A framework for analysing blockchain technology adoption: Integrating institutional, market and technical factors

The adoption of blockchain technologies require the consideration of a broad range of factors, over and above the predominantly technology focus of most current work. Whilst scholarly literature on blockchain technology is only beginning to emerge, majority are focused on the technicalities of the technology and tend to ignore the organizational complexities of adopting the technology. Drawing from a focused review of literature, this paper proposed a conceptual framework for adoption of blockchain technology capturing the complex relationships between institutional, market and technical factors. The framework highlights that varying outcomes are possible, and the change process is focal as this shapes the form blockchain applications take. Factors presented in the framework (institutional, market and technical) interact and mutually influence each other. The proposed framework can be used by organisations as a reference point for adopting blockchain applications and by scholars to expand, refine and evaluate research into blockchain technology

The regulator's conundrum. How market reflexivity limits fundamental financial reform

Financial firms’ valuation approaches are key to financial market functioning. The financial crisis exposed fundamental faults in pre-crisis practices and the regulations that bolstered them. Critics pointed to reflexivity: financial markets have no solid anchor outside of market participants’ assessments, which makes them inherently unstable. Reflexivity implies valuation techniques are performative: they shape rather than reflect risks. Critics thus called for root and branch reform: regulators needed to regain control over these valuation practices. In spite of a flurry of changes, progress on the reforms has been limited in precisely those domains where it seemed most necessary. We argue that this lack of progress does not persist in spite of market reflexivity, but because of it. Public prescriptiveness might mandate widespread use of deficient valuation routines, exacerbating their deleterious performative effects and implicating public authorities in future financial crises. In the regulator's conundrum, neither a hands-off approach to valuation approaches, nor an interventionist stance promises to be effective. Empirically, we show how reflexivity has obstructed fundamental reforms in the European Union in three key domains: credit ratings, liquidity regulation, and accounting standards. Market reflexivity itself is, therefore, crucial to understanding the limited regulatory reforms we have witnessed since the crisis