Factors Affecting the Adoption of Blockchain-based distributed Identity Management Adoption in Organizations

Blockchain is a disruptive technology with the potential to innovate businesses. Ignoring or resisting it might result in a competitive disadvantage for organisations. This research addresses the knowledge gap on information and cybersecurity applications of blockchain, especially from the enterprise perspective, focussing on distributed identity management in organisations.

The main objective was to investigate technological, organisational, and environmental (TOE) factors affecting the adoption of blockchain-based distributed identity management (BDIDM) in organisations to determine the most critical factors. Secondary objectives included determining whether the blockchain type affects BDIDM adoption and whether the TOE-BDIDM model measuring the phenomenon is effective and appropriate. 

But given the relative newness of blockchain, the initial goal consists of intensively exploring the topic to understand the practicality of adopting BDIDM in organisations and establishing whether claims made around it are factual than just due to the blockchain hype. The study used meta-synthesis to explore the topic, summarising 69 papers selected qualitatively from reputed academic sources. The meta-synthesis published journal article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9910078. 

The study then surveyed 115 information and cybersecurity (InfoSec) practitioners selected randomly in South African organisations to investigate the TOE factors affecting BDIDM adoption. To do so, it utilises an online questionnaire rooted in an adapted TOE model called TOE-BDIDM as a data collection instrument. The journal article associated with the empirical report can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811534.