Designing the Hybrid Cooperative: A Socio-Technical Architecture for Scalable, Global Coordination Using Blockchain
Abstract
Blockchain has been promoted as a remedy for coordination in fragmented, multi-stakeholder ecosystems, yet many projects stall at pilot stage. Using a design-science approach, we develop the Hybrid Cooperative (HC), a digitally native governance architecture that combines smart-contract coordination with a minimal, code-deferent legal interface and jurisdictional modules. This selective decentralization decentralizes rules where programmability lowers agency and verification costs, and centralizes only what is needed for enforceability. A post-case evaluation against two traceability initiatives in supply chains illustrates how the HC improves distributed task management, verifiable information, incentive alignment, institutional interoperability, and scalable, contestable governance. The paper contributes to Information Systems by specifying a socio-technical model for scalable, multi-stakeholder coordination across regulatory and organizational boundaries.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.13156,
title = {Designing the Hybrid Cooperative: A Socio-Technical Architecture for Scalable, Global Coordination Using Blockchain},
author = {Henrik Axelsen and Jan Damsgaard},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.13156},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Accepted for presentation at HICSS-59 (2026), forthcoming in Proceedings