From regulatory review to co-evolution: Blockchain as regulatory infrastructure for business model innovation

The commercialization of innovations depends on meeting safety and quality standards, yet the regulatory review of novel digital innovations is often characterized by information asymmetry, uncertainty, and procedural delays. This study contributes to the debate on regulatory science by conceptualizing blockchain technology (BCT) as a digital innovation. This infrastructure can reduce verification frictions, stabilize interorganizational exchanges, and enable business model innovation (BMI) within innovation systems. The study proposes a multitheoretical framework linking human judgment in regulatory decision-making to technology-enabled traceability and auditability, and it empirically tests the proposed mechanisms using panel data for Chinese A-share listed firms (2014–2023). The results demonstrate a positive association between BCT adoption and firms' BMI, with supply chain stability partially mediating this relationship. This suggests that blockchain-enabled transparency and coordinated governance enhance firms' ability to reconfigure value creation and capture under heightened accountability requirements. Adopting this new perspective, the paper approaches BCT not as a simple operational technology but as a decision-support infrastructure for regulatory review.