New Industrial Fields, Innovativeness and Firms’ Competitive Advantage: The Birth of the Hungarian Blockchain Ecosystem

The rapid development of information technologies spurs changes in industry structure by creating new market opportunities, business models, ventures as well as transforming the incumbent businesses. As the drivers of innovation and the first movers, startup companies seize the profit opportunities and create high value-added and cross-industrial offerings. This study is among the first to discuss the new technology adoption process on the example of blockchain technology and the subsequent formation of a concomitant ecosystem in Hungary. The paper aims to overcome the lack of empirical research studies on blockchain impact on businesses by presenting the examples of startup firms’ activities and their blockchain-based solutions to the existing problems. We adopt a qualitative explorative approach and build on six case study interviews with the Hungarian blockchain-related start-ups’ founders/co-founders, an expert interview and pertinent literature review. Applying the dynamic capabilities and the ecosystem framework perspective, the study contributes to analyzing the birth and development of new blockchain ecosystem and its focal offers. The research demonstrates different real-world use cases across a number of industries, the key role of innovative entrepreneurs in the ecosystem formation and collects information on the value propositions, competitive advantages, and distinctive capabilities of the blockchain ecosystem members. The managerial implications and further research directions are discussed.