The use of blockchain in European-listed companies: A content analysis of corporate reports

Abstract

In recent years, the use of blockchain technologies has increased. The aim of this paper is to analyse the current state of its use in major Western European companies as reported in their corporate reports. Using automatic extraction techniques, the relevant information is collected and classified according to different disclosure categories. The sample consists of 1,409 annual/sustainability reports, published in 2018, 2019, and 2020, by 337 companies listed on 13 Western European countries’ stock markets. Our findings show that, according to corporate reports, the use of blockchain is still at an early stage and the first adopters are large companies in the financial and technology sectors located in countries with a well-defined national blockchain strategy. An overview of this new phenomenon in European, as well as the way that large companies engage with this innovative technology, whether they report on it in their corporative report, the content type of such disclosure, and the factors associated with it is provided