Identifying Blockchain Technology Maturity's Levels in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

Currently, blockchain in the oil and gas industry is still at the experimental stage, and many people in the oil and gas industry do not acknowledge this technology. Blockchain technology can bring many opportunities, such as reducing transaction business costs and increasing transparency to the oil and gas industry. However, due to the blockchain being an emerging technology, organizations need to investigate the maturity stages to increase this technology's readiness and adoption. The capability Maturity Model (CMM) is one of the common models in information technology. This model is widely adopted as a public maturity model in business processes, industry, and IS / IT organizations. The blockchain technology maturity model is classified into five levels of emerging, identified, defined, operational and mature to identify the applications of this technology toward flourishing and providing the ultimate solution to most of the organization's problems. Therefore, this qualitative research has been designed to identify maturity levels to provide a conceptual model of maturity levels of blockchain technology in grounded theory. First, the initial factors extracted through reviewing the research background; then, by conducting semi-structured interviews with 12 blockchain technology experts, the data were collected. It is noted that the interview was stopped as the duplicated and identical data, based on grounded theory research strategy The meanings and characteristics of the blockchain maturity model challenges presented in three stages of coding: identification, classification, and finally, create the research model.The reliability of the interviews has confirmed by the reliability methods of Test-Retest and intra-subject agreement. The results of data analysis indicate that experts at the emerging level to primary educating and technology monitoring, at the identified level, to recognize the applications of this technology and regulation, at the defined level, to develop a roadmap, proof of concept (POC), and Feasibility, At the operational level, the stakeholder resistance, and at the matured level, the entry new members, the consortium, and increasing attention to maturity requirements, is spotlight with more frequency than other indicators and elements. Keywords: Blockchain, Blockchain capability maturity model, Blockchain maturity levels Currently, blockchain in the oil and gas industry is still at the experimental stage, and many people in the oil and gas industry do not acknowledge this technology. Blockchain technology can bring many opportunities, such as reducing transaction business costs and increasing transparency to the oil and gas industry. However, due to the blockchain being an emerging technology, organizations need to investigate the maturity stages to increase this technology's readiness and adoption. The capability Maturity Model (CMM) is one of the common models in information technology. This model is widely adopted as a public maturity model in business processes, industry, and IS / IT organizations. The blockchain technology maturity model is classified into five levels of emerging, identified, defined, operational and mature to identify the applications of this technology toward flourishing and providing the ultimate solution to most of the organization's problems. Therefore, this qualitative research has been designed to identify maturity levels to provide a conceptual model of maturity levels of blockchain technology in grounded theory. First, the initial factors extracted through reviewing the research background; then, by conducting semi-structured interviews with 12 blockchain technology experts, the data were collected. It is noted that the interview was stopped as the duplicated and identical data, based on grounded theory research strategy The meanings and characteristics of the blockchain maturity model challenges presented in three stages of coding: identification, classification, and finally, create the research model.The reliability of the interviews has confirmed by the reliability methods of Test-Retest and intra-subject agreement. The results of data analysis indicate that experts at the emerging level to primary educating and technology monitoring, at the identified level, to recognize the applications of this technology and regulation, at the defined level, to develop a roadmap, proof of concept (POC), and Feasibility, At the operational level, the stakeholder resistance, and at the matured level, the entry new members, the consortium, and increasing attention to maturity requirements, is spotlight with more frequency than other indicators and elements. Received: 23 August 2020 Revised: 03 September 2020 Accepted: 14 September2020