Abstract

Keywords

۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Blockchain Technology characteristics

۳٫ Research on blockchain applications in marketing

۴٫ Research method

۵٫ Evaluation

۶٫ Applications

۷٫ Open issues and future trends

Credit author statement

Declaration of competing interest

References

Abstract

Given the emerging nature of integrating Blockchain Technology (“BCT”) into several business fields concerning the interaction between companies and their customers, this study aims to investigate the applications of BCT in marketing through an accurate procedure of locating, selecting and analyzing existing companies using BCT in marketing. A sample that consists of 800 companies was identified using web-scraping methods. The data set was collected from ICO websites as well as from an existing, older landscape of applications. The data set was then intensively analyzed in order to be categorized into five fields of marketing technology. Advertising and ecommerce outgrew the other fields of social & relationship, content & experience and data in absolute numbers, revealing the focus of practitioners in the past as well as gaps for the future. The authors provided future directions for researchers on and development of tools to systematically generate knowledge and improve the application of BCT and the work of practitioners in marketing.

۱٫ Introduction

The environmental change society is facing is an explicit request for companies for being responsive to change, both internally and externally regarding their interaction with the market and the environment. The management of the external marketing environment craves for answers on technological agility. These questions arise from changes in payments, advertising, delivery and distribution, due to technological advances and discussions in academia about Blockchain Technology (“BCT”) and net neutrality, just to name a few [1]. Academics, practitioners, law-makers and philosophers: They might have many things in common, one of them being their interest in BCT, its application and its effects on the market outgrowing its initial attraction to the context of cryptocurrencies and financial services [[2], [3], [4], [5], [6]]. This interest is mostly due to the expectations on the application of BCT being increasing (1) honesty, (2) consideration, (3) accountability and (4) transparency in trustworthy interactions in society and business [7]. Edelman’s Trust Barometer highlights the need for a democratization of trust by showing that trust inequality between the informed public and mass population set new records [8]. Governments’ efforts to react to technological changes are too slow and result in a feeling of unpreparedness for the future. This feeling of fear ends up in giving up to non-governmental parties and trust them with the individuals’ most private secrets [8]. Tapscott & Tapscott reflect this feeling by mentioning that “many people are simply unaware of the many micro-Faustian deals they make online every day” [۷].