ELE 3920 Blockchain Technology and Corporate Value Creation
ELE 3920 Blockchain Technology and Corporate Value Creation
Blockchain technology is described as one of the main drivers of the fourth industrial revolution. The technology affects how companies create, exchange, and share value with each other - and with customers. Blockchain technology affects all areas of business economics through its unique way of processing information. This affects everything from accounting systems, legal decisions, banking and financiers, entrepreneurship, value creation from creative industries, to digital communication, marketing, and financial analysis, to name a few.
The course is set up as a Flipped Classroom. This means that before the lectures, the students have prepared through podcasts, films, texts, and Artificial Intelligence (text robots). In the class, there is extensive use of class discussions where current cases are discussed against the current syllabus.
In this course, students will develop competence in how to manage technology to influence social and economic development in a sustainable way.
The exam paper will be based on the cases from the class discussions.
After completing the course, students should be able to:
Technological assessments:
• understand the basic technology that underpins blockchains, including distributed systems, hashing functions, digital signatures, and public encryption systems.
• understand the technological operation and structure of Bitcoin.
• understand the importance of different types of cryptocurrency within blockchain technology/DLT
• know future opportunities and risks within DLT
• know the main types of DLT and future architecture models
Company and industry assessments:
• determine how blockchain technology and DLT contribute to value creation in strategically important business areas such as international trade, law, banking and finance, online shopping, education, health, humanitarian work, utilization of brands, repurchase value of luxury goods, property rights, NFT within art and music, information dissemination (incl. news and official information), etc.
• be able to assess how blockchain technology and DLT can be used within sustainability, sustainability reporting and greenwashing
• be able to assess the way in which smart contracts can add value to agreements and contracts, value chains and distribution channels, including the effect on different types of transaction costs
Theoretical assessments:
• understand the theoretical rationale for how blockchain technology and DLT affect markets with information asymmetry
• understand institutional responses to DLT
• know national and international regulatory conditions for DLT
• be able to evaluate the implications of blockchain technology in markets with a high risk of quality shortages, including gray and black markets
After completing the course, students should be able to:
• Independently evaluate value creation by implementing blockchain technology/DLT in various industries, companies, organizations, distribution channels and value chains. Included in this are critical assessments of advantages, disadvantages, and obstacles.
• Make a critical assessment of the challenges, opportunities, and limitations of your own subject area within DLT.
The students should have developed the ability to:
• Reflect on how the blockchain technology can contribute to information manipulation and exploitation of weak actors.
• Reflect on how different types of DLT have different resource needs and environmental footprints.
• Reflect on how cryptocurrency can be used for illegal actions and activities.
• Reflect on the protection of personal data and GDPR in blockchains.
The pedagogical model for the course is the following:
Flipped classroom: The main part of the course is flipped classroom. Here, 30 hours are set aside for learning in real time. In these sessions, the students attend professionally prepared, and the lessons are used to discuss current cases based on the current topic. The content will be taken from books, professional articles, news articles, interviews, podcasts, YouTube movies, Khan Academy, etc.
The second part of the course (10 hours) is set aside for learning outside of class. Here, the students will develop a joint Wiki, give feedback on each other's work, and work with subject-specific cases based on a digital work situation.
Students are expected to arrive prepared so that they actively participate in the academic discussions in the virtual classrooms.
No special prior knowledge.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 100 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 2 Hour(s) Exam code: ELE 39201 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 30 Hour(s) | |
Digital resources
| 10 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 140 Hour(s) | |
Examination | 20 Hour(s) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 7,5 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 200 hours.