Blockchain-enabled government efficiency and impartiality: using blockchain for targeted poverty alleviation in a city in China

ABSTRACT

Blockchain technology has unique characteristics that make it a powerful application for transforming government processes and improving the management of public benefits. In this paper, we propose that a blockchain-enabled government can achieve higher levels of efficiency and impartiality compared to traditional and general digital government. These improvements can be achieved through blockchain’s impact on the accuracy, coordination, trust, and transparency of information-based processes. Propositions are examined using a blockchain-enabled program of targeted poverty alleviation in a major metropolitan city in China. An analysis of data from semi-structured interviews and public documents indicates that the blockchain-enabled government process, through the technology’s coordination and accuracy features, can improve the efficiency of targeted poverty alleviation work in the local government. In addition, we find that impartiality of a government program is improved through the transparency and trust that is enabled by the application of blockchain technology.

KEYWORDS:

• Blockchain
• government
• sustainability
• impartiality
• case study
• poverty alleviation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xue Ning

Xue Ning will join as an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Her research interests are IS for sustainability, emerging IT, and health IT. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Management Analytics, Journal of Smart Tourism, and Sustainability, among other journals. She will earn her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Denver. Previously, she worked with an international organization for four years on projects relevant to local governments' sustainability.

Ronald Ramirez

Dr. Ronald Ramirez is the Associate Dean of Programs and an Associate Professor of Information Systems at the Business School, University of Colorado Denver. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine, an M.B.A. in Finance from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from California State University Fresno. Dr. Ramirez has research expertise in organizational and strategic issues as they relate to the investment and use of information technology, primarily in the areas of value maximization, organizational structure, process change, data governance, and firm innovation. His research has been published in Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, Information & Management, Decision Support Systems, and the Journal of Operations Management.

Jiban Khuntia

Dr. Jiban Khuntia is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at the Business School of the University of Colorado Denver. He is also a faculty in the health administration program. He directs the Health Administration Research Consortium and CSIS Business Ph.D. program. He received his Ph.D. from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. Dr. Khuntia’s research is in the areas of health information technology and service innovation. His work has appeared in top journals, including Journal of Medical Internet Research, Information Systems Research, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Science, Decision Support Systems, Communications of the Association for Information Systems. Earlier, he had a decade of professional and consulting experience in supercomputing, the IT industry, and government.