Blockchain Adoption in the Academic Publishing Ecosystem

This research explores the potential impact of blockchain technology adoption on the electronic academic publishing ecosystem. One of the major problems within this ecosystem is that academic libraries face yearly increases, well beyond the inflation cost for the electronic resources that they are obliged by their universities and researchers to provide, with consequential inordinate profits for the publishers and continuous high costs for academic libraries. Blockchain technology is one new technology that has the potential to cause a profound change to practitioners’ current business models, affecting the power imbalance between publishers and academic libraries. The purpose of this research is to examine the capacity that practitioners have to prepare for the introduction of a potentially disruptive technology such as blockchain technology. The thesis addresses and answers the two research questions: 1) What factors are involved in the potential introduction of blockchain technology in the academic publishing ecosystem? 2) How do practitioners prepare for the possible adoption of blockchain technology within the academic publishing ecosystem? This study uses a grounded theory method to collect and analyse 30 interviews with practitioners in academic libraries, publishers, and blockchain implementers. This grounded theory method follows a ‘middle road’ approach consisting of open coding, selective coding and a novel method of axial coding using diagrams. This is one of the first qualitative studies to theorize on the possible introduction of blockchain technology into the academic library and publishing ecosystem. The research examines the possible future direction of blockchain technology adoption within this ecosystem and the 22 concepts involved in its effects on supply chain networks. These concepts and other findings are compared with the existing academic literature. The thesis argues that blockchain technology should be seen as infrastructure, that blockchain solutions require solving real business problems, and that a holistic solution which is a cooperative business solution for all stakeholders transforms the ecosystem. The research finds that as yet there is little uptake of blockchain technology within the academic publishing ecosystem. If blockchain technology is introduced to this ecosystem the most suitable applications for blockchain technology are in the credentialling, identification, metadata distribution, and authentication areas. There is a general reluctance of academic libraries to develop blockchain applications in-house due to cost and lack of suitable personnel, so they are more likely to take on blockchain from a trusted supplier. Publishers have little need of innovations such as blockchain technology that threaten their already lucrative business model. The major outcome of this study is the APEBA Framework of blockchain adoption, The framework has five groups: ecosystem, content, blockchain adoption, acceptance, and holistic solution. The relationships between these groups are transforms, influences, enhances, absorbs/incorporates/piecemeal, and produces/provides. Other outcomes are a model comparing acceptance factors with resistance factors, and a model of blockchain knowledge compared with the likelihood of blockchain introduction. By providing this framework and the two models, this research answers the two research questions and helps to prepare practitioners for possible blockchain adoption, and leads to opportunities for efficiencies in their use, payment, and management of electronic resources.