Making Sense of Blockchain as a Digital Technology for Open Innovation: A Review Exploring Blockchain Business Applications, Start-Up Business Models, and Blockchain Services Ecosystem

Performing open innovation within a company should also consider the potential of new and disruptive digital technology such as blockchain. In the plethora of business models of digital technology, blockchain seems to be the most disruptive versus social media, cloud computing, and big data. Blockchain is a digital ledger where transactions are chronologically recorded, and a copy of the ledger is distributed across a network. Initially used by financial technology companies to provide cryptocurrency services, major financial institutions, technology firms, and other non-financial companies are investing in understanding the business application of blockchain. Similarly, a lot of technology start-ups have emerged in the past years who have businesses capitalizing on blockchain-based services. In this chapter, we ask: how can we make sense of blockchain, by asking two questions that relate to the business applications of blockchain and the possible start business models. Our systematic review extended the conception and understanding of a financial technology as a way to pursue open innovation through the lens of a business model. We do this by analyzing blockchain various business applications, identifying the business models used by existing start-ups, and then proposing the ecosystem of blockchain business application.