Jiunn-Woei Lian, Chih-Teng Chen, Li-Fang Shen and Hung-Ming Chen
The purpose of this study is to explore the critical factors that affect users’ acceptance and usage intention toward blockchain-based smart lockers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the critical factors that affect users’ acceptance and usage intention toward blockchain-based smart lockers.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is designed in two phases. In the first phase, the key stakeholders are interviewed. Participants include managers from technology providers and logistics companies. In the second phase, a questionnaire survey is used to validate the proposed model.
Findings
Based on the final results, this study makes the following three suggestions. First, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are the critical factors. In other words, it is important to emphasize the function and convenience of a new service when introducing it to a potential user. Second, safety is not the major concern when using a blockchain-based smart locker. This means that users will trust the service provider for providing a secure service. Users do not worry about the security problem. Finally, the network externality of smart locker is also insignificant.
Originality/value
This study has three major contributions. First, this study identifies the critical factors that will affect user acceptance of blockchain-based smart lockers. Next, this study combines the opinions from service providers and users to understand the gap between different stakeholders. Finally, this study can enrich our understanding on the applications of blockchain from a managerial perspective and not only from a technical perspective, as in most previous studies.
Details
Keywords
Matti Mottonen, Pekka Belt, Janne Harkonen and Binshan Lin
Requirements management has become a challenge for new product development (NPD) as products are getting increasingly complicated and customer segments more fragmented. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Requirements management has become a challenge for new product development (NPD) as products are getting increasingly complicated and customer segments more fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to provide new ideas for improving requirements management in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative interview study is carried out in the ICT sector to clarify the current challenges in requirements management. The results of the interview study are analysed using a benchmark from the automotive industry. This benchmark is chosen, as the automotive industry is a developed business sector that has streamlined its business processes, including its requirements management.
Findings
The paper shows how ICT can benefit from the experience of the car industry on issues such as managing customer needs throughout the NPD process, overflow of data and communicating requirements with suppliers.
Research limitations/implications
Using another sector as a benchmark is not a straightforward process and results cannot be directly copied. Fresh ideas are, however, obtainable when a well‐developed benchmark is used and results are applied flexibly. Deeper analysis on individual areas indentified here might be interesting topics for further study.
Practical implications
The paper shows that managers in the ICT sector should pay more attention to their requirements management and serving the needs of internal customers. The requirements management of the Japanese automotive industry is a potential source for improvement initiatives.
Originality/value
The paper provides new perspectives for the requirements management of the ICT sector by benchmarking the Japanese automotive industry.