The Dynamics of Governing Enterprise Blockchain Ecosystems

Birgitte van Haaren-van Duijn, Jaime Bonnín Roca, Annie Chen, A. Georges L. Romme and Mathieu Weggeman
Additional contact information
Birgitte van Haaren-van Duijn: Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Jaime Bonnín Roca: Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Annie Chen: Faculty of Technology Policy & Management, Delft University of Technology, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands
A. Georges L. Romme: Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Mathieu Weggeman: Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Administrative Sciences, 2022, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze how the governance of an enterprise blockchain ecosystem changes as it matures and increases in size. A review of the literature serves to identify five behavioral drivers of governance, which appear to affect the long-term viability of a blockchain ecosystem: access rights, decision rights, incentives, accountability, and conflict resolution. We subsequently report the findings from a comparative case study of how three large blockchain ecosystems implemented various governance mechanisms to exploit and modify the five behavioral drivers over time. Based on twenty-six interviews and approximately 200 h of participant observations, we propose an analytical framework that consists of three distinctive stages in the life cycle of a blockchain ecosystem. Each stage is characterized by an intricate relationship between off-chain and on-chain governance mechanisms. Based on these findings, various recommendations are provided to increase the long-term viability of blockchain ecosystems.

Keywords: blockchain; governance; dynamics; ecosystems; case study; behavioral drivers; consensus mechanisms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/12/3/86/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/12/3/86/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:12:y:2022:i:3:p:86-:d:866804

Access Statistics for this article

Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Nancy Ma

More articles in Administrative Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().