Real Business Applications and Investments in Blockchain Technology

Abstract

This paper provides an empirical study to identify the objective of companies that are currently investing in adopting blockchain technologies to improve their processes and services. Unlike other studies based on the theoretical potential application of blockchain technology in different sectors, the main objective of this paper is to analyze real projects and investment of companies in blockchain technology. More than 100 blockchain projects from different sectors were examined with the aim of extracting the perceived applicability and business value of blockchain technology by managers, customers, and partners. We identified the most demanded business value and functional properties in each sector and company size, as well as the relationship between the properties that are demanded together. This article assesses the main functional values attributed to blockchain, highlighting those really appreciated by companies that invest in them and identifying new applications of blockchain technology in different sectors, and generating organizational change. The article reveals that, as expected, significant deviations are already occurring between theoretical applications identified in the literature and those finally adopted by the industry.

Blockchain Technology: The Role of Integrated Reverse Supply Chain Networks in Sustainability

“…An analysis of about 100 investment contracts for BCT applications, in the period 2017 to 2020, has shown great growth in BCT investments in multiple sectors (Lage, Saiz-Santos, and Zarzuelo (2022). Those contracts were tailored to the same project in which several entities involved were grouped.…”

“…Such a blockchain, when implemented in the health sector, must adopt a fit-for-purpose base rather than being generalised (Mackey et al, 2019). A recent article, in 2020, highlighted the importance of BCT in pharma supply chain security, which is now a hot topic worldwide because of the very high percentage of counterfeit drugs entering the pharma supply chain on different levels, up to 10% worldwide and 30% in emerging markets (Lage, Saiz-Santos, and Zarzuelo 2022).…”

“…Blockchain is a relatively new technology, referred to as a decentralised digital transformation technology, that is becoming an increasingly hot topic of interest for different domains and multidisciplinary fields. The concept of blockchain technology (BCT) is holistic enough to cover the importance of having an integrated shared information system and assure the integrity and security of shared information (Ferrer 2018;Saberi et al 2019;Mathew et al 2021;Lage, Saiz-Santos, and Zarzuelo 2022).…”

“…These industries include supply chain, healthcare, banking, agriculture, financial services, insurance, and retailing. Previous studies (e.g., Mathew et al 2021;Mubarik et al 2021;Rehman et al, 2021;Koshta, Patra, and Singh 2022;Lage, Saiz-Santos, and Zarzuelo 2022) have highlighted the importance of adopting BCT for transparency, reverse logistics, green applications, security, inexpensiveness, replacement policy, trust, creating a better contribution economy, preventing payment scams, and performing financial transactions in minutes.…”

“…This research explored the challenges in operational processing across various actors along the supply chain, especially the return of goods for digital transactions and the key internal and external drivers of BCT (Lage, Saiz-Santos, and Zarzuelo 2022). The literature review identified pain points in crossborder returns and how they leverage sustainability performance improvements, including the use of RSCN approaches and feature forms.…”