Investigating the role and application of blockchain technology on digital marketing in building trust to enhance customer-centric relationships.

Abstract

With the notable influence, new and emerging technologies such as BCT have changed organisational structures, shifted operations, and re-evaluated the value creation process. As such, there has been increased pressure placed on marketers to understand these technologies and the extent to which they can be applied to marketing activities to ensure organisational competitive advantage and value exchange for the customer. The objective of this study was to investigate the role and application of BCT in digital marketing to enhance trust in customer-centric relationships. To achieve this, a qualitative research methodology was selected with an exploratory approach to generate new insights that would contribute to business and academia since the phenomenon is not widely understood or applied in the marketing and advertising industry. A total of 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted, which included subject matter experts. The research highlighted trust and transparency as key drivers in promoting customer-centric relationships in online marketing environments. Similarly, the study also revealed that the attributes of BCT were suitable for a vast range of applications within digital marketing that promotes trust and fosters customer-centric relationships. Furthermore, the study found that education, knowledge, and changes to the organisational business model were some of the barriers that impacted the adoption and implementation of BCT in marketing and advertising. Due to the inductive nature of the research, the findings from this study can contribute to development of theory and propositions related to BCT and marketing.