Stimulative Coordination Models for Cooperative and Competitive Enterprise Alliances Based on Token Economy

The rapid development of blockchain technology offers new ways for businesses to establish an efficient management system with consensus-based governance. Token economy, however, is a newly born notion that may have great potential in stimulating coordination to be more valuable and efficient. This article classifies enterprise alliances into two categories based on their participation motivations and operating modes. Research has been conducted on ten industries facing the pressure of digitalization to analyze participation motivations and operating modes in enterprise alliances. This research has found that cooperative enterprise alliances tend to have relatively negative attitudes and pursue open and fair coordination. On the contrary, competitive enterprise alliances tend to have relatively positive attitudes and pursue secure and efficient coordination. Therefore, models for cooperative enterprise alliances utilize the blockchain and token economy to encourage open resource sharing and ensure fair benefits. In contrast, models for cooperative enterprise alliances utilize the blockchain and token economy to alleviate unfair advantages and encourage efficient resource sharing. This research has also recognized that the value of tokens lies in obtaining future resources, exchanging for monetary resources, and making rules in DAO. Moreover, the integration of token economy could improve corporate innovation capability and promote sustainable development of enterprise alliances. The main contribution of this article is the design of two stimulative coordination models for cooperative and competitive enterprise alliances based on their differences and the token economy. The significance of this paper is to provide a guideline for corporations to share resources and create value efficiently in enterprise alliances and help enterprise alliances operate and develop more sustainably using blockchain technology.