Authors:
Davide Moiana
;
Jacopo Manotti
;
Antonio Ghezzi
and
Andrea Rangone
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Milano, Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Via Lambruschini 4B, 20156 Milan, Italy
Keyword(s):
Business Model Innovation, Grand Challenges, Emerging Technology, Blockchain, Tokens, DAO.
Abstract:
Social and ecological challenges are increasingly threatening the world, asking for concrete actions from all the actors and sectors of our society. Broad social and environmental problems have been collected below the definition of “Grand Challenges” (GCs), to represent their wicked nature and tough resolution. In order to advance these goals, the United Nations in 2015 ratified the so-called 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This new imperative implies firms to shift towards new sustainable practices and innovate their business models. Management research has identified in emerging technology one of the most powerful means for Business Model Innovation (BMI). In this regard, blockchain is claimed to have the ability to drastically restructure firms’ business structures and markets. By way of an inductive multiple-case study analyzing 4 start-ups in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) field, this research proposes a concep
tual model summarizing three actionable characteristics (Asset enabler, Trust machine, Collaborative and coordinated action enhancer) through which blockchain technologies can drive BMI, making it clear on how they enable to embed GCs in the business model components.
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