An Emerging Digital Ecosystem: Blockchain Competence Certification Networks

In this paper, we investigate how blockchain technologies improve the certification system and generate added value for different involved actors: learners, educational institutions, and businesses. An exploratory study is proposed to systematize the overall impacts of blockchain in the field of digital certification while focusing on university education as the main research field. We carried out a desk analysis, a direct observation/focus groups and semi-structured interviews with key players of the two Italian universities that first adopted a blockchain-certification system. The aim is to make sense of drivers and value generation conditions in the new scenario introduced by the development of DACS (Digital Academic Certification System), shedding light on the relationships between actors in the ecosystem that characterize the different types of complementarities between actors and services before and after the introduction of blockchain-based platforms and the personal wallet containing titles and certifications. Three main findings arose from the study, related to actors, ecosystem and complementarities. The main contributions of this study from the theoretical point of view is that it produces a first empirical evidence to the new Ecosystem Theory proposed by Jacobides et al. (2018). From the managerial perspective, this study contributes to better identify and debate conditions and success factors unlocking value generation and benefits embedded in Digital Certification Ecosystems.