Browsing by Author "Mattila, Juri"
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- Blockchain Systems as Multi-sided Platforms
School of Science | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)(2021) Mattila, JuriEver since its discovery, blockchain technology has been heralded as a disruptive innovation for the digital economy. Today, more than a decade later, however, the digital society still seems largely untransformed by blockchain. Was the biggest hype phenomenon since the dot com bubble all just smoke and mirrors—or did something happen after all that we simply missed by looking in the wrong direction? The definition of ‘blockchain’ is a notoriously elusive one. Without a structured socio-economic delineation, perceiving and understanding the phenomenon’s effects on digitalization is difficult. To this end, this dissertation investigates whether permissionless blockchain systems could be delineated in a structured and comprehensive manner as digital multi-sided platforms. By applying a critical realist methodological approach, the dissertation explores public permissionless blockchain systems through a multitude of research methodologies, such as case studies and design science, and several focal perspectives, e.g. cost, governance and incentivization. Through the frameworks of multi-sided platform theory and transaction cost economics, the dissertation makes an effort to elucidate the platform characteristics and the transformative impact of blockchain systems to the digital platform economy and digitalization in general. The dissertation finds that permissionless blockchain systems can be coherently described as multi-sided platforms. Differing from conventional multi-sided platforms in multiple ways, blockchain systems provide an alternative method for deploying, growing and sustaining multi-sided platforms as ahierarchical peer-to-peer networks. Their eccentric growth dynamic enables a new kind of ‘fire-and-forget’ approach to platform deployment—but with the trade-off of higher operating costs and platform resource scarcity. Thus, blockchain systems should not be misconstrued as substitutes for conventional multi-sided platforms, or improved versions thereof. Instead, they seem to represent a limited example of a transition from the conventional service-structured business logic towards an even more all-encom- passing value co-creation and platform co-opetition perspective than what is facilitated bycontemporary multi-sided platforms. Contributing to the discussion on the transformative impact of blockchain systems, this dissertation concludes that a digital transformation has taken place in their wake over the past decade. However, this transformation seems largely misinterpreted due to poor choices of explanatory frameworks and overinflated expectations. Transcending the more popular perspectives rooted in decentralization, trust, and digital currency, this dissertation paints a picture of this transformation through a lens of platform deployment, vertical integration, and horizontal modularity. By systematically linking the blockchain phenomenon to the comprehensive socio-economic framework of digital multi-sided platforms, the dissertation enables better and more comprehensive exploration of this transformation. - Blockchain-based deployment of product-centric information systems
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2021-02) Mattila, Juri; Seppälä, Timo; Valkama, Pellervo; Hukkinen, Taneli; Främling, Kary; Holmström, JanCollecting and utilizing product life-cycle data is both difficult and expensive for products that move between different industrial settings at various points of the product life-cycle. Product-centric approaches that present effective solutions in tightly integrated environments have been problematic to deploy across multiple industries and over longer timespans. Addressing deployment costs, incentives, and governance, this paper explores a blockchain-based approach for the deployment of product-centric information systems. Through explorative design science and systematic combining, the deployment of a permissionless blockchain system for collecting product life-cycle data is conceptualized, demonstrated, and evaluated by experts. The purpose of the blockchain-based solution is to manage product data interactions, to maintain an accurate single state of product information, and to provide an economic incentive structure for the provision and the deployment of the solution. The evaluation by knowledgeable researchers and practitioners identifies the aspects limiting blockchain-based deployment of solutions in the current industrial landscape. Combining theory and practice, the paper lays the foundation for a blockchain-based approach to product information management, placing design priority on inter-industrial and self-sustained deployment. - Distributed Governance in Multi-Sided Platforms
A3 Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa(2018-07-24) Mattila, Juri; Seppälä, TimoOver the last decade, blockchain technology has facilitated a method by which a network of equipotent and equally privileged peers can jointly maintain and edit databases in an entirely decentralized manner, without any kind of an intermediary exhibiting unilateral control. As a consequence it has enabled the creation of a new type of multi-sided platform architecture with distributed governance. As the different platform provision functions are opened to free market competition rather than monopolized by a single entity, the monopoly-like pricing structure typical of platforms is overhauled. Instead, blockchain-enabled distributed platforms appear to share value more evenly between the all the different market sides connected to the platform. Our analysis reveals that blockchain technology adds new considerations to how multi-sided platform architectures should be perceived and analyzed. - Expanding the Platform: Smart Contracts as Boundary Resources
A3 Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa(2018-07-24) Lauslahti, Kristian; Mattila, Juri; Hukkinen, Jussi; Seppälä, TimoPlatform businesses are born global, with instant access to global markets. Thanks to the algorithmic, self-executing and self-enforcing computer programs known as smart contracts, platform businesses now also have instant access to global capital markets from birth. However, the legal status of these smart-contract-enabled funding mechanisms and smart contracts in general is not well defined. In this article, we analyze how well the formation mechanisms of the general principles of Finnish contract law can be applied to the technological framework of smart contracts. We find that depending on the case, smart contracts can create legally binding rights and obligations to their parties. We also observe that contracts have not been formerly perceived as technical boundary resources in the sense that platform ecosystems could foster broader network effects by opening their application contracting interfaces to third parties - How Do Intelligent Goods Shape Closed-Loop Systems?
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2018-05-01) Rajala, Risto; Hakanen, Esko; Mattila, Juri; Seppälä, Timo; Westerlund, MikaThis article explores how disruptive technologies increase the intelligence of goods and revitalize business models in the circular economy. Applying the industrial ecology perspective, we discuss how intelligent goods can boost the sustainability of industrial ecosystems. North American and European cases highlight how business model innovators utilize goods-related information to develop more competitive closed-loop systems. We identify three archetypes of closed-loop systems – inner circles, decentralized systems, and open systems – and delineate how they leverage information resources for collaboration. This study advances the understanding of closed-loop systems in the circular economy, which is more dependent than ever on digital platforms. - Skimping on Gas – Reducing Ethereum Transaction Costs in a Blockchain Electricity Market Application
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2019-01-08) Hukkinen, Jussi; Mattila, Juri; Smolander, Kari; Seppälä, Timo; Goodden, TobiasIn recent years, information systems have not been largely evaluated by their operating costs, but mainly by their strategic benefit and competitive advantage. As blockchain-based decentralized applications become more commonplace, representing a shift towards fully consumption-based distributed computing, a new mode of thinking is required of developers, with meticulous attention to computational resource efficiency. This study improves on a blockchain application designed for conducting microtransactions of electricity in a nanogrid environment. By applying the design science research methodology, we improve the efficiency of the application’s smart contract by 11%, with further improvement opportunities identified. Despite the results, we find the efficiency remains inadequate for public Ethereum deployment. From the optimization process, we extrapolate a set of general guidelines for optimizing the efficiency of Ethereum smart contracts in any application.