Beyond the Hype: Embracing Blockchain for Social Change: - An Analysis of how Blockchain is Fostering Social Innovation

Abstract

Although recent discussions and researches have focused on Bitcoin and the emergence of cryptocurrencies, this paper examines the blockchain technology beyond the hype and beyond the discussions of the technology potential to disrupt peer-to-peer money transferring and financial markets. This study, therefore, focusses on how blockchain is uptake by social enterprises in order to tackle social problems and foster social innovation. By using an affordances conceptual model, this research places blockchain as the IT artefact underlying social enterprises which, in turn, are understood as the actors/organizations of the affordance process. In order to identify and analyze the blockchain and social enterprises affordances, the case study method was used with a combination of two theoretical frameworks whilst merging quantitative data from an extensive literature review with the empirical data gathered from four different social enterprises. The analysis led to findings related to affordances perception, actualizations, effects, as well as enabling and inhibiting factors that contribute to the affordance’s actualizations. The discussion of findings confirms the previous assumptions that the blockchain technology is an innovation that goes beyond the hype and has been embraced by governments, companies, and social enterprises in order to address social problems and foster social innovation. Although the majority of the perceptions are positive, and a list of many enabling factors was found, the research also identified a list of inhibiting factors that are still preventing the blockchain widespread adoption among social enterprises.