A Guideline for Identifying Blockchain Applications in Organizations

Blockchain is considered as an innovative technology along with Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Internet of Things. However, since the inception of the genesis of blockchain technology, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, the technology is not utilized widely, not let alone disruptive applications. Most of the blockchain research deals with the cryptocurrency, general descriptions of the technology such as trend, outlook of the technology, explanation of component technology, and so on. There are no killer applications like Facebook or Google, of course. Reflecting on the slow adoption by businesses, we wanted know about the current status of the research on blockchain in Korea. The main purpose of this paper is to help business practitioners to identify the application of blockchain to enhance the competitiveness of their organization. To do that, we first use the framework by Iansiti et al (2017) and categorize the blockchain related articles published in Korea according to the framework. This is to provide a benchmark or cases of other organizations’ adoption of blockchain technology. Second, based on the value proposition of blockchain applications, we suggest evolutionary paths for adopting them. Third, from the demand pull perspective of technology adoption for innovation, we propose applicable areas where blockchain applications can be introduced. Fourth, we use the value chain model to find out the appropriate domains of blockchain applications in the corporate value chains. And the five competitive forces models is adopted to find ways of lowering the power of forces by incorporating blockchain technology.