Innovation and Business Development: Blockchain's Effect on Amazon

This report analyzes the impact of blockchain technology on Amazon's business operations, utilizing the Business Model Canvas framework. It explores how blockchain improves various facets of Amazon's business, including key partnerships, activities, resources, value propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams. The study highlights improvements in supply chain management, payment security, and overall company performance. Key findings reveal enhanced collaboration with partners, optimized resource usage, improved customer relationships through automation and personalization, and streamlined revenue streams. The report concludes that blockchain technology has been instrumental in Amazon's success and market sustainability, demonstrating its effectiveness across various business aspects. The analysis includes references to academic sources supporting the claims and findings.

Running head: INNOVATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Innovation and Business Development
Name of the Student
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Key partners...........................................................................................................................2
Key activities..........................................................................................................................3
Key resources.........................................................................................................................3
Value propositions.................................................................................................................3
Customer relationships...........................................................................................................4
Channels.................................................................................................................................4
Customer segments................................................................................................................4
Cost structure.........................................................................................................................4
Revenue streams.....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Blockchain technology is a cryptographic technology that uses a list of records called blocks
containing cryptographic data of earlier blocks along with time stamps. The technology
provides a peer to peer network that is resistant to data manipulation or modification and
create a distributed ledger and ensures security of the data through cryptographic security.
Amazon is currently trying to adopt this advanced technology in order to improve its supply
chain systems as well as payment security and thereby achieve competitive advantage in the
market (Iansiti & Lakhani, 2017). The aim of the study is to understand how the blockchain
technology has been helpful for Amazon in terms of improvements in its sales and company
performance.
Discussion
The impact of the blockchain technology on Amazon can be studied using the Business
model Canvas. The business model framework is a framework that helps to understand the
business model in terms of its key components which includes the key partners, key
activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer
segments, cost structures and revenue streams (Crosby et al., 2016). Discussed below is an
analysis on how blockchain technology has impacted Amazon in terms of the factors
identified above.
Key partners
The blockchain technology has helped Amazon to improve collaboration with its key partners
such as the distributors, suppliers and logistics to create a stronger network of business that
can facilitate easy sharing of business data through the blaockchain network and ensure better
security of the information thereby preventing it from being modified or altered from

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unauthorized access (Cai & Zhu, 2016). The key partners have also been helped by the
technology due to a stronger framework being implemented throughout the industry to
support more efficient online transactions.
Key activities
The key activities that have been improved from the adoption of the blockchain technology,
includes the development of a distributed database, supporting peer to peer transmission of
data, supporting transparency as well as pseudonymity, ensuring that the records are
irreversible and supporting computational logic all of which can improve the reliability of th
blockchain network and thereby help in the growth of the business (Smith & Dhillon, 2019).
The development a distributed database and peer to peer transmission can support better
sharing of knowledge between the business partners while the pseudonymity can ensure
privacy and confidentiality.
Key resources
Through the adoption of the blockchain technology, Amazon could optimize the usage of its
key resources such as its workforce by automating significant steps in the transaction using
the technology while reducing the workload required to maintain a secure and confidential
transaction from its e-commerce platforms. The technology has also helped to reduce the
operational costs thereby supporting its financial resources and sustainability for Amazon
(Dao et al., 2019). Moreover, through the blockchain technology a growth of organizational
knowledge have also been supported thereby providing source of organizational resource.
Value propositions
Through the adoption of the blockchain technology the performance of th e organization have
been improved through an increased efficiency allowing the organization to maintain a strong

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operational design and a brand status in the market. the blockchain technology have
supported a reduction in the price of the services through a reduction in operational costs and
risks and increasing accessibility to data (Crosby et al., 2016).
Customer relationships
The integrated platform that has ben supported from the use of blockchain technology has
allowed the implementation of a personal assistance for customers and also automate
customer services process through shared and peer to peer reviewed information (Cai & Zhu,
2016). This also has developed a strong community of vendors and businesses and co-
creation of overall services through better coordination to improve customer experience.
Channels
The technology has helped in the development and growth of the channel of business through
an improvement in the different phases of channel development such as increasing
awareness, supporting evaluation, improving purchase, delivering value and providing after
sales service (Smith & Dhillon, 2019).
Customer segments
From the blockchain technology an improve understanding of the customer segments have
been developed by Amazon. The shared platform have helped to understand for whom the
business is creating value and who are the most important customers (Iansiti & Lakhani,
2017). This in turn has helped to understand the niche market, the mass market, the market
segmentation and diversification as well as the multi-sided platform that influences the
market.
Cost structure

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The blockchain technology, have helped to understand, the most expensive key resources of
the organization and the important costs inherent in the business model. This includes
optimizing the fixed costs (such as utilities, rent and salaries), variable costs and the
economies of scale and scope (Dao et al., 2019).
Revenue streams
The technology uses data from various revenue types such as usage fee, asset sale,
subscription fee, licensing, renting, advertising and brokerage fee based on which it creates
the values for th volume dependent price, list price, customer dependent price and product
feature dependent price (Crosby et al., 2016). This in turn helps the business towards its
negotiation and real time marketing practices.
Conclusion
From the above study, the importance of blockchain technology in the growth and
development of a business could be understood from the various aspects that were outlined in
the business model canvas. For Amazon, the usage of blockchain technology have proved to
be effective towards the aspects of its key partners, key activities, key resources, value
propositions, customer relationships, channels , customer segments, cost structure and
revenue streams. It can be understood that the implementation of the blockchain technology
has helped Amazon to achieve success and sustainability in the market.

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References:
Cai, Y., & Zhu, D. (2016). Fraud detections for online businesses: a perspective from
blockchain technology. Financial Innovation, 2(1), 20.
Crosby, M., Pattanayak, P., Verma, S., & Kalyanaraman, V. (2016). Blockchain technology:
Beyond bitcoin. Applied Innovation, 2(6-10), 71.
Dao, T. C., Nguyen, B. M., & Do, B. L. (2019, March). Challenges and Strategies for
Developing Decentralized Applications Based on Blockchain Technology.
In International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and
Applications (pp. 952-962). Springer, Cham.
Iansiti, M., & Lakhani, K. R. (2017). The truth about blockchain. Harvard Business
Review, 95(1), 118-127.
Smith, K. J., & Dhillon, G. (2019). Supply Chain Virtualization: Facilitating Agent Trust
Utilizing Blockchain Technology. In Revisiting Supply Chain Risk (pp. 299-311).
Springer, Cham.