Blockchains
Strategic Implications for Contracting, Trust, and Organizational Design

This Element discusses strategic implications of blockchains for organizations in terms of contracting, trust, and organizational design.

Wenqian Wang (Author), Fabrice Lumineau (Author), Oliver Schilke (Author)

9781009060738, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 October 2022

84 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.14 kg

'Blockchains fills a gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive treatment of blockchains as collaborative tools. Wang, Lumineau, and Schilke have helped to grant intellectual territory to blockchains. The book can be an authoritative resource for future research, particularly for social scientists who are interested in studying new digital technologies but who may be intimidated by their complexity.' Simone Santoni, Administrative Science Quarterly

Blockchains have become increasingly important for organizing contemporary economic and social activities. This Element offers a deeper understanding of blockchains to both management scholars and practitioners, with an emphasis on blockchains' strategic implications for fundamental issues in organizing. It provides a critical examination of the core themes, theoretical lenses, and methodologies used in blockchain research in business and management scholarship. Furthermore, it offers an in-depth discussion of why and how blockchains offer a new way of organizing, providing profound implications for three major issues of strategic organization: contracting, trust, and organizational design. It also discusses several limitations of the technology in its current stage of development. Finally, this Element points to the implication of blockchains on both scholarly research and business practice.

1. Introduction
2. Blockchain fundamentals and features
3. Extant Knowledge from management research
4. Blockchains as a new way of organizing
5. Critiques and pitfalls
6. Conclusions and implications
References.

Subject Areas: Business innovation [KJD], Business strategy [KJC], Business studies: general [KJB]