Blockchain for business management: Applications, challenges and potentials

Blockchain technology has emerged as one of the most vital and encouraging technology in Industry 4.0. It is said to have the potential to majorly transform the way the business world and the economic system functions; it offers numerous possibilities to flourish existing businesses and also to grow entirely new ones along with severe disruptions to the traditional businesses. The present study is an attempt to understand the applications of blockchain technology in managing business. Through systematic literature review, it intends to study the applications in different key functions of business. Furthermore, it highlights the key challenges in blockchain implementation and the potentials of blockchain in managing business. The study will be useful to the practitioners as well as to the scholars around the globe. Blockchain adoption can help in securing business transactions, reduction in errors, improving organizational functions and procedures, and prevention of fraud. The smart contract as a feature of blockchain technology can be applied to all transactions involving movement of resources namely finance, material and people. This will lead to effective tracking, visibility, security enhancement and cost reduction in the overall business process.