Proceedings of the 4th Blockchain International Scientific Conference 14 March 2022, ISC2022, UK Abstracts

Despite its many potential economic and organizational benefits, blockchain technology still has not been widely adopted by enterprises. Recent literature has identified a number of potential adoption barriers but has not been fully explored from the perspective of firm strategy. Theoretical and practical understanding of organizational collaboration and interorganizational information systems helps expand thinking about adoption. Building on this foundation, we argue that successful blockchain implementation requires and creates interdependencies, both among consortium partners and with stakeholders in the broader ecosystem. Beyond traditional forms of collaboration, interdependencies occur when organizations intentionally become reliant upon one another. Starting from factors identified in a systematic review of the literature on adoption and exploring these factors through the lens of strategic collaboration, we develop a new adoption framework. The framework describes two internal interdependencies-socio-technical and economic, and two ecosystem interdependencies-standards and legal/regulatory that affect blockchain adoption. We illustrate these interdependencies using the example of supply chains in maritime trade. The framework can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify critical factors at play at different stages of a project's evolution, and it can be used to identify points of leverage for adoption of blockchain technology.