ABSTRACT Blockchain technology can reshape financial accounting operations by altering how transactional information is recorded, verified, and shared across organizations. Prior research has largely examined the technology’s effects on operational efficiency, but less is known about its influence on accounting transaction costs. Using transaction cost theory, we examine how blockchain affordances affect search, bargaining, and monitoring costs in financial accounting operations. We began by drawing on the accounting literature on blockchain technology to identify four affordances associated with this technology: decentralization, automation, confidentiality, and data integrity. Next, we conducted semistructured interviews with financial industry professionals and blockchain experts and analyzed their responses based on transaction cost determinants of bounded rationality, asset specificity, uncertainty, opportunism, and transaction frequency. Our results develop a conceptual model relating the identified four blockchain technology affordances to transaction costs. The results further indicate that blockchain technology’s organizational effects depend on contextual alignment rather than inherent technological capabilities. Data Availability: Because of confidentiality commitments made to participants, the interview data used in this study are not publicly available. The article reports aggregated and anonymized evidence sufficient to support the analysis. Further methodological details are available from the first author upon request, subject to ethical restrictions. JEL Classifications: M41; D23; O33; M15.
Tilooby et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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