Explaining public officials' opinions on blockchain adoption: a vignette experiment

Blockchain is emerging as one of the major disruptive technologies of our times. In the context of public administration, blockchain heralds major transformations of public service provision and has the potential to increase the transparency of, and citizens' trust in, public administration and its services. However, the introduction of blockchain to public administrations means potentially changing aspects of the job performed by public officials, including their day-to-day activities and responsibilities, and even their very control over administrative processes. While some public officials may view blockchain positively as a means of improving current administrative practices, others may view it more negatively and resist it. The acceptance or otherwise of blockchain is, therefore, a fundamental issue for analysis. We conduct a vignette experiment to probe public officials' opinions on the introduction of blockchain in the provision of public services in a local council. We follow an influential classification of blockchain configurations to analyze whether different configurations of blockchain affect public officials' opinions toward its implementation. Results show that a more public configuration of certain aspects of the blockchain increases the likelihood that public officials will accept blockchain, while it is also associated with an increase in trust in public administration and its services.This research has been carried out with the support of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program through the project TOKEN under Grant 870603; Erasmus+Programme of the European Union (Jean Monnet Action 620296-EPP-1-2020-1-ES-EPPJMO-MODULE); and “Concepción Arenal” research grant program of the University of Cantabria co-financed by the Government of Cantabria