Blockchain technology in financial services: a comprehensive review of the literature

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to thoroughly review studies that have used blockchain technology in financial services. This study will help provide a holistic framework that would highlight the current state and challenges of the blockchain in the financial services sector. Design/methodology/approach The objective of this study is to systematically examine and organize the current body of research literature that either quantitatively or qualitatively explored the use of blockchain technology in financial services. The study uses PRISMA-guided systematic review along with bibliometric analysis to achieve the purpose. Findings This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring and analyzing systematic studies available on blockchain with special reference to financial services sector. With blockchain based on five principles, namely, computational logic, peer-to-peer transmission, irreversibility of records, distributed database and transparency with pseudonym has immense potential to unleash and transform the financial service industry. With increasing blockchain-based operations of decentralized banking, insurance, trade finance, financial markets and cryptocurrency market, the subject is rapidly growing and seeking considerable contribution from scholars from around the world. Research limitations/implications This study uses systematic literature review approach, which has its own demerits. Like other studies based on Systematic Literature Review, this study also suffers from a certain bias such as sample selection bias, publication bias, data interpretation and the combination of quantitative and qualitative studies in the population. Further, the adoption and resultant benefits of blockchain have not been empirically tested. Practical implications This study can help policymakers and institutions in determining their future course of action, as it highlights the state of research in the area of blockchain technology and financial services. Originality/value Very few studies have done a comprehensive review of literature on blockchain in financial services.

Blockchain technology adoption in government organizations: a systematic literature review

“…In years 2017 and 2018, only one article is relevant according to research criteria, whereas in 2019, it increases to six, and in 2020, it is 19, which shows an upward trend. Previous studies done in the different fields of blockchain technology have also reported that blockchain technology is gaining attention and the number of publications is showing an upward trend (Pal et al, 2021;Rejeb et al, 2021;Cagigas et al, 2021). The interest of researchers, academicians and policymakers toward blockchain adoption is increasing.…”

“…These theories have been used by various researchers in their study to adopt blockchain technology: UTAUT (Tran and Nguyen, 2020; Queiroz and Fosso Wamba, 2019; Queiroz et al , 2020; Francisco and Swanson, 2018; Caldarelli et al , 2020; Wong et al , 2020b; Arias-Oliva et al , 2019); TAM (Liu and Ye, 2021; Grover et al , 2019; Nuryyev et al , 2020; Palos-Sanchez et al , 2021; Gil-Cordero et al , 2020); technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework (Clohessy and Acton, 2019; Gökalp et al , 2020; Wong et al , 2020a; Orji et al , 2020; Vergouwen et al , 2020; Malik et al , 2021); TAM with TRI (Sohaib et al , 2020); TAM with diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory (Ullah et al , 2021; Lou and Li, 2017); TAM with TTF (Lian et al , 2020); TAM with TRI and TPB (Kamble et al , 2019); and UTAUT with TTF and ISS models (Alazab et al , 2021).…”

“…The journals are from multidisciplinary fields, which show that the blockchain technology adoption is a multidisciplinary area of research. Previous studies reported that the studies done on blockchain technology are dispersed and published in journals from multidisciplinary area (Pal et al, 2021;Cagigas et al, 2021;Tandon et al, 2021).…”

The Current Situation and Trend of Blockchain Technology in the Financial Field

“…Symmetric ciphers are relative to public-private key ciphers. In today's cryptographic techniques or schemes, symmetric cryptography and public-private key cryptosystems have their own advantages and disadvantages, so often in the same cryptographic technique or scheme, symmetric cryptography, and public-private key will appear in the same cryptographic technique or scheme at the same time [19].…”

Invoking blockchain technology in e-government services: a cybernetic perspective

“…Blockchain technology can be described with five main elements – distribution, encryption, immutability, tokenization and decentralization (Wilkie and Smith, 2021). Furthermore, blockchain technology is based on five principles: computational logic, peer-to-peer transmission, irreversibility of records, distributed database and transparency with pseudonym (Pal et al , 2021). Information passes through three elements in a blockchain technology: system architecture, data recovery and communication (Yacoub and Castillo, 2021).…”