Blockchain‑based reputation systemsfor business‑to‑business services: designing a reputation mechanism to reduce information asymmetry in professional consulting

Reputation systems to rate companies’ performances remain largely unexplored inresearch and are scarcely used in business-to-business (B2B) practice. Such systemsare essential for businesses seeking trustworthy partners, as they help reduce infor-mation asymmetry, lower buyers’ transaction risks, and allow high-quality serviceproviders to justify premium pricing. Unlike traditional review-based systems in thebusiness-to-consumer (B2C) context, we propose a B2B reputation mechanism inwhich buyers commit to a rating payment before a transaction. Once the buyer final-izes the rating, this payment is executed and recorded on a blockchain as an immu-table, secure ledger. Our system mimics natural trust-building mechanisms with rat-ings that are (1) monetary-based, (2) stake-based, (3) non-aggregated, (4) involvecounter-ratings, (5) selectively sellable, (6) individually comparable, (7) stored ona blockchain, (8) and monitored by a third instance. This system provides a novelapproach to fostering trust in B2B transactions by reducing information asymme-try and transaction risk. We illustrate the mechanism’s application in the consultingsector. Our analysis has identified 23 institutional trust and distrust dimensions thatpromote establishing institutional trust through the proposed mechanism. Qualita-tive interviews suggest that, while complex and challenging to apply, this mecha-nism can foster trust in B2B transactions. Given the low maturity in the applicationdomain—rating professional business services with business reputation systems—and solution domain—using monetary stakes for ratings, this system stands as apotential invention.