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The recent emergence of blockchains may be considered a critical turning point in organizing collaborations. We outline the historical background and the fundamental features of blockchains and present an analysis with a focus on their role as governance mechanisms. Specifically, we argue that blockchains offer a way to enforce agreements and achieve cooperation and coordination that is distinct from both traditional contractual and relational governance as well as from other information technology solutions. We also examine the scope of blockchains as efficient governance mechanisms and highlight the tacitness of the transaction as a key boundary condition. We then discuss how blockchain governance interacts with traditional governance mechanisms in both substitutive and complementary ways. We pay particular attention to blockchains' social implications as well as their inherent challenges and limitations. Our analysis culminates in a research agenda that explores how blockchains may change the way to organize collaborations, including issues of what different types of blockchains may emerge, who is involved and impacted by blockchain governance, why actors may want blockchains, when and where blockchains can be more (versus less) effective, and how blockchains influence a number of important organizational outcomes.

AbstractFew technologies have been mired in hype more than blockchain, which is the underlying peer-to-peer network protocol for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Given the technology's emphasis on purported "immutable ledgers" and trust-less sharing models, there has been a great deal of interest in applying blockchain to democratic reforms. From localized decision-making to national-scale voting systems, blockchain has spurred a surge of interest in how democracy might "get a software update". While significant research exists on socio-technological imaginaries (perceptions) and potential applications (experiments) within the Global North, few studies have looked at more dynamic contexts, particularly Central Asia. In light of the violence surrounding elections in October 2020 and previous revolutions against the country's central government, the status of democracy in Kyrgyzstan is, at best, fragile and, at worst, non-existent. This article explores alternative futures scenarios for localized, blockchain-driven governance futures in Kyrgyzstan and concludes with a proposal for deeper investigation.

AbstractThis study advances theoretical insights into blockchain adoption in the context of global value chains from a transaction cost theory perspective. The research has adopted an exploratory qualitative approach using the Netnography method to scrutinize the case of TradeLens—a thriving blockchain‐enabled ecosystem that Maersk and IBM jointly developed. This study applies textual and audiovisual data from company websites and social media. Our findings indicate blockchain technology's salient and strategic relevance in streamlining business processes, improving efficiency, enhancing visibility, transparency, and traceability for value creation in the global value chains. This investigation supports the notion that blockchain, as a disruptor, will transform global trade with the digital tools to share real‐time information and collaborate security to reduce search and information cost, policing and enforcement cost in global economic transactions and administrative friction in trade. In contrast, the bargaining cost will increase if the information for the transaction is hard to verify where human actor intervention will be required, implying relatively higher designing costs in codifying the agreements in smart contracts.

AbstractThe article elaborates on the potential of blockchain technology to transform governance in different sectors of economy. The research primarily relies on rich empirical data that have been collected from semistructured interviews and focus group studies with professional blockchain developers. In this regard, the article aims to answer the following questions: How could blockchain governance conceptually work? How could one illustrate schematically key principles of its implementation? What are the key features of blockchain governance? Why are they important? What benefits could the concept bring to different sectors of economy if its potential is realized? What are the typical barriers and limitations of blockchain governance? What could be recommended to overcome them?