How Blockchain Technology Can Benefit Marketing: Six Pending Research Areas

Abstract

The proliferation of sophisticated e-commerce platforms coupled with mobile applications has ignited growth in business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce, reshaped organizational structures, and revamped value creation processes. Simultaneously, new technologies have altered the dynamics of brand marketing, enabling a broader reach and more personalized targeting aimed at increasing brand trust and enhancing customer loyalty. Today, the Internet allows marketers to penetrate deeper into their existing markets, create new online marketplaces and to generate new demand. This dynamic market engagement uses new technologies to target consumers more effectively. In this conceptual paper, we discuss how blockchain technology can potentially impact a firm's marketing activities. More specifically, we illustrate how blockchain technology acts as incremental innovation, empowering the consumer-centric paradigm. Moreover, blockchain technology fosters disintermediation, aids in combatting click fraud, reinforces trust and transparency, enables enhanced privacy protection, empowers security, and enables creative loyalty programs. We present six propositions that will guide future blockchain-related research in the area of marketing.

Blockchain technology and traceability in the agrifood industry

“…A further element that should be properly evaluated is related to the possible use by companies of the BC data to perform consumer profiling (Feng, He, Zeadally, Khan, & Kumar, 2018; Rejeb, Keogh, & Treiblmaier, 2020). Indeed, several BC tools allow users to collect data about consumers that ask to access data using the BC.…”

Measuring the Effect of Blockchain Extrinsic Cues on Consumers’ Perceived Flavor and Healthiness: A Cross-Country Analysis

“…There remains a lack of evidence about the impact of blockchain on the consumer goods sector [ 79 ]. Its expensiveness and redundancy may far outweigh the values derived from its applications for marketing [ 80 ].…”

Blockchain as a Driver for Smart City Development: Application Fields and a Comprehensive Research Agenda

“…Beyond the scope of cryptocurrencies, numerous applications of blockchain technology exist which have far-reaching implications across a multitude of industries [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] and thus also impact smart-city development [56]. The dynamics of the development is further enhanced by the combination of blockchain together with Artificial Intelligence (AI) [57], the Internet of Things (IoT) [58], 5G and architectures that allow for the remote processing of data, frequently labeled as cloud, fog and edge computing [59,60].…”