BREAKING DOWN THE BLOCKCHAIN HYPE – TOWARDS A BLOCKCHAIN MARKET ENGINEERING APPROACH

The blockchain has reached the tip of a global hype across a variety of industries. The potential of this technology, inter alia building the fundament of Bitcoin, is assumed to be immense and disruptive – particularly for the financial industry. FinTech start-ups as well as established players however are just about to explore the true potential of blockchain technology as the fundament of (financial) markets. Before this backdrop, Information Systems research is making valuable contributions to the field by integrating the technical view on blockchain with interdisciplinary research approaches. Our contribution to the growing body of Information Systems literature in the context of the blockchain is twofold: First, we conduct a comprehensive literature review of the most relevant and recent IS research on blockchain. Second, based on the findings of our review, we build on existing research and propose a Blockchain Market Engineering Framework, which can support researchers as well as practitioners in analyzing and designing the elements of blockchain-based markets on an individual and global level. In addition, we go beyond a purely analytical perspective and provide a toolbox to support the active construction of blockchain-based ecosystems and infrastructures. In doing so we pave the way for future research that will help to break down the blockchain hype

Unlocking Online Reputation – On the Effectiveness of Cross-Platform Signaling in the Sharing Economy

With the ever-growing popularity of sharing economy platforms, complementors increasingly face the challenge to manage their reputation on different plat- forms. The paper reports the results from an experimental online survey to investigate how and under which condi- tions online reputation is effective to engender trust across platform boundaries. It shows that (1) cross-platform sig- naling is in fact a viable strategy to engender trust and that (2) its effectiveness crucially depends on source–target fit. Implications for three stakeholders are discussed. First, platform complementors may benefit from importing rep- utation, especially when they have just started on a new platform and have not earned on-site reputation yet. The results also show, however, that importing reputation (even if it is excellent) may be detrimental if there occurs a mismatch between source and target and that, hence, fit is of utmost importance. Second, regulatory authorities may consider reputation portability as a means to make platform boundaries more permeable and hence to tackle lock-in effects. Third, platform operators may employ cross-plat- form signaling as a competitive lever

It\u27s only pixels, badges, and stars: On the economic value of reputation on Airbnb

Trust is a crucial prerequisite for peer-to-peer rental and sharing. Therefore, platform operators such as Airbnb have implemented a host of trust-building mechanisms, user interface (UI) artefacts, and reputation systems. While the role of reputation systems for establishing trust is well understood, little is known about how reputation translates into tangible economic value. We thus consider the economic value of trust artefacts on Airbnb by quantifying price effects of common reputation features from a signalling theory perspective. Our analysis is based on a large-scale dataset from 86 German cities and hedonic price modelling. We find that index signals such as the hosts\u27 rating scores, duration of membership, and Superhost status provide economic value. Moreover, also conventional signals such as a high number of accommodation photographs consistently translate into price premiums. We discuss implications for platform operators, users, and the general design of IS artefacts intended to facilitate peer-to-peer platform interactions

Information Systems for Sustainable Use of Water in Smart Cities: A Review and Call for Future Research

Water is the basis of life—that being said, the rising scarcity triggered by climate change and urbanization is an increasingly important challenge in urban areas. The United Nations present “water” as one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and experts make impassionate calls for sustainable water management solutions as a seminal part of smart cities. While there are numerous research efforts in the IS community regarding certain SDGs and smart cities, we demonstrate in a structured literature review that urban water scarcity is still a blind spot. In this paper, we present pathways for future research alleys on this topic. We sketch out a vision for a smart city water system that is based on a novel information system. We draw on the energy informatics framework as a theoretical basis for our work and provide a context-specific discussion on its transferability to the resource of water in smart cities. By introducing urban water scarcity to the IS research agenda and showing opportunities as well as boundaries for the transfer of the energy informatics framework, we hope to stimulate IS researchers to be more active in pursuing research efforts in this pressing topic

Using Live Biofeedback for Decision Support: Investigating Influences of Emotion Regulation in Financial Decision Making

The influence of emotions on decision making is widely accepted, however, research investigat-ing emotions within decision support systems is scarce. Previous research showed that via emo-tion regulation decision makers can significantly improve their decisions. However, a sound perception of emotions is a foundation for beneficial emotion regulation. In this paper, we pro-pose the use of live biofeedback–the provision of real-time information about a person’s current physiological state–as a potential feature for decision support systems in online environments. We developed a research model and hypothesize that live biofeedback can moderate (i) the in-fluence of the decision environment on decision makers’ physiological states and (ii) the deci-sion makers’ perceptions of their emotional states. Within the current research a live biofeed-back prototype for decision support in the context of financial trading was implemented. We aim at testing the hypothesized moderating effects of the developed decision support system in the controlled environment of a laboratory market experiment

Trust in the Sharing Economy: An Experimental Framework

Peer-to-peer platforms in the realm of the sharing economy, such as Airbnb or BlaBlaCar, have heavily rattled the electronic commerce landscape and are expected to further impact consumer behavior in the future. While trust between the parties involved is of utmost importance in such platform economies, experimental research on this aspect is scarce. In this conceptual paper, we first present an experimental framework for targeting trust in the sharing economy based on experimental economics and the trust game in particular. In doing so, we sketch out a path to complement existing Information Systems research on the sharing economy by experimental methods. Second, we apply the framework to a specific use case, by developing a research model and experimental design to explore the role of user representation for trust on sharing economy platforms. We therefore set the stage for controlled (laboratory) experiments to enrich research on trust in the sharing economy

How Corporate Sharewashing Practices Undermine Consumer Trust

Sharewashing describes a platform’s act of misleading consumers by purposely portraying an image of social and ecological principles while the platform’s business model does not necessarily involve them. Drawing on Corporate Social Responsibility and Green Marketing literature, we propose and evaluate a research model for investigating the impact of sharewashing perceptions on consumer trust. Based on survey data from 145 millennials, our results reveal a significant negative effect of sharewashing perceptions on consumer trust, partially mediated by perceptions of risk and confusion. We discuss our findings in view of their practical and strategic relevance to sharing economy platform operators