Blockchain’s Impact on Accounting and Auditing: A Use Case on Supply Chain Traceability

Abstract

We use the transaction cost theory, originally proposed by Coase (1937), as a theoretical framework to examine the potential impact of the blockchain technology on accounting and auditing processes in terms of information timeliness, information quality, and auditing costs. Since a blockchain enables recording, tracking, and managing business transactions and assets of firms, it offers natural advantages to accounting and auditing processes, and has the potential to lower various transaction costs. A use case on a supply chain of food products is presented to illustrate how a blockchain can be used to trace the movement of goods and record the related transactions. Subsequently, building on this scenario, we use the transaction cost framework to generate propositions related to accounting and auditing that can be empirically tested in future studies as data become available.