The study, led by Mohammad Sami Ali of Zarqa University in Jordan together with colleagues at Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia, set out to answer a deceptively simple question: why do some banks embrace blockchain while others hesitate? To investigate, the team surveyed 252 employees working across public sector banks, private banks, financial institutions, non-banking financial institutions, and cooperative banks in London, one of the globe’s densest concentrations of financial expertise. Respondents completed structured questionnaires between January and July 2025, and the researchers analyzed the responses using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling, a statistical technique well suited to untangling complex relationships among multiple latent variables that cannot be measured directly.

What makes this study technically distinctive is its theoretical backbone. Rather than relying on frameworks designed for individual users, such as the Technology Acceptance Model or the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the researchers employed the Technology-Organization-Environment framework, originally developed by Tornatzky and colleagues in 1990. This framework recognizes that when a large organization adopts a complex technology like blockchain, the decision is shaped simultaneously by three contexts: the technological characteristics of the innovation itself, the internal organizational capabilities and culture, and the external environment of customers, competitors, and regulators. For blockchain in banking, which demands strategic commitment, resource allocation, and regulatory compliance, the researchers judged this organizational lens to be the most appropriate.

Within the technological context, the model captured three constructs: perceived compatibility, meaning how well blockchain aligns with a bank’s existing legacy IT infrastructure, regulatory reporting systems, and operational workflows; relative advantage, the degree to which blockchain is seen to outperform current technologies in security, transparency, efficiency, and transaction speed; and perceived cost, encompassing the substantial financial and non-financial expenses of infrastructure investment, cybersecurity systems, system integration, and staff training. The organizational context was represented by learning culture, an institution’s commitment to continuous knowledge sharing and employee development, and top management support, the strategic direction and resources provided by senior executives. The environmental context included customer readiness, reflecting clients’ willingness and capability to accept blockchain-enabled services, and competitive pressure from fintech firms and rival institutions racing to modernize.

The statistical results were emphatic. The full model explained 66.8 percent of the variance in blockchain adoption, a remarkably high coefficient of determination for behavioral research in this field, and all seven hypothesized relationships proved statistically significant. Perceived compatibility carried a path coefficient of 0.258, relative advantage 0.246, learning culture 0.328, top management support 0.377, customer readiness 0.312, and competitive pressure 0.341, each exerting a positive and significant influence on adoption. Top management support emerged as the strongest single positive driver, with a t-statistic of 2.614, underscoring that executive commitment remains decisive when banks contemplate long-term, cross-departmental digital transformation. Competitive pressure followed closely at 0.341, confirming that in London’s hyper-competitive financial ecosystem, banks feel compelled to innovate simply to keep pace.

Then came the study’s most consequential negative result. Perceived cost exerted a significant negative effect on blockchain adoption, with a path coefficient of -0.347 and a t-statistic of 2.734, making it one of the most powerful forces in the entire model, and the only one pointing the wrong way. This finding aligns with prior international research identifying implementation expense as a principal barrier to organizational blockchain adoption. The implication is stark: even in a developed economy with advanced financial infrastructure, the sheer investment required for infrastructure, integration with legacy systems, cybersecurity, and workforce training can outweigh blockchain’s celebrated long-term benefits in the short term. For an industry where operational risk management and regulatory compliance are exceptionally strict, cost concerns are not a footnote but a central deterrent.

The study also validated a methodological point with broader significance for technology adoption research. Although blockchain adoption is conventionally treated as an organizational-level phenomenon, the researchers demonstrated that employee-level perceptions provide meaningful and reliable evidence about its determinants. Bank employees directly experience technological implementation, organizational support, and external market pressures in their daily operations, and their assessments proved statistically robust. The measurement model satisfied rigorous psychometric standards: all twenty indicator items showed standardized loadings above 0.7, Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability scores exceeded 0.7 for every construct, and average variance extracted surpassed 0.5, confirming convergent validity. Discriminant validity was verified using the Fornell-Larcker criterion, ensuring that each construct measured something genuinely distinct.

Technically, the findings echo a rich international literature while extending it into a new national context. Previous studies have shown blockchain improving interbank reconciliation in Italy, enhancing credit risk control and remittance processes in China, and reducing fraud in credit card transactions through smart contracts validated by decentralized networks of computer nodes. The core properties that make these applications possible, immutability, decentralization, and cryptographic security, allow only holders of the correct private keys to access and modify data, preserving the integrity of transaction records while creating instantaneous audit trails. The UK study confirms that these same properties drive adoption decisions when employees perceive them as compatible with existing systems and advantageous over current technologies, and that customer demand for speed, security, and transparency accelerates institutional readiness.

The authors conclude that blockchain should be viewed as an emerging disruptive force transforming business models and becoming an essential element on a global scale, but their practical guidance is refreshingly grounded. Financial institutions seeking to accelerate adoption should strengthen organizational learning, increase top management commitment, improve technological compatibility with current systems, raise customer awareness and readiness, and, crucially, develop strategies to lower implementation costs. The researchers acknowledge limitations: the sample was restricted to London-based banking professionals, and the study examined adoption rather than post-adoption implementation and continuity. Future research, they suggest, could compare adoption across public, private, cooperative, and non-banking institutions, quantify implementation costs directly, and examine how government digital policies and regulatory activities shape blockchain diffusion through the same TOE lens.

For an industry whose future increasingly depends on distributed ledger technology, the message of this study is clear and actionable. Blockchain adoption in UK banking is not a purely technical choice but an organizational innovation jointly shaped by internal capability and external market conditions. The technology’s promise of transparency, efficiency, and trust is real, and employees across the sector can see it. But until banks solve the cost equation, through phased implementation, shared infrastructure, or regulatory incentives, the disruptive revolution will advance at the pace of its price tag, not the pace of its potential.

Subject of Research: Modeling blockchain adoption in the United Kingdom’s banking: an empirical study using technology-organization-environment framework

Article Title: Modeling blockchain adoption in the United Kingdom’s banking: an empirical study using technology-organization-environment framework

Article References: Sami Ali, M., Alabdullatif, S., Baqader, S., & Hariri, M. (2026). Modeling blockchain adoption in the United Kingdom’s banking: an empirical study using technology-organization-environment framework. Frontiers in Blockchain, 9, Article 1845998. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2026.1845998

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fbloc.2026.1845998

Keywords: Modeling, blockchain, adoption, United, Kingdom, banking, empirical, technology-organization-environment, framework, scientific research