SFeDu
of.211, Gorgoko St., 88 
Rostov-on-Don
Russia
344002
+7 (863) 250-59-54
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
te@sfedu.ru

TERRA ECONOMICUS

  • Home
  • Issues
  • 2021
  • No 1
  • Economic perspectives of the Blockchain technology: Application of a SWOT analysis

Economic perspectives of the Blockchain technology: Application of a SWOT analysis


TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 19 (no. 1),

Our paper focuses on the economic perspective of the Blockchain technology in economics and business in general and in agricultural business in particular. The field of the study is the European agri-food supply chain and related government politics (CAP, F2F, Green Deal) focused on the Czech Republic. Analysis of the agribusiness is conducted on an evaluating the existing data from the FADN CZ database and Eurostat database. Blockchain technology is evaluated through fundamental analysis of the context. Findings from this investigation were used in enhanced SWOT-analysis in the context of technological foresight. This method examines both the existing situation, external factors and forces, as well as possible changes in the future. Our results confirmed that Blockchain technology has big opportunities in agricultural business and agri-food supply chain in the digital economy. The group of issues that could be solved with Blockchain includes food traceability, support of new business models and direct sales models, rebalance the power in the food chain, etc. The key problem of the Czech agricultural business is inefficiency and low innovative activities. However, existing state support and positive trends show perspectives in this area. Although the Blockchain could bring benefits, there is a research gap related to financing the Blockchain implementation and cooperation between businesses and the authorities.
Citation: Firsova, N., Abrhám, J. (2021). Economic perspectives of the Blockchain technology: Application of a SWOT analysis. Terra Economicus 19(1): 78–90. DOI: 10.18522/2073-6606- 2021-19-1-78-90
Acknowledgment: The paper has been supported by the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) of Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Grant No. 2020A0016 (The Potential of Blockchain Technology in the Czech Republic in the Context of European Agricultural and Food Policies).


Keywords: Blockchain technology; agriculture; agri-food supply chain; digital economy; SWOT-analysis

JEL codes: Q1, O13, O32, G38

References:
  • Abrham, J., Strielkowski, W., Vošta, M., Šlajs, J. (2015). Factors that influence the competitiveness of Czech rural SMEs. Agricultural Economics 61(10): 450–460. doi: 10.17221/63/2015-AGRICECON
  • Abrham, J., Wang, J. (2017). Novel trends on using ICTs in the modern tourism industry. Czech Journal of Social Sciences, Business and Economics 6(1): 37–43. doi: 10.24984/cjssbe.2017.6.1.5
  • Baralla, G., Pinna, A., Corrias, G. (2019). Ensure traceability in European food supply chain by using a Blockchain system, s. 40–47. In: 2019 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Engineering for Blockchain (WETSEB): 2019 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Engineering for Blockchain (WETSEB). Montreal, QC, Canada: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/WETSEB.2019.00012
  • Becvarova, V. (2005). The Essence and Economic Context of the Formation of Agribusiness. Brno: Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry.
  • Belu, M. (2019). Application of Blockchain in international trade: An overview. The Romanian Economic Journal XXII(7): 2–16.
  • Cabelkova, I., Strielkowski, W., Wende, F.D., Krayneva, R. (2020). Factors influencing the threats for urban energy networks: The inhabitants’ point of view. Energies 13(21): 5659. doi: 10.3390/en13215659
  • Cechura, L., Hockmann, H., Malý, M., Žáková Kroupová, Z. (2015). Comparison of technology and technical efficiency in cereal production among EU countries. Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, 7(665-2016-45054), 27–37. doi: 10.7160/aol.2015.070203
  • Čechura, L. (2009). Sources and limits of growth of the agricultural sector: analysis of efficiency and productivity of the Czech agricultural sector – application SFA (Stochastic Frontier Analysis). Prague: Wolters Kluwer Czech Republic.
  • Cole, R., Stevenson, M., Aitken, J. (2019). Blockchain technology: Implications for operations and supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 24(4): 469–483. doi: 10.1108/SCM-09-2018-0309
  • Dax, T., Fischer, M. (2018). An alternative policy approach to rural development in regions facing population decline. European Planning Studies 26(2), 297–315. doi: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1361596
  • Drescher, D. (2017). Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps. Berkeley, CA: Apress.
  • European Commission (2014). Guidelines on programming for innovation and the implementation of the EIP for agriculture productivity and sustainability. Programming period 2014–2020. December (https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/sites/agri-eip/files/eip-guidelines-july-2014_en.pdf).
  • European Commission (2019). CAP specific objectives. Brief No. 3. Farmer position in value chains (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/key_policies/documents/cap-specific-objectives-brief-3-farmer-position-in-value-chains_en.pdf).
  • European Commission (2020). A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. 20 May 2020. (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/communication-annex-farm-fork-green-deal_en.pdf).
  • European Commission (2021). Common agricultural policy funds (https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/financing-cap/cap-funds_en).
  • Fabregas, R., Kremer, M., Schilbach, F. (2019). Realizing the potential of digital development: The case of agricultural advice. Science 366(6471). doi:10.1126/science.aay3038
  • Gardner, B.L., Rausser, G.C. (eds.) (2001). Handbook of Agricultural Economics. Amsterdam ; New York: Elsevier. Handbooks in economics.
  • Ge, L., Brewster, C., Spek, J., Smeenk, A., Top, J., Diepen, F. van, Klaase, B., Graumans, C., Ruyter de Wildt, M. de. (2017). Blockchain for agriculture and food: Findings from the pilot study. Wageningen Economic Research report, no. 2017-112. doi: 10.18174/426747
  • Gorshkova, N.V., Kusmartseva, N.V. (2020). Financial Aspects of the Digital Economy Development in the Agricultural Sector, s. 164–172. In: A.O. Inshakova, N.I. Inshakova (eds.) Competitive Russia: Foresight Model of Economic and Legal Development in the Digital Age. Cham: Springer International Publishing, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-45913-0_19
  • Hackius, N., Petersen, M. (2017). Blockchain in logistics and supply chain: trick or treat? Digitalization in Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Smart and Digital Solutions for an Industry 4.0 Environment. Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL) 23: 3–18. doi:10.15480/882.1444
  • Iuon-Chang, L., Tzu-Chun, L. (2017). A survey of Blockchain security issues and challenges. International Journal of Network Security 19(5): 653–659. doi:10.6633/IJNS.201709.19(5).01
  • Janda, K., Rausser, G., Strielkowski, W. (2013). Determinants of profitability of Polish rural micro-enterprises at the time of EU Accession. Eastern European Countryside 19(1): 177–217. doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0009
  • Kamilaris, A., Fonts, A., Prenafeta-Boldy, F.X. (2019). The rise of blockchain technology in agriculture and food supply chains. Trends in Food Science & Technology [online] 91: 640–652. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2019.07.034
  • Kouhizadeh, M., Sarkis, J. (2018). Blockchain practices, potentials, and perspectives in greening supply chains. Sustainability 10(10): 3652. doi: 10.3390/su10103652
  • Kumar, V.M., Iyengar, N.Ch.S.N. (2017). A Framework for Blockchain Technology in Rice Supply Chain Management Plantation, s. 125–130. In: Future Generation Communication and Networking 2017. doi:10.14257/astl.2017.146.22
  • Lin, J., Li, L., Luo, X.R., Benitez, J. (2020). How do agribusinesses thrive through complexity? The pivotal role of e-commerce capability and business agility. Decision Support Systems 135: 113342. doi: 10.1016/j.dss.2020.113342
  • Lisin, E., Shuvalova, D., Volkova, I., Strielkowski, W. (2018). Sustainable development of regional power systems and the consumption of electric energy. Sustainability 10(4): 1111. doi: 10.3390/su10041111
  • Leng, K., Bi, Y., Jing, L., Fu, H.-C., Van Nieuwenhuyse, I. (2018). Research on agricultural supply chain system with double chain architecture based on Blockchain technology. Future Generation Computer Systems 86: 641–649. doi: 10.1016/j.future.2018.04.061
  • Lucena, P., Binotto, A.P.D., Momo, F.S., Kim, H. (2018). A case study for grain quality assurance tracking based on a Blockchain business network. arXiv:1803.07877 (http://arxiv.org/abs/1803.07877).
  • Mikus, O., Kukoc, M., Rogelj, M.J. (2019). The coherence of common policies of the EU in territorial cohesion: A never-ending discourse? A review. Agricultural Economics 65(3): 143–149. doi: 10.17221/229/2018-AGRICECON
  • Mistry, I., Tanwar, S., Tyagi, S., Kumar, N. (2020). Blockchain for 5G-enabled IoT for industrial automation: A systematic review, solutions, and challenges. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 135: 106382. doi: 10.1016/j.ymssp.2019.106382
  • Motta, G.A., Tekinerdogan, B., Athanasiadis, I.N. (2020). Blockchain applications in the agri-food domain: The first wave. Frontiers in Blockchain 3. doi:10.3389/fbloc.2020.00006
  • Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic system (https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf).
  • Nazarko, J., Ejdys, J., Halicka, K., Magruk, A., Nazarko, L., Skorek, A. (2017). Application of Enhanced SWOT Analysis in the Future-oriented Public Management of Technology. Procedia Engineering 182: 482–490. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.03.140
  • Niranjanamurthy, M., Nithya, B.N., Jagannatha, S. (2019). Analysis of Blockchain technology: Pros, cons and SWOT. Cluster Computing 22(S6): 14743–14757. doi:10.1007/s10586-018-2387-5
  • Rejeb, A., Keogh, J.G., Zailani, S., Treiblmaier, H., Rejeb, K. (2020). Blockchain technology in the food industry: A review of potentials, challenges and future research directions. Logistics 4(4): 27. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics4040027
  • Seebacher, S., Schüritz, R. (2017). Blockchain technology as an enabler of service systems: A structured literature review. In: S. Za, M. Drăgoicea, M. Cavallari (eds.) Exploring Services Science. IESS 2017. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing 279. Springer.
  • Sylvester, G. (ed.) (2019). E-agriculture in action: Blockchain for agriculture : Opportunities and challenges. Bangkok: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and International Telecommunication Union.
  • Xiong, H., Dalhaus, T., Wang, P., Huang, J. (2020). Blockchain technology for agriculture: Applications and rationale. Front. Blockchain 3: 7. doi:10.3389/fbloc.2020.00007
  • Zlyvko, O., Lisin, E., Rogalev, N., Kurdiukova, G. (2014). Analysis of the concept of industrial technology platform development in Russia and in the EU. International Economics Letters 3(4): 24–138. doi: 10.24984/iel.2014.3.4.2
Publisher: Southern Federal University
Founder: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606