have gained increasing attention as viable governance instruments for interorganizational networks. Research has juxtaposed these two instruments by emphasizing that platforms achieve network governance through intermediation, whereas blockchains do so through disintermediation. Extending this theoretical groundwork, we propose that platforms and blockchains can blend into hybrid forms with characteristics of both intermediation and disintermediation. Since this phenomenon has received scarce scholarly attention, we develop a rich, grounded theory of network-level interorganizational governance choices and transitions. We seek to better understand these complex governance phenomena with a focus on supporting trust and control mechanisms. Our model emerges from a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of Global Commerce Portal (pseudonym), a world-leading, industry-spanning global trade network. By highlighting how network governance transitioned from an intermediated, platform-based governance mode to a disintermediated, blockchain-based governance mode, we integrate and extend previously disparate scholarly conversations.
... Our literature review reveals that a number of articles have addressed the impact of blockchain on business models, in general (e.g., Babich & Hilary 2018; Morkunas et al. 2019) as well as on specific types of business models (e.g., Trabucchi et al. 2020), and on different kinds of service industries (e.g., Erceg et al. 2020;Kizildag et al. 2019;Osmani et al. (2020). ...
... The articles addressing the general impact of blockchain on business models highlighted the strengths (e.g., validation, automation, and resilience) and weaknesses (e.g., garbage in, garbage out, black box effect, and inefficiency) of blockchain (Babich & Hilary 2018), and they explore how two different types of blockchain technologies (private and public BC) offer opportunities to add value to a company's business model (Morkunas et al. 2019). One article focuses on blockchain technology's impact on business models in the specific context of two-sided platforms (Trabucchi et al. 2020). The authors suggest decoupling the traditional platform provider into a blockchain provider (operating as a Platform-as-a-Service provider) and a service provider (offering valuable services to buyers and sellers). ...
... The authors suggest decoupling the traditional platform provider into a blockchain provider (operating as a Platform-as-a-Service provider) and a service provider (offering valuable services to buyers and sellers). In blockchain-enabled platforms end users could take a more central role (e.g., buyers, sellers, arbiters, token holders and validators), while the service provider reduces to a mere intermediary, using the Platformas-a-Service the blockchain provider offers (Trabucchi et al. 2020). This shift towards a decentralized platform ecosystem could lead to a plethora of novel business models in various business sectors, as the role of end users could be more central in creating and capturing value. ...
As blockchain technology is maturing to be confidently used in practice, its applications are becoming evident and, correspondingly, more blockchain research is being published, also extending to more domains than before. To date, scientific research in the field has predominantly focused on subject areas such as finance, computer science, and engineering, while the area of service management has largely neglected this topic. Therefore, we invited a group of renowned scholars from different academic fields to share their views on emerging topics regarding blockchain in service management and service research. Their individual commentaries and conceptual contributions refer to different theoretical and domain perspectives, including managerial implications for service companies as well as forward-looking suggestions for further research.
... Research initially focused on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but the evolution of blockchain technology, such as the introduction of smart contracts, enables various kinds of transactions for different use cases (Beck et al. 2018). Technically decentralized platforms build on four pillars of blockchain technology: peer-to-peer network, transaction logic, immutability of data, and consensus mechanisms (Trabucchi et al. 2020). Thus, a blockchain is a tamper-resistant and decentralized transaction database consistent across decentralized nodes. ...
... However, how engaging governance can be created in decentralized platform ecosystems and, thus, how the digital platform's continuous progress can be driven, and a vibrant ecosystem established when no central platform owner employs governance mechanisms remains unclear. Existing research on the structure of leading centralized DPE (Hein et al. 2019) cannot capture the specific aspects of decentralized DPE arising from the technological characteristics of blockchain technology (Trabucchi et al. 2020). ...
Decentralized platforms based on blockchain technology promise a more democratic approach to digital platform ecosystems by engaging users in platform governance. However, designing participative governance in decentralized settings remains challenging due to the lack of central control. This study addresses this issue by examining the characteristics of participatory governance in 27 decentralized application ecosystems using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. We identify two configurations leading to highly vibrant ecosystems reflected in the successful participation of ecosystem actors and three leading to less vibrant ecosystems. The findings reveal that providing technical boundary resources is essential when creating vibrant ecosystems but only in combination with complementary mechanisms that incentivize actors. Additionally, highly engaging participatory governance may lead to inertia by overburdening ecosystem actors. Thus, governance mechanisms must distinguish between essential and potentially inertia-inducing decisions. This research expands existing literature on decentralized governance and provides valuable insights for those contributing to building decentralized platforms.
... These two stakeholder categories could be classified as internal, as they represent both sides of the two-sided platform NFTs (e.g. Pereira, Mahdi Tavalaei, and Ozalp 2019a;Trabucchi et al. 2021;Trabucchi et al. 2020). The third category comprises intermediaries that provide platforms for the creation, trading and management of NFTs, while the fourth category includes the technological basis, more specifically blockchain infrastructures, such as Ethereum or individuals and companies that have an incentive in the success of the respective technology. ...
... Basically, the multitude of NFT projects considered can be described as blockchain-based (two-sided) platforms (e.g. Trabucchi et al. 2020). Interaction, access and monetary aspects are handled via tokens and opportunism and uncertainty can be reduced via blockchain's underlying properties, such as immutability and decentralization (Pereira, Mahdi Tavalaei, and Ozalp 2019b). ...
The market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), transferrable and unique digital assets on public blockchains, has received widespread attention and experienced strong growth since early 2021. This study provides an introduction to NFTs and explores the 14 largest submarkets using data from the Ethereum blockchain between June 2017 and May 2021. The analyses rely on (a) the number of NFT sales, (b) the dollar volume of NFT trades and (c) the number of unique blockchain wallets that traded NFTs. Based on the number of transactions and wallets, the Ethereum-based NFT market peaked at the end of 2017 due to the success of the CryptoKitties project. As of 2021, fewer transactions occur but the traded value is much higher. We find that NFT submarkets are cointegrated and feature various causal short-run connections between them. The success or adoption of younger NFT projects is influenced by that of more established markets. At the same time, the success of newer markets has an impact on the more established projects. The results contribute to the overall understanding of the NFT phenomenon as an emerging asset class and suggest that NFT markets are immature or even inefficient.
... The second-largest group of articles highlights the idea that blockchain technology might have the possibility to remove institutional intermediaries in certain limited use cases but cannot be attributed to the characteristic of Disintermediation per se (Catalini and Gans, 2020;Cai, 2018;Fridgen et al., 2021;Lacity and van Hoek, 2021;Trabucchi et al., 2020;Mehrwald et al., 2019;Ziolkowski et al., 2018). Mehrwald et al. (2019) posit that blockchain technology can surrogate institutional intermediaries because the technology can replace institutional coordination mechanisms. ...
... The authors highlight that a fully decentralized exchange would not comply with the regulatory boundaries of the market, and henceforth a blockchain solution cannot disintermediate all functions of an institutional intermediary. Other research finds several possibilities for institutional intermediaries to gain a competitive advantage through blockchain technology (Trabucchi et al., 2020). Due to the interorganizational character of the technology, institutional intermediaries often collaborate in consortia to implement solutions that improve processes but do not remove their market position Zavolokina et al., 2020;Guggenberger et al., 2021b). ...
Blockchain technology has been in the interest of IS researchers and practitioners for several years. One key reason for this curiosity is the possibility to carry out peer-to-peer transactions without a trusted intermediary. Building upon this capability, many researchers posited that blockchain technology would remove traditional intermediaries from their market position. This process has been described in electronic markets literature as Disintermediation. However, other researchers proposed a more distinct perspective by proposing that blockchain technology will not facilitate Disintermediation in all settings. Thus, no unified view on this topic exists yet. Our literature review identifies three dominating concepts in blockchain literature: Extensive Disintermediation, Limited Disintermediation, and Re-Intermediation. We further highlight in our findings that most of the identified literature does not consider all market functions as described in the electronic markets literature. Hence, we provide a structured overview of the field and possibilities for future research.
... The key distinction of blockchainbased infrastructures (compared to "regular" information infrastructures) is the decentralization of certain elements of governance (Bakos et al., 2021). Specifically, blockchains enable the decentralization of transaction validation (Catalini & Gans, 2016;Trabucchi et al., 2020). This enhances transparency and reduces the need to trust remote parties, thus facilitating shared governance of information resources as it is very difficult for a single party to corrupt the resources without others noticing. ...
... However, blockchain platforms are distinct from "regular" platforms because of decentralization (Bakos et al., 2021;Trabucchi et al., 2020). For instance, mobile apps tend not to be focused on the integrity of the transactions. ...
We study the emerging innovation frontier of decentralized applications (dApps) and blockchain platforms. We describe the fundamental features of decentralized blockchain platforms and illustrate the growth of the dApp economy as well as the emerging variety of blockchain platforms. We also characterize the dApp ecosystem highlighting the new types of parties, such as transaction validators, that are essential in the functioning of decentralized platforms. We show how design choices moderate the impact of decentralization of the transaction system on digital innovation. By comparing decentralized platforms against centralized platforms and hierarchies, we pinpoint the limited opportunities for strategic action on the part of the platform provider to shape the direction of innovation. We speculate that the limited governability of blockchain platforms can give rise to an abundance of generativity and unpredictability in these ecosystems.
... Nevertheless, the same innovative potential is not adequately considered for other digital technologies that could enable new sustainable and data driven business models and sustainable supply chain strategies [35], [129], [130], with the aim of reducing or preventing FLW. For instance, blockchain works as a trust enabler between different parties of multisided platforms [131], introducing changes at the business model level [13], as described in the case of Regusto app [61]. In the same vein, a more strategic understanding is still required as the main analyzed papers focus more on operational side and on specific cases. ...
Despite the benefits resulting from the use of Industry 4.0 technologies in the agri-food sector, the adoption of digital technologies for preventing and/or reducing food loss and waste (FLW) across the agri-food supply chain is still under investigation. In fact, enhancing and optimizing agri-food supply chain operations through digital technologies would just represent a partial effort if FLW prevention and reduction are not effectively addressed. Although companies are starting to adopt digital technologies for eliminating FLW from their operations, the implementation process and the achieved results are generally presented at a superficial level and practical guidance is still missing. This systematic literature review contributes to theory by developing a framework analyzing the state-of-the-art of adoption of each Industry 4.0 technology across the agri-food supply chain, and providing a research agenda structured around the main themes of research design, digital technologies, contextual differences, governance, and sustainability. Eventually, the study also informs managers in the agri-food industry about the potential implementation of digital technologies for preventing and reducing FLW in across the agri-food supply chain.
... However, in recent years, a new technology, that challenges some of the underlying assumptions of this model, emerged: the blockchain. Blockchain enables the creation of a peer-to-peer network that can authenticate transactions, upon which applications and services may be built (Trabucchi et al., 2020). Blockchain allows firms to create platforms by making joint investments in shared infrastructure without assigning market power to a platform operator, increasing competition, lowering barriers to entry, and lowering privacy risks. ...
... In addition to examining the advantages or barriers to the adoption of blockchain technologies in different managerial functional areas, both organization theory and management information system scholars have analysed the governance of blockchain-based organizations (e.g., Beck et al., 2018;Chen et al., 2021;Davidson et al., 2018;Schmeiss et al., 2019;Trabucchi et al., 2020;Ziolkowski et al., 2020). For example, Beck and colleagues (2018) suggest that the governance of blockchains should be examined along three dimensions: decision rights, accountability, and incentives. ...
Blockchains have become increasingly important for organizing contemporary economic and social activities. This Element offers a deeper understanding of blockchains to both management scholars and practitioners, with an emphasis on blockchains' strategic implications for fundamental issues in organizing. It provides a critical examination of the core themes, theoretical lenses, and methodologies used in blockchain research in business and management scholarship. Furthermore, it offers an in-depth discussion of why and how blockchains offer a new way of organizing, providing profound implications for three major issues of strategic organization: contracting, trust, and organizational design. It also discusses several limitations of the technology in its current stage of development. Finally, this Element points to the implication of blockchains on both scholarly research and business practice.
... To that end, meta-organizations can use a native currency to align expectations. When that currency's price is too low and contributors consider exiting, their rewards can be increased by other participants who may possess new information regarding the meta-organization's growth potential (Trabucchi, Moretto, Buganza, & MacCormack, 2020). Relatedly, a meta-organization can foster growth by providing contributors with a transparent record of the organization's protocols (e.g., via auditable OSS). ...
This abductive study investigates how management occurs without managerial authority as part of a previously unseen organizational form—the decentralized platform with an independent market value. Our mixed‐methods study of the cryptocurrency industry draws on fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analyses (QCA) to analyze archival and interview data and offer new theory on how decentralized platforms coordinate activities to grow in an early stage, before network effects kick in. We find that, in the absence of a central authority, platforms coordinate activities with three mechanisms, namely decentralized (i) algorithmic coordination, (ii) social coordination, and (iii) goal coordination. Our QCA treat these mechanisms as explanatory conditions and, using a representative sample of 20 cryptocurrency platforms, reveal which configurations of decentralized coordination mechanisms nurture, or hinder, early‐stage platform growth. Firms operate around a managerial hierarchy that distributes tasks, resources, information, and rewards to organizational members who pursue common goals as contract‐bound employees. From 2009, a new organizational form, called the “decentralized platform,” emerged and diffused without relying on hierarchy nor managerial authority—and without having to employ anyone. The most prominent decentralized platform, Bitcoin, has millions of users, thousands of contributors, and a market valuation never achieved before by an organization without a CEO nor shareholders. This study explicates how this unprecedented level of organizational decentralization functions in practice. We foreshadow implications for the digital economy, wherein “Web3” innovations, such as NFTs and DAOs, have already shifted the orchestrating role played by platforms in capitalist societies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Although token economy has sometimes been used in education and treatment [40], its full potential has been released by the blockchain technology. The application of blockchain could revolutionize the token economic system to become a peer-to-peer (P2P) network that emphasizes security and trust but is decentralized and transparent to all the participants [41], [42]. Kundu [43] and Reyna et al. [44] suppose that the basis of tokens in the economic system is the consensus mechanisms such as proof of work (Pow), proof of stake (PoS), delegated proof of stake (DPoS) and practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT). ...
The rapid development of blockchain technology offers new ways for businesses to establish an efficient management system with consensus-based governance. Token economy, however, is a newly born notion that may have great potential in stimulating coordination to be more valuable and efficient. This article classifies enterprise alliances into two categories based on their participation motivations and operating modes. Research has been conducted on ten industries facing the pressure of digitalization to analyze participation motivations and operating modes in enterprise alliances. This research has found that cooperative enterprise alliances tend to have relatively negative attitudes and pursue open and fair coordination. On the contrary, competitive enterprise alliances tend to have relatively positive attitudes and pursue secure and efficient coordination. Therefore, models for cooperative enterprise alliances utilize the blockchain and token economy to encourage open resource sharing and ensure fair benefits. In contrast, models for cooperative enterprise alliances utilize the blockchain and token economy to alleviate unfair advantages and encourage efficient resource sharing. This research has also recognized that the value of tokens lies in obtaining future resources, exchanging for monetary resources, and making rules in DAO. Moreover, the integration of token economy could improve corporate innovation capability and promote sustainable development of enterprise alliances. The main contribution of this article is the design of two stimulative coordination models for cooperative and competitive enterprise alliances based on their differences and the token economy. The significance of this paper is to provide a guideline for corporations to share resources and create value efficiently in enterprise alliances and help enterprise alliances operate and develop more sustainably using blockchain technology.
... Blockchain, for example, is emerging as a game changer in collaboration efforts and offers its own opportunities to increase visibility and integration. We did not include blockchain in our study, but other recent studies show how it is changing the platform paradigm by disintermediating relationships between parties (Trabucchi et al. 2020). Current research cannot yet fully answer the question: ...
Business leaders often consider digital technologies an enabler of new business models and market opportunities, but they often overlook their potential impact on the entire value chain. Considering three Industry 4.0 technologies—big data analytics and cloud computing, track and tracing, and simulation and modeling software—we identify the opportunities and challenges that emerge in the context of managing supply chain relationships. This study uses data from an international survey to test how these three Industry 4.0 technologies increase visibility and integration between buyers and suppliers and how they impact supply chain performance. Our results show mixed evidence: although all three technologies directly improve supply chain performance, big data analytics and cloud computing and simulation and modeling also fully support collaborative supply chain models, while track and tracing tools create more visible supply chains but are detrimental to obtaining higher process integration with suppliers. Surprisingly, buyer-supplier collaboration, in terms of visibility and integration, matters more than the technologies themselves.
... Blockchain emerged as the leading technology that is re-shaping the platforms' model by enabling Distributed Platforms (Pereira et al., 2019). Many young companies are using the blockchain technology to create a different kind of business models, where the blockchain itself is managing some of the activities usually in charge to the platform provider, while enabling different kinds of mechanisms and interactions among the users (Trabucchi et al., 2020. Future research and future ventures may explore also how Hybrid Multi-Sided Platforms will evolve thanks to the opportunities unveiled by new technologies (Figure 14). ...
Purpose
This article is based on a systematic and comprehensive review of the literature on two-sided platforms, the business structure based on the concept of matchmaking groups of customers (e.g. Uber or Airbnb). The research aims to identify gaps in the existing literature while providing a structured summary of the existing knowledge in the field. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework enabling platform thinking, the ability to see hybrid multi-sided platforms as a useful resource-orchestration structure to unveil innovation opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a bibliometric approach, combing co-citation and text mining analyses of 196 papers, also implementing a longitudinal analysis that highlights the evolution of the field since its inception till today.
Findings
The novel aspect of the paper consists in taking a purely managerial stance of a very peculiar kind of platform, merging existing knowledge in comprehensive frameworks while providing potential avenues for research.
Research limitations/implications
From an academic perspective, this research highlights the double nature of two-sided platforms: as an operational choice or as a way to exploit (digital) assets and reach the economic sustainability. A research agenda is proposed, based on three pillars: a side-based standpoint, a business model perspective and an evolutionary stance to see how these businesses may evolve.
Practical implications
The research identifies different literature streams that may help practitioners in identifying how two-sided platforms may help them in fostering innovation.
Originality/value
The identification of two-sided platforms as a different way to create value (transaction platforms) or to capture value (non-transaction platform), enhancing the debate on this innovative business model. A research agenda to bring the field forward is proposed.
Digital platforms like Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, and Booking.com have completely reshaped our lives as users. Nonetheless, businesspeople are still struggling to understand the actual magnitude of their impact. In many cases, people think they are business models appropriate only for startups. In other cases, people believe they are suitable only for digital goods. In some other cases, people think those companies are managed by many smart guys who make a profit by leveraging market asymmetries (the old story that Airbnb disrupted the hotel industry without investing a cent in rooms). We believe there is another way to tell this story.
But, almost in all cases, people cannot go beyond what they see, and they can’t actually “read” the world of platforms.
Platform ecosystems are complex to understand. Managers in hundreds of thousands of companies are missing the basic concepts and words to describe what they see. The result is that even if they know that Instagram and Uber are platforms, they fail to see how incredibly different they are from each other. Only a few clearly see that Instagram is much more like the New York Times than Uber!
We aim to help you in developing what we define as the “platform thinking” mindset, the ability to read the inner mechanisms of platforms around us, to write the future of innovation through platforms, while innovating the organizations you work in.
Starting from almost a decade of research in the field, we propose our framework to make platforms a tool for innovation in any organization, especially for those that, at first glance, appear far away from the platform world.
Advanced technologies assist diverse entities in becoming network actors, exchanging resources and co-creating value together to achieve service innovation. However, tensions emerge when multiple actors have different goals and expectations during the service innovation process. This thesis extends the service ecosystems literature by incorporating the evolution of value platforms in the service innovation process over time. The notion of value platforms facilitates our understanding of the dynamic interactions among actors to co-create value for the development of service innovation. The theoretical lens of institutional logics was applied in this study to explore the dynamic resource-related activities that occur as value platforms evolve. This thesis explores the evolution of value platforms embedded in service ecosystems during the service innovation process. It investigates how the resource-related activities evolve in service ecosystems throughout the process of service innovation and seeks to unravel the mechanism of actor interaction in platform-based service innovation. In particular, the study investigates how value platforms embedded in service ecosystems evolve, what tensions arise throughout the evolution due to the multiple institutional logics of the actors within the ecosystem, and how multiple institutional logics are navigated as value platforms evolve. A critical realist approach is adopted to explore the phenomenon of value platform evolution. A process-based single-case study design with two embedded cases is implemented to investigate value platforms embedded in service ecosystems to develop telematics insurance services. The researcher conducted a two-phased data collection to gather semi-structured interviews and participant-generated drawings as primary data from different actors along with archival documents as the secondary data. A realist evaluation enabled the delineation of the five stages that form the building blocks of the evolution of the value platforms. Moreover, an abductive approach identified three types of process-related tensions and three types of navigating mechanisms that emerge dynamically as value platforms evolve. This research offers theoretical contributions to a processual understanding of value co-creation in service ecosystems by explaining the evolution of tensions resulting from co-existing institutional logics and navigating mechanisms inherent in value platforms. It also highlights how regulatory actors affect service ecosystems during the process of service innovation. Furthermore, the study offers practitioners a processual understanding of tensions that occur in the service innovation process, and the approaches to navigating those tensions in service ecosystems during the service innovation process.
Purpose
This study seeks to explore the importance of digital platforms in restoring global supply chains interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, the research focuses on internally developed digital platforms and their potential to ensure supply chain continuity between developed and emerging markets.
Design/methodology/approach
Multiple comparative case studies have been selected for the research methodology. Eight cases concerning digital platform implementation for global SC management – four from developed countries and four from emerging markets – have been selected. The four pairs of cases represent four global supply chain mechanisms.
Findings
The results revealed that the use of internally developed digital platforms serves as a quick solution for immediate problems caused by ripple effects in global supply chain and negative environmental conditions. Digital platforms could therefore facilitate reciprocal monitoring and information exchanges between SC partners in different countries.
Originality/value
The digital platform research stream is in its early stages. Research thus far has mostly focused on externally developed digital platforms managed by an orchestrator. The platforms' usefulness in the dialogue between developed and emerging markets requires further exploration.
Countless enterprise blockchains fail to live up to high expectations, often because the supporting governance structures are insufficiently established or have become stagnant. Based on interviews with 153 blockchain executives and an analysis of publicly documented use cases, this article offers a guide for blockchain scholars and practitioners. Its framework highlights the coordination and control challenges that exist in blockchain governance contexts and presents four generic governance modes to address them: chief, clan, custodian, and consortium. Managers can use these governance modes as a basis for four strategic moves (connecting, isolating, loosening, and tightening) to navigate blockchain governance challenges.
Üblicherweise basieren plattformbasierte Geschäftsmodelle auf zentral gesteuerten digitalen Plattformen. Dazu zählen Geschäftsmodelle von Unternehmen wie Amazon, Alibaba, Apple, Uber etc. Deren Plattformen fungieren als Vermittler („Gatekeeper“), die die beteiligten Nutzerseiten koordinieren und so den Austausch von Waren und Dienstleistungen ermöglichen. Die Plattformen besitzen die angebotenen Produkte und Dienstleistungen i.d.R. nicht selbst. Aufgrund der dadurch entfallenden Produktions- und Lagerkosten profitieren plattformbasierte Geschäftsmodelle, verglichen mit herkömmlichen Geschäftsmodellen, von einer hohen Skalierbarkeit, ohne zwingend größere Investitionen dafür vornehmen zu müssen. Einige Plattformen haben sich dadurch in kurzer Zeit zu Quasi-Monopolen, inklusive der entsprechenden Preisgestaltung, entwickelt. Aufgrund dessen werden diese Unternehmen oftmals dafür kritisiert, den produzierten Wert nicht ausreichend mit denjenigen zu teilen, die erheblich zur Wertschöpfung beigetragen haben – nämlich die Käufer und Verkäufer.
Blockchain technology enables new ways of organizing economic activities, reduces costs and time associated with intermediaries, and strengthens the trust in an ecosystem of actors. The impact of this seminal technology is reflected by an upcoming research stream and various firms that examine the potential uses of blockchain technology. While there are promising use cases of this new technology, research and practice are still in their infancy about altering existing and creating new business models. We develop a taxonomy of blockchain business models based on 99 blockchain ventures to explore the impact of blockchain technology on business models. As a result, we identify five archetypal patterns, which enhance our understanding of how blockchain technology affects existing and creates new business models. We propose to use these results to discover further patterns fueled by blockchain technology and illustrate how firms can use blockchain technology to innovate their business models.
Cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin, EOS, Etherum, Litecoin, and others) are disrupting the traditional banking and financial systems. The cryptocurrencies are based on a set of technologies commonly referred to as blockchain technology. The potential effect of blockchain technology on institutional economics is profound. Already, blockchain technology-based applications in supply chain management, marketing, and finance are decentralizing and streamlining vital institutional functions. In this paper, we examine the economics of blockchain technologies as it pertains to transaction costs in startup financing. We draw upon the theory of transaction cost economics and the transactional nature of blockchain technology to propose a model to demonstrate how and why blockchain technology based applications are effective. We then apply the model to demonstrate how blockchain technology can be used to overcome many problems inherent in startup financing. For example, information asymmetry and transaction costs involved with matching an entrepreneur with an investor and the terms of the financing deal are some of the fundamental issues in entrepreneurial financing. We explain how a financing system based on blockchain technology can ameliorate the problems and lead to a more effective and decentralized entrepreneurial financing process.
Our study explores the work undertaken by entrepreneurial ventures when engaging with external enabling technologies. Specifically, we examine a unique sample of early-stage ventures who are using blockchain technologies in an attempt to disintermediate the music recording industry. We carry out a preliminary analysis of 36 venture ‘white papers’, before constructing and inductively analyzing 11 new venture case studies. In doing so, we identify three interlinked enablers of new venture ideas in this context: blockchain, ideology, and market volatility. Furthermore, we identify a range of venture-level shaping practices and field-level work that describes the framing and legitimizing activities undertaken by entrepreneurs to unlock the potential of external enablers. This extends recent conceptual work on external enablers of entrepreneurship. In particular, we propose a novel category of actor-dependent enabler should be advanced to capture engagement with the uniquely editable, interactive, distributed properties of digital technologies.
This paper will revisit two existing technologies—the more traditional relational database and a newer solution, Google Sheets—for storing and sharing data over the network, and their applicability to meeting an accounting organization’s business needs. These two technologies, along with blockchain, will be evaluated against a set of criteria that are essential to most business operations. Decision makers can use this framework that identifies the capabilities and shortfalls of each of these technologies to inform the most effective and appropriate technological solution for individual business opportunities. Further, the paper will address the implications on how an accounting organization addresses data governance. Lastly, a decision paradigm, based on an established set of criteria, is presented to guide an organization in choosing the most appropriate technology. In other words, no single one technology will provide the solution for all business problems.
Abstract Blockchain is considered by many to be a disruptive core technology. Although many researchers have realized the importance of blockchain, the research of blockchain is still in its infancy. Consequently, this study reviews the current academic research on blockchain, especially in the subject area of business and economics. Based on a systematic review of the literature retrieved from the Web of Science service, we explore the top-cited articles, most productive countries, and most common keywords. Additionally, we conduct a clustering analysis and identify the following five research themes: “economic benefit,” “blockchain technology,” “initial coin offerings,” “fintech revolution,” and “sharing economy.” Recommendations on future research directions and practical applications are also provided in this paper.
The lack of industrialization, inadequacy of the management, information inaccuracy, and inefficient supply chains are the significant issues in an agri-food supply chain. The proposed solutions to overcome these challenges should not only consider the way the food is produced but also take care of societal, environmental and economic concerns. There has been increasing use of emerging technologies in the agriculture supply chains. The internet of things, the blockchain, and big data technologies are potential enablers of sustainable agriculture supply chains. These technologies are driving the agricultural supply chain towards a digital supply chain environment that is data-driven. Realizing the significance of a data-driven sustainable agriculture supply chain we extracted and reviewed 84 academic journals from 2000 to 2017. The primary purpose of the review was to understand the level of analytics used (descriptive, predictive and prescriptive), sustainable agriculture supply chain objectives attained (social, environmental and economic), the supply chain processes from where the data is collected, and the supply chain resources deployed for the same. Based on the results of the review, we propose an application framework for the practitioners involved in the agri-food supply chain that identifies the supply chain visibility and supply chain resources as the main driving force for developing data analytics capability and achieving the sustainable performance. The framework will guide the practitioners to plan their investments to build a robust data-driven agri-food supply chain. Finally, we outline the future research directions and limitations of our study.
Blockchain technology provides decentralized consensus and potentially enlarges the contracting space through smart contracts. Meanwhile, generating decentralized consensus entails distributing information that necessarily alters the informational environment. We analyze how decentralization relates to consensus quality and how the quintessential features of blockchain remold the landscape of competition. Smart contracts can mitigate informational asymmetry and improve welfare and consumer surplus through enhanced entry and competition, yet distributing information during consensus generation may encourage greater collusion. In general, blockchains sustain market equilibria with a wider range of economic outcomes. We further discuss the implications for antitrust policies targeted at blockchain applications. (JEL C73, D82, D86, G29, L13, L86).
Digital platforms are an organizational form made up of a technological architecture and governance mechanisms for managing autonomous complementors. A platform's success depends on their engagement in value creation and capture. Prior studies of such engagement have mainly focused on a platform's governance mechanisms without recognizing their interdependence to its technological architecture. There is therefore a limited understanding of how the interplay between governance and architecture configures platform organizations , and why these configurations produce different levels of complementor engagement. In this paper, our analysis of a 12-year study of a shared platform initiative yields three configurations of platform organizations: vertical, horizontal, and modular. Based on these configurations, we develop propositions that theorize the implications of these organizational forms for complementor engagement. We further propose that these insights , which we derive from a shared platform, are particularly relevant for blockchain-based platforms.
In the context of the debate on the role of cryptocurrencies in the economy as well as their dynamics and forecasting, this brief study analyzes the predictability of Bitcoin volume and returns using Google search values. We employed a rich set of established empirical approaches, including a VAR framework, a copulas approach, and non-parametric drawings, to capture a dependence structure. Using a weekly dataset from 2013 to 2017, our key results suggest that the frequency of Google searches leads to positive returns and a surge in Bitcoin trading volume. Shocks to search values have a positive effect, which persisted for at least a week. Our findings contribute to the debate on cryptocurrencies/Bitcoins and have profound implications in terms of understanding their dynamics, which are of special interest to investors and economic policymakers.
The main objective of this article is to develop a conceptual framework for blockchain-driven supply chain finance (SCF) solutions. The frame of reference intends to foster the coordination in buyer-supplier relations and eliminates existing inefficiencies in the execution of discrete SCF-instruments, such as reverse factoring and dynamic discounting. Moreover, we introduce value drivers for blockchain technology (BCT) to elaborate unique characteristics for its application in the field of SCF. While BCT is considered as one of the most disruptive enablers in financial technology (FinTech), it received only little attention within the emerging field of SCF. Therefore, the results contribute to future developments of appropriate SCF-solutions based on the newest technology innovations.
Research Summary
The recent surge of interest in “ecosystems” in strategy research and practice has mainly focused on what ecosystems are and how they operate. We complement this literature by considering when and why ecosystems emerge, and what makes them distinct from other governance forms. We argue that modularity enables ecosystem emergence, as it allows a set of distinct yet interdependent organizations to coordinate without full hierarchical fiat. We show how ecosystems address multilateral dependences based on various types of complementarities ‐ supermodular or unique, unidirectional or bidirectional, which determine the ecosystem's value‐add. We argue that at the core of ecosystems lie non‐generic complementarities, and the creation of sets of roles that face similar rules. We conclude with implications for mainstream strategy and suggestions for future research.
Managerial summary
We consider what makes ecosystems different from other business constellations, including markets, alliances or hierarchically managed supply chains. Ecosystems, we posit, are interacting organizations, enabled by modularity, not hierarchically managed, bound together by the non‐redeployability of their collective investment elsewhere. Ecosystems add value as they allow managers to coordinate their multilateral dependence through sets of roles that face similar rules, thus obviating the need to enter into customized contractual agreements with each partner. We explain how different types of complementarities (unique or supermodular, generic or specific, uni‐ or bi‐directional) shape ecosystems, and offer a “theory of ecosystems” that can explain what they are, when they emerge and why alignment occurs. Finally, we outline the critical factors affecting ecosystem emergence, evolution, and success ‐‐ or failure.
Blockchain technology is often referred to as a groundbreaking innovation and the harbinger of a new economic era. Blockchains may be capable of engendering a new type of economic system: the blockchain economy. In the blockchain economy, agreed-upon transactions would be enforced autonomously, following rules defined by smart contracts. The blockchain economy would manifest itself in a new form of organizational design—decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)—which are organizations with governance rules specified in the blockchain. We discuss the blockchain economy along dimensions defined in the IT governance literature: decision rights, accountability, and incentives. Our case study of a DAO illustrates that governance in the blockchain economy may depart radically from established notions of governance. Using the three governance dimensions, we propose a novel IT governance framework and a research agenda for governance in the blockchain economy. We challenge common assumptions in the blockchain discourse, and propose promising information systems research related to these assumptions.
While blockchain technology is commonly considered potentially disruptive in various regards, there is a lack of understanding where and how blockchain technology is effectively applicable and where it has mentionable practical effects. This issue has given rise to critical voices that judge the technology as over-hyped. Against this backdrop, this study adapts an established research framework to structure the insights of the current body of research on blockchain technology, outline the present research scope as well as disregarded topics, and sketch out multidisciplinary research approaches. The framework differentiates three groups of activities (design and features, measurement and value, management and organization) at four levels of analysis (users and society, intermediaries, platforms, firms and industry). The review shows that research has predominantly focused on technological questions of design and features, while neglecting application, value creation, and governance. In order to foster substantial blockchain research that addresses meaningful questions, this study identifies several avenues for future studies. Given the breadth of open questions, it shows where research can benefit from multidisciplinary collaborations and presents data sources as starting points for empirical investigations.
The traditional firm and product-centric view of platforms is changing. Platforms are increasingly developed around value that is co-created with a network of actors. In such settings, lead firms shape their environments and develop value platforms through network orchestration. This study examines how lead firms mobilize network relationships to support and build novel value platforms. The research adopts a multiple case study methodology, investigating the development of six value platforms in network settings within Europe. A large-scale interview program over several years was conducted. The findings unravel practices constituting four overarching network orchestration mechanisms in the value platform development context; envisioning, inducing innovativeness, legitimizing, and adjusting. The study explains the relationships and interplay between the orchestration mechanisms and articulates theoretical and managerial contributions.
The digital revolution has created a data-rich environment. Increasingly, firms are seeking to acquire and analyze a variety of consumer data such as online shopping, social media, and web browsing behavior to enhance their innovation activities. This approach is termed “Innovation from Data.” At the same time, a growing number of consumers are gaining the ability to transform digital data into innovative physical products through the use of new tools such as audio and video editing software and 3D printing technology. This approach is termed “Innovation as Data.” These two approaches differ substantially in terms of their views on the role of consumers, the relevance of firms, and the nature of products. This article introduces the concept of Innovation as Data and discusses its relation to the digital revolution in general and 3D printing in particular. In addition, it offers a set of recommendations for managers seeking to leverage this new innovation approach and ideas for scholars interested in researching this intriguing domain.
In recent times, more successful startups, such as Airbnb or Uber, have been spurred by business model innovation than by product innovation. I tap into the growing stream of research on business models from the strategy literature to propose ways in which companies can leverage information networks and big data to innovate their current business models or to develop new ones. I provide examples on how companies can leverage internal and external data to generate new business models and I propose a few research questions that can help academics and practitioners understand the link between big data and business model innovation.
Recent technological advances have enabled the emergence of novel platform business models based on digital marketplaces. Marketplaces like Airbnb or Uber offer platforms to connect previously
unmatched demand-side and supply-side participants through innovative forms of value creation, delivery and capture. While countless firms claim to offer the next 'Airbnb for X' or 'Uber for Y', we lack knowledge
about the defining characteristics of these business models. To close the gap, this paper provides a conceptually and empirically grounded taxonomy of marketplace business models. Applying a mixed methods approach, we first develop an integrative framework that integrates the value creation, delivery, and capture choices. Guided by the framework, the research systematically analyzes 100 randomly selected marketplaces with content analysis and binary coding. The gathered data is analyzed with cluster analysis techniques to develop a taxonomy for digital marketplace business models. The clustering process reveals six clearly
distinguishable types of digital marketplace business models and thus shows that there exists no one-size-fits-all approach to creating, delivering, and capturing value with digital marketplaces. We characterize these distinctive business model types by integrating the qualitative and quantitative insights to advance the understanding of platform business models.
The article focuses on the development of trust in ride-sharing business models. Topics mentioned include the insights of sociologist James Coleman on the meaning of trust, the importance of interpersonal relationship, and the social aspects of technological innovations. Also mentioned are the customer loyalty to a brand and the importance of digital infrastructure to improve the safety and security of customers.
OVERVIEW:
Consumers are getting used to receiving free services in many different fields, and the popularity of the mobile app industry is feeding this phenomenon. Historically, advertising—a typical two-sided market mechanism—is the primary method that companies relying on a free-to-consumers business model have used to appropriate value in digital environments. But new strategies are needed to make free services sustainable and profitable in the long term. At the same time, companies are gathering a huge amount of data from consumers, especially through mobile apps, by leveraging the sensors embedded in smartphones; this data represents a powerful new source of value. Through a case study analysis, we show how leveraging a two-sided structure can enable companies to capture value from user-sourced data, enabling a sustainable free-to-consumers business model. In this model, users are more than eyeballs to be targeted with advertising; they become data providers, and companies may capture value by using that data to customize advertising messages, leverage e-ethnography to improve their own core offer, serve as fodder for research, or create knowledge for third parties.
Initial coin offerings are a new way for blockchain startups to finance project development by issuing coins or tokens in exchange for fiat money or Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. In this article, we start from the current distinction between different types of tokens and argue that it can create confusion and should be at least partially abandoned. We believe that the conceptual difference between a currency token and a tradable utility token is just the dimension of the crypto environment in which the token is spent. More specifically, ‘utility tokens’ combine the customer payment mechanism with the utility component and, when tradable on a secondary market, the investment one. We argue that they blur the traditional distinctions between currencies, financial assets and consumption goods. Moreover, we stress the increasing importance of online crypto exchanges. Recently some exchanges have also taken up the role of trusted intermediaries and staked their reputation on token offerings, which are termed initial exchange offerings and have gained in popularity. We therefore argue that the crypto market increasingly looks like a segment of the capital market and behaves as such. Given that tokens have a clear investment component, we show that they are tradable securities under the Prospectus Regulation. We compare the European securities regulation with its US counterpart and focus on prospectus exemptions, highlighting the great differences between Europe and the US which make Europe less amicable to blockchain startups.
Blockchain technology can shape innovation and competition in digital platforms, but under what conditions?
This study investigates whether early mover (dis)advantages are valid in the blockchain industry. Specifically, it examines how the entry timing of a startup in the blockchain industry affects its funding attraction from venture capitals and innovation performance. Moreover, this study examines whether the startup’s knowledge spillover activities moderate the relationship between its entry timing and subsequent performance. An empirical analysis is conducted on 255 startups in the blockchain industry founded between 2007 and 2016. The results show that while early mover advantages exist in terms of funding attraction from venture capitals, the entry timing and innovation performance have an inverted U-shaped relationship, as expected. Knowledge spillover activities of blockchain startups positively moderate the relationship between the entry timing and the venture capital attraction. Managerial and theoretical implications for the blockchain industry are discussed.
Today's world is characterized by a continuous evolution in the demand and supply of new technology solutions, challenging the way companies pursue and manage technology development. Indeed, companies can no longer take decades to develop new technologies, but are compelled to deliver technologies in a short space of time. Despite the ample literature on the different technology development processes, the main factors influencing the creation of technological solutions remain unclear. The problem is no longer identifying a new process for developing a technology, but understanding which elements can guide the selection of the best approach for the situation faced. The aim of this study is therefore to provide a systematic literature review of technology development studies to contribute to shed lights on how companies can develop technology to foster innovations in a society that is continuously evolving its technological needs. The analysis of 187 articles highlights that process, organization, and knowledge are the three key dimensions that influence every technology development process. Thus, two main dichotomies emerge (i) linear vs iterative on the process level, (ii) designing vs finding on the knowledge level. Accordingly, we propose a research agenda based on a framework mapping the four resulting approaches.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how blockchain technology can improve supply chain adaptability, alignment and agility which collectively enhance competitive advantage which in turn influences firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual framework of the present study is developed by conducting an extensive literature review on blockchain technology, supply chain adaptability, alignment, agility and competitive advantage. The sample data were collected from 397 supply chain practitioners in India to validate the conceptual model. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the validity of the measures used and a structural model was analyzed for testing the proposed conceptual framework.
Findings
The results of the present study show that blockchain technology can improve supply chain adaptability, alignment, agility which lead to competitive advantage, which leads to better firm performance. Besides, trust generated through blockchain use also increases firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
Currently, the respondents do not have practical experience of using blockchain technology. They have responded based on their knowledge about supply chain and blockchain which they acquired from published sources. Different supply chains require different strategic choices and different information needs. But the present study assumes that all supply chain needs are identical. The present study assumes that government regulations regarding blockchain technology are favorable; however, currently, there is no legal framework to address blockchain technology. The findings of the current study indicate that companies not only should create more awareness regarding blockchain but also should actively work with IT companies that are engaged in developing blockchain-based supply chain solution. Managers, as well as IT companies and academicians, should join hands to study and develop a framework for regulating blockchain technology and suggest these to the policy actors.
Practical implications
The present study shows that supply chain practitioners are confident that blockchain technology will help improve supply chain parameters. These findings can help IT companies and their marketers for developing and promoting blockchain-based IT applications. In addition, the important implication for supply chain practitioners is that blockchain helps in creating a competitive advantage and increases firm performance.
Originality/value
The effect of IT on important supply chain variables has been studied in the past; however, there is not a single study which sheds light on how disruptive technologies such as blockchain will affect supply chain adaptability, alignment, agility and firm performance.
The paradox of openness is inherent to all platform ecosystems—the tension in enabling maximum openness to create joint innovation while guaranteeing value capturing for all actors. Governance mechanisms to solve this paradox are embedded into the technical architecture of the platform, addressing the dimensions of access, control, and incentives. Blockchain technology offers unique ways to design novel governance mechanisms through the standardization of interactions. However, the design of such an architecture requires careful consideration of the cost associated with it.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explore blockchain technology and its potential implementation to hospitality and tourism firms’ wide range of business operations and transactions from a technological and functional point of view. This study’s central interest is to produce novel and rigorous in-depth-review analysis and foundations for a broad discussion and outlook on the potential applications of blockchain technology benefiting hospitality and tourism research, as well as the industry as a whole.
Design/methodology/approach
This study identifies and proposes several potential areas of the adoption and implementation of blockchain technology to the hospitality and tourism industry, including payment and cryptocurrencies, tracking and service customization, the disintermediation of hospitality and tourism, innovative loyalty programs, smart contracts, integrated property management systems, verified rating and review systems, collaborative initiatives and due diligence and smart tourism, each of which represents fertile avenues for future research.
Findings
This paper provides extensive critical discussions, reviews and answers to a fundamental question: “What critical functions of Blockchain mechanisms can be implemented to the existing core operational (i.e. booking and reservation systems, guest management, etc.) and business functions (i.e. loyalty/reward programs, agent transactions, etc.) of hospitality and tourism companies?”.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies should specifically delve further into various angles of this “BizTech” environment based not only on business operations and competition but also on vendor and customer collaboration.
Practical implications
This study intends to serve as a guidance for future research, facilitate knowledge accumulation and create a new understanding and awareness in both practice and academia. One of the most important applications of blockchain in this industry would be that pertaining to direct booking, online reservation systems (i.e. airlines and online travel agencies) and check-in/out with digital identities. With industry-wide blockchain adoption, guests’ personal information can be digitally validated, saved and secured as previously established cryptographically secured codes verify one’s identity without disclosing essential personal information.
Originality/value
It is obvious that the hospitality and tourism industry needs urgent technological transformation, industrial innovations and new growth avenues such as the adoption of blockchain technology and systems to maintain its global market share in the future. Therefore, the implementation of blockchain systems can promote the formation of multi-center (i.e. guest operations and customer service), weakly intermediated (i.e. loyalty programs and/or review and rating systems) areas in this industry.
As the underlying technology of bitcoin, blockchain is expected to create a new economic system by revolutionizing the way we communicate over the internet. Blockchain seeks to improve information security and transparency by sharing encrypted data among peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Due to its emphasis on security and trust, there is increased demand for blockchain’s application in a variety of business sectors. The decentralized nature of blockchain creates the new concept of a token economy in which the community’s revenue can be allocated to the actual content producers and service users who create value. This article looks at how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are evolving and interconnected, creating a token economy through different business models. Blockchain is expected to be a key technology that enables new protocols for the establishment of a token economy in the future, leading to a new economic paradigm.
Due to its intrinsic characteristics, artificial intelligence (AI) can be considered a general-purpose technology (GPT) in the digital era. Most studies in the field focus on the ex-post recognition and classification of GPT but in this article, we look at a GPT design ex-ante by reviewing the extreme and inspiring example of IBM's Watson. Our objective is to shed light on how companies can create value through AI. In particular, our longitudinal case study highlights the strategic decisions IBM took to create value in two dimensions: internal development and external collaborations. We offer relevant implications for practitioners and academics eager to know more about AI in the digital world.
Blockchain technology has been receiving much public attention recently, promising to disintermediate transactions through decentralized governance and distributed data-infrastructures. However, the majority of the previous studies have focused on the technical aspects, and overlooked blockchain investigation from a managerial perspective. In this paper, based on platform-ecosystem, transaction cost economics, and open-source literature, we contrast and compare blockchain-based platforms and centralized platforms; in other words, decentralized versus centralized governance modes. We base our conceptual analysis on three dimensions—transaction cost, cost of technology, and community involvement—, exploring the conditions under which blockchain-based platforms are more advantageous than centralized platforms. We first compare gains from lower opportunism and uncertainty costs thanks to protocols and smart contracts in blockchain technology versus the costs of higher coordination and complexity of (re)writing those contracts. Second, we compare the gains from immutability and transparency in blockchain-based platforms versus the technological costs of verification and storage of a distributed ledger. Finally, we compare intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of the communities around centralized and blockchain-based platforms in the short and medium term.
As competition between organizations are evolving into competition between supply chains, to survive and indeed grow, it is necessary to deliver added value to customers. Traceability has emerged as one of the key measures of operational efficiencies within supply chains and ultimately, customer service. Over the years, organizations have deployed number of methods in delivering food traceability. This paper examines major methods of food traceability currently in existence and proposes a restaurant prototype for implementing more reliable food traceability using Blockchain and product identifiers. The prototype captures data from various stakeholders across the food supply chain, segregates it and finally, applies the Food Quality Index (FQI) algorithm to generate an FQI value. The FQI value helps in identifying whether the food is good for consumption on specified parameters. FQI value is generated based on extant standard storage and handling regulations specified by food safety authorities, and checks whether value so derived, is within the permissible range. The prototype helps in grading food quality for human consumption besides strengthening food (product) traceability. This prototype can be customized to address future requirements of traceability triggered through new information emanating from any stakeholder or the node in the supply chain.
This paper uses a unique dataset of 120 regulatory events from five classes to test the relevance of the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency value. Time-series market-wide estimates and panel estimates for 300 individual coins and tokens show statistically and economically significant impact of anti-money laundering and issuance regulation. Tighter regulation and more active role of government decrease cryptocurrency prices, evidencing that potentially lower risks and wider adoption commonly attributed to the establishment of the regulatory framework do not compensate for respective efficiency and consumer utility losses. The market is generally efficient in reflecting regulatory information in cryptocurrency prices.
Purpose
There is a lot of interest in blockchain in the supply chain and several papers call it a disruptive technology. Existing research, however, is mostly conceptual and focused on use-case development and early pilots. This paper aims to report the findings from a workshop with managers aimed at empirically exploring what adoption rates and focus areas are for blockchain in the supply chain, what drives blockchain in the supply chain applications and what barriers are to the implementation of blockchain in the supply chain.
Design/methodology/approach
A workshop with managers was organized to empirically explore blockchain adoption levels and focus areas in the supply chain, as well as drivers and barriers of implementation.
Findings
Workshop participants reported that adoption of blockchain in the supply chain today is very limited but actively considered by many. Drivers for this consideration include achieving greater transparency and visibility, as well as, improving processes and reducing costs. Participants identify many barriers, including a lack of understanding of costs and benefits of blockchain in the supply chain. Interestingly, participants report less concern about the feasibility of the technology implying managerial consideration if progressing beyond the technology and into the potential adoption of it. As a result, participants may be moving beyond the hype surrounding blockchain and giving consideration to the many remaining questions. A working technology does not yet mean that there is a feasible supply chain adoption. As a result, it may be too early to tell whether blockchain will be a disruptive technology. This paper identifies several fruitful areas for further consideration by management and in research.
Originality/value
As there is little empirical research on blockchain in the supply chain, this paper moves beyond use-case development and the exploration of pilot cases and studies how companies may consider supply chain adoption beyond the pilot and the early development of blockchain. Although only offering an initial exploration, this paper uncovers progress being reported in industry and many areas where further consideration and research can help advance thinking and practice.
The growth of personalized demands requires socialized resources to timely self-organize themselves with crowd intelligence for co-creating open architecture products. This social manufacturing paradigm drives an increased demand for makers to track the authenticity and quality of products. A new decentralized blockchain-driven model, named Makerchain, is presented to handle the cyber-credit of social manufacturing among various makers. An anti-counterfeiting method composed of chemical signature is proposed to represent unique features of personalized products. Twinning unique signature data to blockchain and other functional databases is realized and anticipated to make manufacturing service transactions among makers more trustworthy. Based on an automated execution mechanism of smart contracts among makers, a decentralized manufacturing network can be enabled for automating transactions among makers, as well as third-party verification of product lifecycle through a trail of historic events. A Makerchain Decentralized Application (DApp) is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach through which clustered makers can self-organizing themselves around personalized demands.
Much of the attention surrounding blockchain today is focused on financial services, with very little discussion about nonfinancial services firms and how blockchain technology may affect organizations, their business models, and how they create and deliver value. In addition, some confusion remains between the blockchain (with definite article) and blockchain (no article), distributed ledger technologies, and their applications. Our article offers a primer on blockchain technology aimed at general managers and executives. The key contributions of this article lie in providing an explanation of blockchain, including how a blockchain transaction works and a clarification of terms, and outlining different types of blockchain technologies. We also discuss how different types of blockchain impact business models. Building on the well-established business model framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur, we outline the effect that blockchain technologies can have on each element of the business model, along with illustrations from firms developing blockchain technology.
The breakthrough impact of new-born companies over the last years brought to the definition of Big Bang Disruption, a new kind of innovation that relies on an unencumbered development, an unconstrained growth, and an undisciplined strategy. The relevance from a practitioner perspective is straightforward: entire industries have been challenged and disrupted. From a theoretical perspective, the concept is less developed. This research aims to understand it through a Business Model perspective, better highlighting the design variables that may lead to this kind of innovation. Leveraging crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) to define the necessary conditions to be called a Big Bang Disruptor, this paper relies on a Rock Clustering method – using the Unicorns' list as the sample - to highlight common patterns. Results show two main factors: the chance to innovate the meaning and to rely on a two-sided market structure as key variables to design a Big Bang Disruptor. Results are discussed under the lenses of previous research. Finally, limitations and avenues for further studies are explored.
Blockchain is receiving considerable attention among practitioners and academics. However, a detailed analysis investigating how the impact of blockchain is going to unfold is still missing. Our article sets out to assess the radicalness of blockchain at an early stage of its development and substantiates the analysis with evidence from the payments industry. We start by distilling five key aspects of radical innovation from extant literature. Our analysis of blockchain then focuses on the payments industry, which represents a major business field of banking and the cradle of this technology. The results of a Delphi study provide 17 statements about the current development of blockchain. The statements deliver insights into the impact of blockchain on the payments industry and reveal the radicalness of the technology. Based on these insights, we investigate how blockchain affects the five key aspects of radical innovation and develop contributions from an innovation management’s perspective.
The ongoing discussion regarding blockchain technologies is focused primarily on cryptocurrencies, but blockchain features and functionalities have developed beyond financial instruments. As the technologies provide new functionalities, the associated value proposition changes as well. This study explores the relationship between blockchain technologies and their underlying value drivers. Four identified distinct blockchain stages of increased maturity are analyzed and discussed. This covers the evolutionary technology types focused on transactions, smart contracts, decentralized applications, and the introduction of artificial intelligence supporting decentralized decision making. In addition, we address management issues around appropriate blockchain adoption using a blockchain value driver-focused framework that gives decision makers actionable questions and recommendations. We provide practitioners with a method for assessing suitable blockchain adoption that addresses the specific value creation associated with a given organizational strategy. For academics, we critically identify and assess the characteristics of the blockchain stages and their strategy implications and provide a structured approach conceptualizing blockchain technology evolution.
The pervasive spread of digital technologies brought an incredible boost in data availability. Companies are dealing with massive amount of data that wait to be exploited. At the same time, scholars are providing different strategies and methods to help companies capture the value embedded in their data to foster innovation and improve the efficiency of existing processes. In these research studies, data are the by- product of something else, and they are a silent asset that needs to be exploited. What if data might be considered the final goal? The paper aims to discuss these issues.
The research is based on an exploratory multiple case study analysis, on the basis of three cases used as an illustration for new ideas. In particular, the gathered data are analyzed according to models previously presented in the literature review, building on and expanding them. The research proposes a data-driven approach to innovation, offering a peculiar view of the innovation process. The trigger point is the need of data that let begin the entire development process of a complex system. In this perspective, the application that data are a by-product of the entire innovation process and not the primary output is peculiar since the vast majority of the literature consider data as the by- product of the primary product.
Future research is needed to assess the replicability of the model outside the mobile app industry and to measure its performances. Nevertheless, this paper provides insights both for scholars and managers, enlarging the discussion on digital innovation and digital business models.
The results provide a development process to foster innovation relying on the need of data as the trigger point, guiding entrepreneurs and managers in the building process of the entire digital system.
Previous research studies often considered Big Data (BD) in innovation as a way to enlarge the current product offer or to make the innovation process more effective or efficient; this paper changes the perspective by considering BD as the trigger and the enabler of the entire digital innovation process.
The aim of this study is to review the literature growth and author productivity of Blockchain technology research from 2008 to March 2017. 801 articles were retrieved from Scopus database and analyzed with bibliometrics approach using different perspective views. The author productivity was derived using the Lotka’s law and K-S test was performed to verify the reliability. The result indicates that the number of literatures on Blockchain is still increasing. Three stages of Blockchain research change were discovered. In 2008 to 2013, the topics were related to the Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies; in 2014 to 2015, the number of Bitcoin literatures grew rapidly; after 2016, a lot of researchers are paying attention to the techniques of Blockchain and smart contract. Moreover, the distribution of author productivity meets the study of Lotka. This study presents state-of-the-art and abstract the trend of Blockchain research regarding several perspectives of bibliometrics analysis.
We propose a conceptual framework for examining the value-creation potential embedded into novel, digitally powered resource configurations. We suggest that business digitization calls for firms to adopt a system-based, value-creation-centric perspective for designing and organizing their resource configuration. Our conceptualization of a firm's resource-configuration decisions centers on organizing access to resources controlled by value co-creators. We discuss resource-configuration prototypes, value-creation sources, and the underlying resource-configuration processes enabled by digitization. Our study contributes to the literature on strategic entrepreneurship by incorporating the ramifications of digitization into the theory on firms' resource configuration and its underlying processes to enable strategic entrepreneurship. Digitization has profoundly reshaped the way business opportunities are discovered and exploited. In this article, we suggest that digitization expands the scope of resources firm could utilize while requiring firms to take a holistic approach in considering the resources and addressing the needs of all customers and partners (e.g., resource providers). We highlight the importance of such a holistic approach to enhancing the value creation potential in the digital age for entrepreneurs and managers. In addition, we propose novel ways to connect resources with needs of customers and partners (e.g., enabling transactions and providing bridges) as well as the actionable micro processes that undergird and enable these novel connections in a digitally enabled world.
The impact of big data on innovation is not only driven by technology and analytics. It involves a transformation of the organizational culture, structures, processes, roles, and capabilities that underpin the innovation process. Understanding these factors is particularly important for service innovators, given the strong interdependence between the organizational context and technology in service companies. Moreover, in many of these organizations, the innovation process is still deeply rooted in a non-digital past. This study answers the call to understand what are the key characteristics of a systematic process for service innovation in data-rich environments. In particular, the authors investigate the primary factors that enable existing service organizations to capture the innovation potential inherent in data-rich environments. To this aim, the authors implemented a two-step research design. First, they integrated the service innovation and information systems literatures in a unified conceptual framework that articulates the relationship between data-rich environments and service innovation from an organizational perspective. Second, they carried out 40 semi-structured interviews in seven large service firms, which allowed them to refine and populate the initial framework with typologies, concepts, and examples from the field. A major contribution of this study is to articulate the concept of data density, as three distinct processes (pattern spotting, real-time decisioning, and synergistic exploration) connecting data-rich environments with service innovation opportunities. Finally, the authors identified a set of organizational enablers that facilitate the links among technology, data density processes, and service innovation. The findings of this study offer a roadmap for service managers who need to align the service innovation process of their organizations with the opportunities offered by data-rich environments.
Current cryptocurrencies, starting with Bitcoin, build a decentralized blockchain-based transaction ledger, maintained through proofs-of-work that also serve to generate a monetary supply. Such decentralization has benefits, such as independence from national political control, but also significant limitations in terms of computational costs and scalability. We introduce RSCoin, a cryptocurrency framework in which central banks maintain complete control over the monetary supply, but rely on a distributed set of authorities, or mintettes, to prevent double-spending. While monetary policy is centralized, RSCoin still provides strong transparency and auditability guarantees. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, the benefits of a modest degree of centralization, such as the elimination of wasteful hashing and a scalable system for avoiding double-spending attacks.