The prospective value creation potential of blockchain in business models: A Delphi study

Abstract

Blockchain technology is gaining awareness and drawing attention in corporate practice and academia. Both fields expect a fundamental impact of blockchain on business and society. However, since blockchain research within the business model context is still in a nascent stage, more in-depth insights is required of blockchain’s impact on firms’ value creation and value capture. This study builds on a Delphi approach and aims to identify the future value creation potential of blockchain for organizations by 2030. Based on expert interviews, workshop insights, and prior literature, we developed a meaningful set of 36 projections of blockchain implications for business models. Our findings, based on the elements of the PEST framework, predict massive efficiency gains through technological progress and promise complementary offerings through various novel combination possibilities, novel forms of collaboration and business model opportunities, and a dissipation of the significance of blockchain types. The combined use of blockchain solutions with other technologies is likely to serve as the basis for ecosystem developments. Our projected finding is that the internet of value will replace the internet of information by 2030. Thereby, our research contributes to technological forecasting and strategic planning by providing managers clear indications of blockchain developments and action recommendations.