1
Impact of Emerging Technology on the Economy of Azerbaijan
Samantha E. Isherwood
Colangelo College of Business, Grand Canyon University
BUS-390: Global Business
Prof. Timothy Kelley
October 18, 2020
2
Impact of Emerging Technology on the Economy in Azerbaijan
Nelson Mandela once said, “to deny people their human rights is to challenge their very
humanity” (Amnesty International, 2019). Azerbaijan is a secular Middle Eastern country that
was once apart of the fallen Soviet Union, and is facing thousands of human rights violations
every day (Central Intelligence Agency, 2020). With the emergence of blockchain technology,
there is hope that it will provide transparency and identify violations of human rights by opening
communication channels and exposing the truth. The impact of blockchain technology in
Azerbaijan will be analyzed by discussing the human rights violations, explaining what
blockchain technology is, identifying where blockchain is in the hype cycle of Azerbaijan,
applying the hype cycle and the six D’s of the disruption model, how blockchain fosters
sustainability, and lastly, how multinational companies can support sustainability by
implementing blockchain technology in their business practices.
Human Rights Violations
Azerbaijan’s official government structure is a presidential republic, but has eradicated
presidential term limits, run by the New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) for the past two decades, and
the economic and political system is shaped like a pyramid with the wealthy and elite ruling all
public and private sectors of the country (European Forum, n.d.). The human rights violations in
Azerbaijan are numerous, including no freedom to assemble peacefully, independent and
opposition media outlets are forced into exile, independent lawyers are limited in case
adjudication, criminal charges are brought against human rights defenders, limited political
rights, systematic torture, lack of due process, arrestees with legal representation, and prisons
without rules with violence encouraged between inmates and security officers (European Forum,
n.d.)(Gogia, 2018). The people and citizens of Azerbaijan are those who are affected the most by
3
human rights issues, and those who are affected the most are in the major cities like the capital
Baku (BBC News, 2018). The socioeconomic factors that are affected by these human rights
violations are corruption, unemployment, banning of unions, poor and inadequate housing, and
lastly, discrimination in access to housing, jobs, and healthcare (Center for Economic and Social
Rights, n.d.).
Emerging Technology
Blockchain Technology
Blockchain is an emerging technology that has the potential to help fix the human rights
violations in Azerbaijan. Blockchain technology, in essence, is “a decentralized database whose
records are stored in “blocks” which are continuously maintained and verified by a computer
network” (Pinkert, Ton-that, Soopramanien., n.d.). Pre-existing blocks cannot be changed,
