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This article examines the changing pattern for strategic deployment of broadband by BT. BT’s initial attempts to deploy the technology through its ISP failed due to key commercial and technological weaknesses. Thereafter BT shifted to a more strategically defensive strategy based on securing its position of dominance on the UK local access market. This strategy proved considerably more successful. This strategy to deploy a mass market broadband created an evident industrial/corporate strategy interface as BT’s corporate objectives aligned with public policy objectives of creating a universally accessible broadband product. The result of this interface has been to place BT at the heart of the “Broadband Britain” programme – a position that contravenes the original intentions of the UK Government.

British Telecom (BT) has achieved a classic turnaround that involved divestment and efficiency drives. This interview with Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT, sheds light on BT's past development and future growth.

The paper takes the form of an interview with Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT.

The interview outlines a number of important factors in running a resilient and effective global company such as culture and common values, leadership at board and executive levels, remuneration transparency, skills, technology, and corporate governance.

The paper provides insight into the strategic journey of BT.

Recounts a team approach to turning round British Telecommunications plc′s (BT′s) £1 billion turnover business in the highly competitive UK telecommunications apparatus market. Under BT′s license the apparatus business had to have separate accounts and, by 1991/92, losses had reached levels which led the UK′s then telecommunications regulator, Sir Bryan Carsberg of Oftel, to intervene. Between 1992 and 1994, author Adam Scott led the team which managed the business into profitability. The team operated within BT′s management matrix, with a clear set of values, using product teams, team objectives, program and project management and driving for clarity about the benefits and milestones to be achieved in each element of the planned recovery. The program addressed indirect and functional costs and, latterly, worked up a “balanced score card” – a technique on which the article provides references – to provide a framework for future management.

This study aims to investigate blockchain technology (BT) and its opportunities and weaknesses in Iran's tax system; it addresses the opportunities and challenges of BT when incorporated into Iran's tax system.

The statistical population consists of all the employees and managers working in tax administration, and 674 participants were selected as the sample size via Cochran sampling. The partial least square tests are used to investigate the impact of the independent variable on dependent ones.

The results show that BT positively affects three components of tax, including value-added tax, tax on shipping goods and income tax. BT’s advantages and opportunities positively affect these taxation types, while its threats negatively affect the opportunities and challenges in Iran’s tax system; this study provides helpful insights and develops the knowledge. Furthermore, this is among the initiatives addressing BT’s opportunities and challenges in three discriminative taxation sectors, including value-added tax, tax on shipping goods and payroll tax.

Since no study has addressed BT’s opportunities and weaknesses in Iran’s tax system, it addresses the opportunities and challenges of BT when incorporated into Iran’s tax system.

Blockchain, a groundbreaking technology that recently surfaced, is under thorough scrutiny due to its prospective utility across different sectors. This research aims to delve into and assess the cognitive elements that impact the integration of blockchain technology (BT) within library environments.

Utilizing the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) theory, this research aims to facilitate the implementation of BT within academic institution libraries and provide valuable insights for managerial decision-making. A two-staged deep learning structural equation modelling artificial neural network (ANN) analysis was conducted on 583 computer experts affiliated with academic institutions across various countries to gather relevant information.

The research model can correspondingly expound 71% and 60% of the variance in trust and adoption intention of BT in libraries, where ANN results indicate that perceived possession is the primary predictor, with a technical capability factor that has a normalized significance of 84%. The study successfully identified the relationship of each variable of our conceptual model.

Unlike the SOR theory framework that uses a linear model and theoretically assumes that all relationships are significant, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study to validate ANN and SEM in a library context successfully. The results of the two-step PLS–SEM and ANN technique demonstrate that the usage of ANN validates the PLS–SEM analysis. ANN can represent complicated linear and nonlinear connections with higher prediction accuracy than SEM approaches. Also, an importance-performance Map analysis of the PLS–SEM data offers a more detailed insight into each factor's significance and performance.

This study aims to examine blockchain's effect on the accounting profession. In other words, this study seeks to answer whether blockchain can affect the accounting profession.

The statistical population of this study comprises two groups. The first group includes accountants and external auditors working for Iranian audit firms, and the second group consists of accounting professors. Finally, 743 participants are selected as the research sample using the Cochran sample selection method. In this study, partial least square tests are used to examine the effect of the independent variable on dependent variables.

The results of this study demonstrate that blockchain has a positive and significant effect on the payroll system, risk management and financial systems. Moreover, the results indicate that blockchain does not affect the audit process.

As no research has yet examined the effect of blockchain on the accounting profession in Iran, the results of this study can provide the public with helpful information and add to the relevant literature.

This study aims to determine how the applications of blockchain technology (BT) can play a crucial role in managing financial flows in the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) and what benefits and challenges are associated with BT in a humanitarian setting.

The present study used a qualitative research approach, incorporating a systematic literature review and conducting semi-structured interviews with 12 experts in the fields of humanitarian operations, supply chain management, fintech and information technology.

The findings show that the humanitarian sector has the potential to reap significant benefits from BT, including secure data exchange, efficient SCM, streamlined donor financing, cost-effective financial transactions, smooth digital cash flow management and the facilitation of cash programs and crowdfunding. Despite the promising prospects, this study also illuminated various challenges associated with the application of BT in the HSC. Key challenges identified include scalability issues, high cost and resource requirements, lack of network reliability, data privacy, supply chain integration, knowledge and training gaps, regulatory frameworks and ethical considerations. Moreover, the study highlighted the importance of implementing mitigation strategies to address the challenges effectively.

The present study is confined to exploring the benefits, challenges and corresponding mitigation strategies. The research uses a semi-structured interview method as the primary research approach.

This study adds to the existing body of knowledge concerning BT and HSC by explaining the pivotal role of BT in improving the financial flow within HSC. Moreover, it addresses a notable research gap, as there is a scarcity of studies that holistically cover the expert perspectives on benefits, challenges and strategies related to blockchain applications for effective financial flows within humanitarian settings. Consequently, this study seeks to bridge this knowledge gap and provide valuable insights into this critical area.

Recent technological advancements, often linked to Industry 4.0, require organizations to be more agile and innovative. Blockchain technology (BT) holds immense potential in driving organizations to achieve efficiency and transparency in supply chains. However, there exist some insurmountable challenges associated with the adoption of BT in organizational supply chains (SC). This paper attempts to categorically identify and systematize the most influential challenges in the implementation of BT in SC.

This study resorts to an extensive literature review and consultations with experts in the field of supply chain management (SCM), information technology and academia to identify, categorize and prioritize the major challenges using VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and Combined Compromise Solution method (CoCoSo).

The top three classes of challenges revealed in this study are privacy challenges (PC), infrastructure challenges (IC) and transparency challenges (TC). Maintaining a balance between data openness and secrecy and rectification of incorrect/erroneous input are the top two challenges in the PC category, integration of BT with sustainable practices and ensuring legitimacy are the top two challenges in the IC category, and proper and correct information sharing in organizations was the top most challenge in the TC category.

Future scholars and industry professionals will be guided by the importance of the challenges identified in this study to develop an economical and logical approach for integrating BT to increase the efficiency and outcome of supply chains across several industrial sectors.

This paper aims to analyze practices, processes and outcomes related to construction supply chain management (CSCM) in Brazil to identify opportunities and direct actions and strategies to improve the Brazilian sector through blockchain technology (BT).

The study collected empirical data through semi-structured interviews with consumers and distributors to identify how the CSCM functions today. The interviews were structured and analyzed around the following topics: processes, digitalization, quality and weakness of the activities performed. The opportunities for using BT in CSCM were identified by crossing these results with evidence in the bibliography.

The study identified deficiencies, gaps and good practices applied to information management in the sector. Also, it analyzed the features, drivers and barriers of BT from a practical perspective. The findings suggested that BT is feasible and promising, reducing costs and enhancing process transparency. The need to overcome cultural and economic barriers is a challenging task.

This study brings a new perspective on using BT in CSCM, relating it to the demands and particularities of the construction sector in Brazil. The study identifies a limited panorama of chronic CSCM concerns, given BT’s infinite opportunities. And it motivates a gradual transition toward installing a new technological culture based on BT that focuses on priority care for the sector’s chronic deficiencies. The results can guide practical actions for the successful insertion of BT in the CSCM, laying the foundations for significant future research.

This study analyzes the performance implications of adopting blockchain to support supply chain business processes. The technology holds as many promises as implementation challenges, so interest in its impact on operational performance has grown steadily over the last few years.

Drawing on transaction cost economics and the contingency theory, we built a set of hypotheses. These were tested through a long-term event study and an ordinary least squares regression involving 130 adopters listed in North America.

Compared with the control sample, adopters displayed significant abnormal performance in terms of labor productivity, operating cycle and profitability, whereas sales appeared unaffected. Firms in regulated settings and closer to the end customer showed more positive effects. Neither industry-level competition nor the early involvement of a project partner emerged as relevant contextual factors.

This research presents the first extensive analysis of operational performance based on objective measures. In contrast to previous studies and theoretical predictions, the results indicate that blockchain adoption is not associated with sales improvement. This can be explained considering that secure data storage and sharing do not guarantee the factual credibility of recorded data, which needs to be proved to customers in alternative ways. Conversely, improvements in other operational performance dimensions confirm that blockchain can support inter-organizational transactions more efficiently. The results are relevant in times when, following hype, there are signs of disengagement with the technology.