Determinants of blockchain adoption as decentralized business model by Spanish firms – an innovation theory perspective
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2022-0030 |
| Published date | 21 April 2022 |
| Date | 21 April 2022 |
| Pages | 204-228 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Loha Hashimy,Geetika Jain,Emili Grifell-Tatjé |
Determinants of blockchain
adoption as decentralized business
model by Spanish firms –
an innovation theory perspective
Loha Hashimy
University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Geetika Jain
Keele Business School, Keele University, Newcastle Under Lyme, UK, and
Emili Grifell-Tatj
e
University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –Large attention surrounds identifying the meaningful blockchain business model on financial
services, while a little focus about non-financial organizations and solutions in terms of how the blockchain
business model can affect the organization and bring more value. To address the complex structure of
businesses that have public goods, it is important to develop sustainable blockchain-based business models.
Design/methodology/approach –This study offers the first qualitative research that uses an integrated
technological, environmental and organizational (TOE) framework with technology acceptance theory (TAM)
to study the adoption of blockchain technology by Spanish firms.
Findings –The results of the paper discuss how that competitive pressure, competence, top management
support and relative advantage have a positive impact on intention to adopt blockchain technology while
complexity affects the intention to adopt the technology negatively. Contrary to many adoption studies, the
findings show that intention to adopt negatively impacts adoption and outline the effect of blockchain on
business model elements on the macroeconomic level.
Originality/value –The key contribution of this study lies in providing a comprehensive understanding of
the environmental, technological and organizational factors that impact the intention to adopt blockchain that
eventually affects adoption.
Keywords TOE, Business model, TAM, Decentralized, Blockchain technology
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In recent years, blockchain has received colossal interest from the industry, several
applications of distributed ledgers and blockchain have been identified in various sectors.
While it has been observed that some companies are adopting blockchain technology to
produce innovative solutions and tackle the existing inefficiencies in the business processes,
many firms are still not confident about its adoption. It is well-known that new technology
will change many business processes and will impact many sectors; however, the decision to
adopt a technology remains with the management of the company.
Various studies have highlighted the potential use of blockchain in different industries. It
can providethe strategic and operationaladvantage to differentprocesses and functions ofthe
organizationincluding faster transactions, transparency,security and cost saving(Lansiti and
Lakhani, 2017;Tapscott and Tapscott, 2018). As per various published reports [McKinsey,
2017;Accenture(Treat et al., 2017); and IBM (Bear et al., 2016)], globally, the blockchain
IMDS
123,1
204
The authors acknowledge the project funding received from the Industrial Doctorates Program of the
Catalonia Generalitat under Reference Number - 2017 DI 056.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 13 January 2022
Revised 14 March 2022
Accepted 30 March 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 123 No. 1, 2023
pp. 204-228
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-01-2022-0030
adoption rate is increasing. Different research on blockchain adoption has been conducted
previously in the form of case studies and mostly conceptual (Weking et al., 2020). Thereare
published studies on the adoption of blockchain but most of thesestudies are qualitative and
only lays down the theoretical and conceptual framework to better understand the adoption
process(Lian et al.,2020;Woodside et al.,2017).Little focus has been put on quantitativestudies
to find out the impact of different factors on the uptake of the technology and innovative
processes by firms (Reyna et al.,2018). Apart from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, few
quantitative studies on the adoption of specific applications of blockchain e.g. adoption of
blockchain in the supplychain (Kamble et al., 2019) can be found in the literature. Thispaper
aims to contributeto the limited quantitative empirical studies in this area.
Thus, in this research, the major focus was given on development of various antecedents that
has huge role in the organizational innovativeness and adoption of decentralized blockchain
business model. Technological, environmental and organizational (TOE) framewor k integrated
with technology acceptance theory (TAM) has been used as underlying conceptual framework.
Thus, extending the literature on the use of integrated adoption models and contributing to
theoretical framework. To provide credibility and prevent biases in data collection process, the
data were collected by a professional data collecting company called Netquest in May 2021 from
800 companies in Spain. Out of 800 observations, 213 respondents who had adequate knowledge
of blockchain were selected to validate the conceptual model.
An outlook on the influential factors observed from thestudy will help managers grasp a
better understanding of the perception toward the adoption of blockchain technology in the
firms. To our knowledge,this will be the first quantitativestudy on the adoption of blockchain
technologyin the European context.As per the IDC report (April 2021),it is highlighted that the
growth of blockchainadoption accounts for 46% especially in largebusinesses in Spain. The
most important aspect in terms of this growth potential is that the Spanish government is
highly positive toward blockchain. Therefore, the research seeks to unravel the potential of
adoption of blockchain to reduce the theoretical gaps by testing the theorized framework
including technology acceptance model (TAM) and technology–organization–environment
(TOE). This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the environmental,
technologicaland organizationalfactors that impact acceptanceand adoption of blockchainby
firm managers. Motivated by the blockchain potential for businesses, the lack of
comprehensive studies from IS perspective and the innovation theories perspective, this
current study proposesthe following research questions:
(1) How do technological, organizational and environmental factors influence blockchain
adoption in an industry specific organization?
(2) How does the organizational innovativeness perspective of intention to adopt on the
actual adoption of the blockchain technology?
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the literature review for the existing
studies and describes the theoretical background of the integrated model in detail, explaining
the technology adoption theories considered for the paper. Section 3 illustrates the technology
adoption models, and section 4 describes the hypothesis developed for studying the model.
Section 5 provides the research methodology adopted for the empirical analysis. Section 6
discusses the results from the econometric model, demonstrates the findings, discussion and
conclusion followed by implication in Sections 7 and 8respectively.
2. Literature review
Most of the research that investigated the factors affecting blockchain adoption is qualitative.
These studies are essential for developing theory and gaining a better understanding of the
Decentralized
business model
by Spanish
firms
205
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