Abstract:

In the era of the digital economy, data, like labor, capital and technology, plays a fundamental role in economic activities, becoming a factor of production in the supply of goods and services. Currently, how the data factor realizes its value in economic activities are not sufficiently discussed. More studies are needed for addressing issues such as “isolated data islands” and distrust between data owners, that hinder the value realization of data factor. The blockchain technology provides a new condition for the data factor to play its role and realize its economic value. This paper, using the food supply chain as a case, to study roles of the blockchain technology in the realization of data’s economic value. By comparing traditional and blockchain-based food tractability system, we reveal the data involved in food supply chain and the roles they play, and then summarize how the blockchain technology influence data factor on realizing its economic value. Our study shows that the blockchain technology facilitates data’s value realization by increasing the amount of data, linking “isolated data islands”, optimizing the allocation of factors of production, improving the trusts between data users and enhancing the security in data use.

Key words: food supply chain, blockchain technology, data as a factor of production, value in use