Blockchain and sustainability: winning combination for generating better performance?

Blockchain is proving that it can have a significant impact on the business models of companies and particularly those companies that pursue sustainable goals. In this context, the growing literature on companies' pursuit of sustainability has mainly focused on the impact of blockchain on companies' sustainable performance, and there are limited cases where the effect of blockchain use on companies' economic and financial performance has been analysed. In this perspective, the objective of the study is to analyze whether enterprises that adopt blockchain to achieve sustainability goals and enterprises that pursue sustainability without using that technology show relevant differences in terms of profitability, financial structure, economic growth and employees’ performances. To this aim, the authors focused on Italian SMEs operating in the Food & Beverage sector which pursue sustainability objectives. Empirical data was collected from the AIDA database for the fiscal years between 2018 and 2020. Once identified two samples of firms, one using blockchain technology and one not, the value and the statistical significance of the differences of the selected indicators in terms of mean, median and density distributions we determined. Empirical result show that the application of blockchain technologies to pursue sustainability goals does not appear to lead to better (or worse) corporate economic performance, nor it is associated with significant differences in terms or financial structure or productivity. The qualitative analysis carried out to select the samples also showed that only 5.8 percent of SMEs belonging to the agribusiness sector make disclosures on the sustainable processes adopted. Our findings have both a theoretical and a practical relevance. From a theoretical point of view, the analysis of financial performance of companies that adopt a new technology to pursue sustainability fits into the ongoing debate on blockchain and on its potential applications; in particular, our research contributes to the existing literature by providing new evidence and considerations on the business relevance of blockchain technology, as we empirically assess its impact on the economic-financial results of firms which adopt that technology in order to improve their performance also in terms of sustainability. Indeed, this study is among the first to analyze the different economic-financial performance of companies pursuing sustainability using different technologies and, from that perspective, it could start an interesting line of research aimed at analyzing the tools that enable the pursuit of sustainability while maximizing the related economic-financial results. From a practical-managerial point of view, our results provide a deeper insight into the effectiveness of using this technology to pursue sustainability goals. However, further analyses are needed to examine a broader spectrum of technologies, best practices as well as additional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to sustainability. Future studies could then assess the performance of companies outside the scope of financial analysis.