Blockchain innovation and firm’s financial performance: patent analysis based on firm-level information

ABSTRACT

This research makes an initial attempt to analyse the effects of blockchain patents on a firm’s financial performance. Blockchain technology has received increased attention since bitcoin prices skyrocketed in 2016, and applications for blockchain patents rapidly increased thereafter. Prior studies have documented that blockchain innovation could add economic value to firms, but without robust empirical analyses. Therefore, this study provides the first empirical approach to determine the effect of blockchain patents on a firm’s financial performance. We find that a firm’s blockchain patents are positively associated with firm value and firm performance. Moreover, the association between a firm’s blockchain patents and firm value or performance is more pronounced in markets with higher competition. This study provides theoretical and practical implications. The empirical results of this study lend credence to the argument that blockchain patent contributes to real value creation. We also add to blockchain literature and extend the literature discussing environmental uncertainty. Moreover, this study suggests useful insights for firms that consider developing blockchain patents and implies the signalling effect of blockchain patent in the capital market.

KEYWORDS:

• Blockchain patents
• firm value
• firm performance
• real option theory
• resource-based view

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• O32
• O30

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Confirmation of corresponding author

Kyungmyung Jang, the corresponding author, confirms that the manuscript submitted under the title ‘Blockchain Innovation and Firm’s Financial Performance: Patent Analysis Based on Firm-level Information has not been published and is not being considered for publication anywhere.

I confirm that all named authors have read and approved the manuscript, and there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. I acknowledge that the corresponding author is the sole contact for the editorial process and is responsible for communicating with all other authors and submissions of revisions.

Credit authorship contribution statement

Kyungmyung Jang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision.

Jae Yeon Sim: Conceptualization, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

¹ Blockchain ensures that every listing includes images and quality documents for the exact part being offered for sale. It establishes the pedigree of each part, using encrypted data trails to create and share a digital ledger of previous transactions for each part (Honeywell Official Site).

² For handling industrial effects, we use Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) code, which presents a superior classification to the standard industrial classification codes (Sanjeev, Lee, and Oler 2003).

³ We include model including only control variables to check whether the adjusted R-squared increases and the sign of control variables changes when we include explanatory variables.

⁴ We collected total in-process blockchain patent data by the same keyword search in the USPTO patent application database, finding 2,206 in-process patents for the years 2013 to 2019.