Search Results (433)

Tax systems worldwide face a compliance gap that OECD data places at USD 100–240 billion annually in corporate avoidance alone, before accounting for the shadow economy and crypto-asset transactions. FinTech mandatory e-invoicing, real-time transaction matching, and machine-learning audit selection is narrowing the informational conditions that enable evasion, while simultaneously introducing governance risks: opaque algorithmic audit targeting, contested blockchain forensic evidence, and the surveillance potential of programmable money. This article presents a PRISMA 2020 systematic literature review of 59 peer-reviewed articles (Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect), complemented by IRAMUTEQ lexicometric analysis and an extension of the Allingham Sandmo compliance model to incorporate algorithmic detection probabilities, bomb-crater belief dynamics, and Zero-Knowledge Proof verification. Four thematic clusters emerge: tax compliance behaviour and FinTech adoption (19.92%), digital transformation and corporate performance (35.34%), bibliometric and emerging-technology research (16.54%), and cryptocurrency markets and regulatory challenges (28.20%). Across them, FinTech reduces evasion where institutional and technical conditions allow but generates distributional, evidentiary, and constitutional risks that existing legal frameworks have yet to resolve. In response, we propose the Techno-Legal Due Process Framework (TLDPF) three pillars (Techno-Proportionality, Cryptographic Burden of Proof, and Algorithmic Constitutionalism) grounded in EU/OECD constitutional doctrine as a normative design proposal awaiting empirical validation. Full article

The rapid expansion of e-commerce has reshaped global consumption systems by transforming production processes, logistics infrastructures, and consumer behaviour. While this transformation has generated significant economic opportunities, it has simultaneously intensified environmental pressures, particularly through last-mile delivery emissions, excessive packaging waste, and high return rates. At the same time, the growing diffusion of corporate sustainability reporting has raised increasing concerns about greenwashing, defined as the misrepresentation of environmental performance through selective disclosure or symbolic communication. This study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of sustainability practices in e-commerce, focusing on the relationship between environmental performance, transparency, and economic outcomes. Particular attention is devoted to the role of blockchain technology as a potential mechanism for enhancing verifiable transparency in complex supply chains. The research adopts a multiple case study design grounded in the methodological frameworks and integrates qualitative analysis with a semi-quantitative evaluation model. Seven companies operating in different segments of the e-commerce ecosystem are analyzed through an extensive review of secondary data sources, including ESG reports, financial disclosures, NGO assessments, and industry benchmarks. The findings reveal a substantial gap between declared sustainability commitments and actual implementation, with significant heterogeneity across firms. Companies that embed sustainability into their strategic core demonstrate stronger alignment between environmental and economic performance, whereas firms relying primarily on communication-driven approaches exhibit higher implementation gaps. The study contributes to the literature by introducing an analytical framework centered on the concept of the implementation gap and by demonstrating the central role of transparency in determining sustainability effectiveness. It also highlights the potential, yet still largely unrealized, role of blockchain technology in addressing information asymmetry and reducing greenwashing in e-commerce. Full article

This study maps how cognitive and behavioral concepts such as trust, emotion, and bias are represented in the literature on digital financial accounting-based decision-making and FinTech adoption (artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data analytics, and automated reporting). The study employs a bibliometric mapping analysis of 19,655 publications from SCOPUS, creating three visualizations through the VOSviewer software: Network, Overlay, and Density Visualization. This technique maps thematic clusters and identifies conceptual connections in the literature on cognitive and behavioral dimensions of FinTech adoption. Results highlight trust as a central node linking FinTech adoption with cognitive and behavioral factors. Key cognitive biases, including overconfidence, anchoring, and loss aversion, appear in the literature as recurrent concepts associated with FinTech adoption, while financial literacy is frequently discussed as a mitigating factor. The study extends behavioral financial accounting-based theory and technology acceptance models by integrating psychological and technological approaches into a unified conceptual framework, providing theoretical and practical implications for FinTech designers, regulatory authorities, and educational institutions. Full article

Blockchain offers significant potential to enhance transparency, traceability, and trust in e-commerce supply chains, yet adoption among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains uneven due to its simultaneous advantages and implementation complexity. This study conceptualizes blockchain adoption as the outcome of an organizational evaluative system shaped by digital readiness and dual cognitive assessments. Using survey data from 548 Chinese e-commerce SMEs, we examine how AI familiarity, representing digital preparedness, shapes perceived benefits and perceived costs, thereby influencing adoption intention. Structural equation modeling shows that AI familiarity increases perceived benefits, reduces perceived costs, and strengthens adoption intention both directly and indirectly, suggesting that prior technological exposure recalibrates internal benefit–cost evaluations. Perceived benefits promote adoption intention, whereas perceived costs inhibit it, confirming the central role of evaluative integration. Response surface analysis reveals that adoption intention depends on the configuration of benefits and costs: intention rises when benefits exceed costs, and benefits exert a stronger influence, indicating asymmetric weighting. Multi-group SEM suggests that the structural relationships remain broadly stable across domestic- and internationally oriented firms. By modeling blockchain adoption as a structured evaluative process conditioned by digital readiness, this study contributes to a more integrated understanding of organizational technology adoption under digital complexity. Full article

Institutional adoption of blockchain technology in supply chains, healthcare, and public administration remains constrained. Organizations that manage digital assets on behalf of large numbers of non-technical users lack custody architectures suited to their scale. Existing approaches either require users to manage private keys directly; rely on centralized custodians that store encrypted keys; or depend on distributed protocols such as multi-party computation, which impose substantial infrastructure and coordination overhead. This paper presents CryptoVault, a stateless custody architecture for institutional blockchain deployments that derives private keys on demand from a single master seed using BIP-44 hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets, eliminating persistent storage entirely. Only an AES-256-GCM-encrypted derivation index is persisted per wallet; the corresponding private key is re-derived at signing time and discarded immediately after use, ensuring no private key material ever rests on disk. The security model requires the simultaneous compromise of three independent components (the encrypted derivation index, the encryption key, and the master seed) for full key recovery, compared to two components in custody systems that persist encrypted private keys. An empirical evaluation under concurrent load demonstrates 13 to 22 ms steady-state signing latency on development hardware, with re-derivation accounting for approximately 4 to 7% of that total, confirming that on-demand derivation introduces negligible overhead. Thus, CryptoVault has been validated against an agricultural cooperative deployment as a representative institutional scenario, with an architecture that generalizes to any organization managing wallets on behalf of users who have no direct interaction with cryptographic material. A reference implementation is available as open-source software. Full article

In this paper, we examine how blockchain adoption affects leading firms. On the one hand, the traceability effect enabled by blockchain helps leading firms attract more customers from lagging firms by signaling product quality. On the other hand, blockchain adoption may also generate a spillover effect, leading to the diffusion of valuable knowledge to laggards. To capture this trade-off between the traceability and spillover effects, we develop a Stackelberg model of price and quality competition between a leading firm and a lagging firm. Our analysis yields several interesting findings. First, the two firms’ price and quality decisions depend on which effect dominates. When the traceability effect dominates, a Matthew effect emerges: the leading firm offers higher quality at a higher price, while the lagging firm does the opposite. When the two effects are roughly equal, both firms overinvest in quality, resulting in more intense competition. Second, blockchain adoption never leads to a win–win outcome for the two firms. We also characterize the conditions under which the leading firm should adopt blockchain. Third, both industry-wide profit and consumer surplus improve when the traceability effect is sufficiently strong. Our results provide guidance for firms, particularly market leaders, on whether and when to adopt blockchain technology. Full article

To address the “greenwashing” trust crisis induced by information asymmetry in sustainable supply chains, this study develops a comprehensive game-theoretic model integrating Stackelberg and evolutionary game theories (EGT). We quantitatively investigate the dynamic interactions among multi-dimensional consumer preferences, blockchain implementation costs, and boundedly rational government interventions. Our analysis yields three core contributions. First, we analytically reveal the “double-edged sword effect” of blockchain adoption. While structural transparency unlocks a trust dividend, exorbitant technological costs trigger a “budget crowding-out effect.” Quantitative results demonstrate that breaching the absolute Feasibility Threshold completely cannibalizes the environmental budget, driving substantive green investments strictly to zero. Second, EGT analysis proves that isolated punitive carbon taxes trap supply chains in a suboptimal “shallow greening” equilibrium. A composite tax-subsidy policy is structurally required to expand the feasible cost space and hedge against technological risks. Finally, we formulate a dynamic policy exit mechanism. As blockchain infrastructure matures and the endogenous green premium effectively offsets implementation costs, regulators must systematically phase out subsidies and converge toward a single-taxation regime to prevent corporate policy arbitrage and alleviate long-term public financial burdens. Full article

Given the increasing relevance of sustainability certification in food supply chains and, at the same time, rising confusion among consumers about the multitude of labels on food products, concerns about the value of sustainability certification occur frequently. This paper aims to investigate consumers’ evaluation and purchase intentions, and willingness-to-pay (WtP) for blockchain-enabled sustainability certification in coffee. Utilizing a questionnaire guided by an extended model of Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB), an online survey was conducted with n = 400 German consumers. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and cluster analysis. The results revealed perceived behavioral control (PBC) and subjective norms (SN) as the most influential factors on WtP, whereas intention to buy is shaped by PBC and environmental concerns. Notably, trust in blockchain technology did not emerge as a significant direct predictor, suggesting it operates as a background condition rather than a behavioral driver. Three distinct clusters were identified with concise preference, intention, and WtP profiles, highlighting heterogeneous consumer motivations. The study contributes to the literature in three ways: it provides the first consumer-behavioral evidence from the German market; it demonstrates that blockchain-specific trust constructs do not constitute independent behavioral drivers, suggesting that adoption follows generic TPB mechanisms; and it empirically differentiates intention and WtP as distinct psychological outcomes driven by different construct sets. Full article

This study investigates the interaction between a manufacturer’s blockchain adoption strategy and a retailer’s demand information sharing strategy in a green supply chain. For four strategy combinations, we establish a multi-stage game-theoretical model of a green supply chain consisting of a single manufacturer and a single retailer. We first derive the optimal pricing, greenness, service level, and profits, followed by sensitivity and comparative analyses. Next, by examining how consumer price sensitivity and the unit adoption cost of blockchain technology interact, we identify equilibrium strategy combinations. Finally, we validate the relevant findings through numerical analysis. The results demonstrate that adopting blockchain can mitigate the double marginalization effect when consumer price sensitivity is moderate, and can enhance product greenness and service level when the adoption cost remains low. Interestingly, the manufacturer is inclined to adopt blockchain irrespective of the degree of consumer skepticism. Meanwhile, the implementation of blockchain may motivate the retailer to share information when price sensitivity falls within a moderate range. These findings present actionable guidance for green supply chains regarding blockchain and information-sharing strategies. Full article

Ensuring the quality, reliability, and efficiency of cold chain logistics for thermolabile pharmaceutical products, particularly vaccines, remains a critical challenge in global health supply chains. These biologics require stringent temperature control throughout storage, transport, and distribution to preserve their efficacy. Persistent issues such as maintaining product integrity, accurately forecasting vaccine demand, and fostering trust among stakeholders often result in inefficiencies, waste, and public mistrust. This study proposes an intelligent digital management framework specifically designed for vaccine cold chains, integrating blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning (ML) to address these challenges in a holistic and sustainable manner. The main innovation of the study lies in combining secure traceability, real-time cold chain monitoring, and predictive decision support within a unified vaccine cold chain management framework rather than treating these functions as isolated technological solutions. Using WHO immunization coverage data and vaccine-related review data, the framework supports vaccine demand forecasting through the Informer model and stakeholder trust assessment through BERT-based sentiment analysis. In the sentiment analysis task, the BERT model achieved ~80% accuracy on dominant sentiment classes, with a weighted F1-score of 0.6974, demonstrating strong performance on imbalanced datasets. By minimizing vaccine spoilage and enabling more accurate demand planning, the system reduces excess production and distribution, thus lowering resource consumption, carbon emissions, and financial waste. Moreover, trust-informed analytics support better alignment of supply with actual community needs, fostering equity and resilience in vaccine distribution. While this framework has been validated through simulations and experimental evaluation, further real-world testing is needed to assess long-term stability and stakeholder adoption. Nonetheless, it provides a scalable and adaptive foundation for advancing sustainability and transparency in pharmaceutical cold chains. Full article

Despite growing recognition of blockchain technology’s potential to enhance traceability, verifiability, and integrity in financial reporting, empirical evidence from regulated banking environments in developing economies remains scarce. This study investigates whether blockchain adoption is positively associated with transparency and accounting disclosure in digital financial reports among Jordanian listed banks. A structured questionnaire was distributed to managers, financial managers, and accountants across 15 banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, yielding 312 valid responses. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5000 bootstrap subsamples was employed for data analysis. The results show that blockchain adoption is positively and significantly associated with transparency (β = 0.361, p < 0.001) and accounting disclosure (β = 0.437, p < 0.001), explaining 13.0% and 19.1% of the variance, respectively. These findings suggest that blockchain-enabled systems are perceived by banking professionals as contributing to greater reporting credibility. By providing empirical evidence from a developing economy banking sector, this study indicates that blockchain adoption may serve as a governance-supporting mechanism associated with improved perceived transparency and disclosure quality. Full article

Ukraine’s reconstruction, estimated at $524 billion over the next decade, presents an unprecedented opportunity to embed circular economy principles into industrial rebuilding, but the financial architecture currently deployed for reconstruction is structurally blind to circular outcomes. This paper examines how digital tools and innovative financing mechanisms can channel investment toward circular industrial reconstruction in Ukraine, drawing on Germany’s National Circular Economy Strategy (NCES, adopted December 2024) as a reference model. A comparative institutional analysis combines a documentary review of Ukrainian reconstruction policy frameworks (Ukraine Plan 2024–2027, RDNA4, Ukraine Facility) and German NCES instruments with the construction of a financing−technology pathway typology. Five pathways are proposed: circular bond issuance with Digital Product Passport integration; blended finance with blockchain impact verification; EU Facility conditionality with AI-driven resource management; war risk insurance with circular construction standards; and SME digitalisation credit with circular economy competency building. Each pathway is assessed against five criteria: investment scale, risk mitigation, circular measurement, digital readiness, and institutional feasibility, and applied to four industrial corridors (Dnipro region, Zaporizhzhia region, Kharkiv region, and Donetsk region). The analysis reveals that no single pathway is sufficient; a layered strategy differentiating by region is required. Digital tools, particularly the Digital Product Passport and blockchain traceability, serve as partial substitutes for institutional trust in post-conflict settings, reducing information asymmetry between investors and project operators. The paper contributes a practically oriented framework at the under-theorised intersection of post-conflict reconstruction finance and circular economy scholarship. Full article

The rapid evolution of fintech has accelerated the integration of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies into crowdfunding platforms, reshaping entrepreneurial finance and challenging traditional conceptions of money, intermediation, and financial risk. This study empirically examines the socio-cultural, demographic, and behavioural factors influencing funders’ perceptions and investment decisions in crypto-crowdfunding, an emerging model situated at the intersection of digital currencies, financial inclusion, and decentralised capital formation. Using primary survey data from a focus group of 50 respondents measuring perceptions through a structured five-point Likert questionnaire, the analysis investigates how risk perception, trust and security, investor awareness, and perceived benefits shape participation in crypto-crowdfunded projects. The findings indicate that blockchain-based features such as transparency and decentralisation are associated with variations in perceived trust and risk assessment, rather than uniformly enhancing investor confidence. Socio-demographic characteristics emerge as significant determinants of investor awareness, perceived risks, and expected benefits, confirming pronounced behavioural heterogeneity in digital-finance participation. Regression results reveal strong interdependencies between trust, risk perception, and awareness, underscoring the importance of informational quality and risk-governance mechanisms in supporting sustainable adoption. By providing empirical evidence on individual-level determinants of participation in crypto-crowdfunding, the study contributes to the literature on the future of money by clarifying how crypto-crowdfunding operates as a behavioural-financial phenomenon embedded in decentralised governance structures. Full article

This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing research on the integration of blockchain technologies with the trust service ecosystem governed by the Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS) Regulation of the European Union (EU). While Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and electronic signature (ES) systems deployed under eIDAS provide strong cryptographic guarantees, standardized protocols, and cross-border legal recognition, their operational model remains largely centralized, concentrating trust in supervised authorities and service providers. This centralization raises concerns related to transparency, auditability, and resilience that blockchain, with its decentralized consensus and immutable distributed ledgers, has been increasingly explored to address. This review covers the most relevant application domains in which blockchain has been proposed as a complementary layer for Trust Service Providers (TSPs): certificate lifecycle management, remote signature services, signature preservation, signature validation, timestamping, content provenance and authenticity, and the European digital identity (EUDI) Wallet ecosystem. For each domain, this paper analyzes how blockchain can strengthen auditability and distributed trust while preserving the interoperability, legal assurance, and standards compliance required by eIDAS and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) frameworks. A quantitative comparison of latency, throughput, and operational costs between blockchain-augmented and traditional architectures is provided, together with a technology maturity classification for each application domain. Finally, the paper identifies current limitations, including scalability, regulatory alignment, privacy constraints, and the absence of production-scale pilot data, and outlines open research challenges for the adoption of blockchain in regulated digital trust services. Full article

Quantum computing challenges the long-term security assumptions of blockchain systems that rely on classical public-key cryptography, motivating the adoption of post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution (QKD). This review maps research fronts at the intersection of blockchain and quantum-safe security, linking threat assumptions to post-quantum mechanisms, blockchain layers, and QKD positioning. Records were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science using a two-block query and filtered through a PRISMA-guided workflow for bibliometric mapping. The final corpus comprises 648 journal articles and shows accelerated publication growth after 2023, with scientific production concentrated in a small set of leading countries. Keyword structures indicate that IoT-centric deployments dominate the semantic backbone, where authentication and intelligent methods co-occur with blockchain security primitives, while post-quantum and privacy-preserving constructs form a cohesive technical stream. QKD appears as a distinct but more specialized theme, typically discussed at the system level and shaped by infrastructure and scalability constraints. Overall, the literature is moving from conceptual risk articulation toward engineering integration; however, progress is limited by inconsistent reporting of threat models, post-quantum parameter sets, and ledger-level cost trade-offs, highlighting the need for auditable and reproducible evaluation. Full article