Evaluation of “innovation chain + supply chain” fusion driven by blockchain technology under typical scenario

Abstract

Based on different innovation level of manufacturing enterprise's technological demands, this study builds a panoramic framework for the fusion of innovation and supply chain to match the technological demands with the technology market, and proposes three scenarios in which enterprise can achieve its goal with the help of blockchain technology (BCT). By choosing a typical scenario of collaboration between enterprise and innovators in the innovation chain, we construct principal-agent models applied into a chained collaborative innovation scenario. Focusing on level of efforts and revenue allocation ratio during the process of technological upgrade, we analyze the mechanism of value creation and interest sharing among enterprise and innovators under blockchain enabled innovation chain (BCEIC). The results show that under the blockchain enabled scenario: (1) It is beneficial to be an innovator in early stage of the innovation chain: the optimal level of efforts for early innovators is greater than that of traditional model, and also the optimal revenue obtained is greater than that of traditional model; (2) Innovators are more focused on innovation activities: the innovator's optimal level of effort respect to success rate fluctuates less than the traditional model; (3) Fully motivate all innovators: when success rate is low, proportion of revenue allocated to the innovator is extremely low, but once the success rate goes up by just a small margin, enterprise will elevate the optimal proportion of revenue allocated to innovators in order to motivate all innovators. Finally, based on the results in this typical scenario, we discuss the prospect of a panoramic application of blockchain technology into innovation chain, which will most likely produce even better results.