Real Business Applications and Investments in Blockchain Technology

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.