Business strategy and blockchain adoption

Abstract

Although blockchain has drawn significant attention since its introduction in 2008, determinants of its adoption remain largely unknown. Relying on the Resource-Based View (hereafter, RBV) of the firm as a theoretical guide, we investigate whether a firm’s business strategy affects its decision on blockchain adoption. We split firms into prospectors (risk takers) and defenders (interested in cost stability) consistent with the business strategy framework to determine if the former group is more likely to adopt blockchain. Using a sample of 208 firms from 2015 to 2019, we find that prospectors are more likely to adopt blockchain than defenders. Results suggest blockchain brings more net benefits to prospectors than to defenders. The results support RBV and business strategy theories and are robust to the consistency test, factor analysis, and placebo test. The findings imply that the alignment between business strategy and technology characteristics motivates firms to adopt specific technology.