Consumer-desired far-future circular economy scenarios with blockchain application

Abstract

Despite the scholarly consent that blockchain technology can play a central role for implementing circular economies (CEs) to arrive at cleaner consumption and production, the blockchain adoption rate by companies for this purpose is low. While this might be partly caused by technology maturity problems, scholars also recognize a lack of vision about blockchain technology applications that might assist companies in implementing CE business models. Particularly, we miss knowledge about consumerdesired future CE scenarios to help the understanding of the likelihood of consumer adoption. In this paper, we therefore ask: What are, from the perspective of future consumers, desirable far-future CEs that use blockchain technology? We present the findings of a study that analyzed 57 consumer-desired CE scenarios in 2041 in which blockchain is used. From the analysis, we identify four ideal types of consumer-desired CEs, and the blockchain use cases in them. Based on that, we discuss and conclude on value propositions for CE business models that companies can use to attract consumer participation and blockchain adoption in pro-circular shifts. Second, we aimed at gathering consumer visions that can guide the strategic investment of companies in the development of blockchain technology applications for efficient CE business models.

Keywords

• Circular economy
• Consumer
• Technology adoption
• Blockchain