Blockchain Technology Readiness In Firms: Industry Experts’ Perspectives From A Developing Economy

ABSTRACT Blockchain technology is emerging and it is seen as the new way to support the needs of individuals and organizations. The blockchain is a distributed public ledger that records information about transactions onto a block which is accessed by all nodes on the network, and the block cannot be altered by any node. It ensures trust and transparency. Literature in the field of Blockchain is very scarce in developing economies in relation to its firm-level adoption and implementation regardless of their readiness to benefit from the technology. Arguably, there is a lack of a theory-based understanding in the studies of Blockchain adoption. Therefore, this study aims to explore the factors that influence the readiness of a firm to adopt and implement the Blockchain technology. This study employed a critical realism paradigm to understand an uncertain phenomenon of how the readiness factors affect the adoption and implementation of Blockchain technology in firms and adapted the Perceived E-Readiness Model (PERM) as a theoretical lens for this study, analyzing the factors that influence the readiness to adopt and implement Blockchain in firms. A Delphi technique was used as a data collection method in this study whereby, experts from industry and academia knowledgeable about Blockchain was interviewed. The study also suggests that cryptocurrencies and record management blockchain platforms are being used and though firms are using the technology to solve the needs of the land market and agriculture, there are more ways to improve these industries with the use of Blockchain technology. The findings suggest that the understanding of the use of the Blockchain technology by firms in Ghana and individuals is good hence, the integration by the local companies such as BenBen and AgriXchain into their business operations. Awareness of the technology is encouraging due to the fact that most individuals know what Blockchain is, how to use it and what to use it for. Also, this study reveals that the Ghanaian government is ready to embrace the technology to ensure transparency and efficiency in the government services provision system and, go a long way to modernize and digitize governmental agencies. Furthermore, the findings suggest that there are firms and practitioners who teach these courses (Ethereum, Python, JavaScript, etc) and assist individuals to gain the necessary skills to develop the technology, however, some individuals resort to online platforms to acquire these skills. Understanding of the technology, Knowledge on how to use it, Availability of skilled personnel, Availability of technical components, Risk, Capital, Management support, Business process, Policies & Regulations, and Government initiatives on technology were identified from the analysis of the findings to be key influencing factors to the adoption of Blockchain in developing economies. First, it presupposes the non-technical readiness factors tend to be more dominant than technical readiness factors. Readiness lies in addressing these dominant factors primarily in relation to the technical factors. Second, there is an interaction between organizational readiness factors (Awareness, Resources, Commitment & Governance) and environmental readiness factors (Governmental Readiness, Market Readiness, Technological Readiness & Educational Readiness). The presence of these factors enables the adoption and implementation of the Blockchain technology and the absence of these factors constrains it. This study responds to the gap of the scarcity of research work done in the field of Blockchain in developing economies. For practitioners, this study serves as a guideline for firms that are looking forward to adopting and implementing Blockchain technology. Finally, for policy, the findings provide a recommendation of how regulators can introduce a tax party in a Blockchain business network to track proper tax filing by the business parties in the Blockchain network. The originality of this study lies in the fact that this research is, perhaps, the maiden exploratory study that examines the factors that influence the readiness to Blockchain adoption and implementation in Ghana, a developing economy. It is recommended that further researchers can adopt the quantitative approach in order to have a greater sample size of firms as well as individuals, or both to make a generalization concerning this phenomenon. Further research can adopt a single case or a multiple case study to the implementation process of Blockchain.