Abstract

In expectation of an impending technological disruption, organizations get familiar with blockchain technology and scout for first value delivering implementations. So far, the promises and expectations fall short and large scale blockchain applications and ecosystems, apart from cryptocurrencies, are still missing. One aspect that contributes to this shortcoming is that blockchain projects face a multitude of implementation barriers, which have not yet been systematically identified. Blockchain can serve as a technological fabric, connecting different parties in a business network and facilitating information exchange. Such systems show clear resemblance to interorganizational information systems (IOIS). Therefore, the questions can be raised to what extent blockchain systems face the same implementation barriers as compared to any other IOIS implementation and, thus, if IOIS literature can be a valuable source for overcoming these barriers? To investigate these questions, we conduct a series of interviews with experts that have implemented blockchain prototypes in an interorganizational context and compare the derived barriers with the results of a structured literature review on challenges of IOIS implementations. We identify technical, organizational and network challenges that emerge along the blockchain implementation process and illustrate how the development of blockchain-based systems extends the existing knowledge on IOIS.

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