Adoption of Blockchain Technology in International Entrepreneurship: Strategic Framework for Managing Roadblocks

Abstract

Blockchain technology (BCT) is emerging as a disruptive innovation in increasingly globalized business ventures. It is believed to offer important benefits to international entrepreneurs, such as reducing transaction cost and risk of fraud, creating better transactional trust, and avoiding exploitation by business partners. However, BCT can bring changes to the business world only if it gets adopted by industries across all spectrums. International entrepreneurs are amongst the critical groups of adopters of BCT. Based on multiple theoretical perspectives, this article identifies and categorizes key barriers to adopting BCT by international entrepreneurs. A survey of BCT field experts was conducted to validate 15 key barriers to BCT adoption. Furthermore, based on pairwise comparison data collection with three groups of international entrepreneurs from India and U.K., a decision-making methodology was adopted to identify the relative importance and the causal relationships among the key barriers. This study develops a framework of strategic solutions to address barriers of BCT adoption by international entrepreneurs. This study offers stakeholders of BCT to better understand the patterns of BCT adoption by international entrepreneurs and will support the development of more targeted and multifaceted BCT adoption strategies.