Towards a business model taxonomy of startups in the finance sector using blockchain

Abstract

In recent years, the blockchain technology has aroused growing interest in science and practice. Particularly the financial sector has high expectations of this technology, as is evidenced by numerous established start-ups and large amounts of venture capital. However, to date, there is only little scientifically founded knowledge on how such business models function. By addressing this research gap, we contribute to a better understanding of start-up business models using the blockchain technology. To this end, we develop a theoretically sound taxonomy of the elements of such business models. On that basis, we carry out a cluster analysis and identify business model archetypes that provide a better understanding of the topic. Based on the results achieved, we discuss implications of our research for both science and practice and point to future research directions. © International Conference on Information Systems 2018, ICIS 2018.All rights reserved.