Assessing Blockchain-Based Innovation for the “Right to Education” Using MCDA Approach of Value-Focused Thinking and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

Education forms the basic fabric of human life, and nations invest heavily in providing free basic education. However, these programs face serious issues, including financial mismanagement, fraudulent teaching practices, lack of actionable feedback mechanisms, and diversion of benefits. Thus, there is an urgent need for these programs to innovate with respect to their requirements through better alternatives or solutions. We propose a cognitive analytics management (CAM) framework-based assessment for blockchain-based technological innovation in the government-aided free basic education system in India. Value-focused thinking, a multicriteria decision analysis aid for the creation of optimal decision alternatives, is used here as a cognitive tool of the CAM process for interacting with key stakeholders. Fuzzy cognitive maps are used as an analytics tool for scenario planning to assess blockchain innovation. On the basis of the convergence of the cognitive and analytics phases, we present management-based actionable insights. The practical contributions of this article are 1) an approach that models the cognitive premises of stakeholders into quantified actionable insights for blockchain innovation, 2) a clarification of the importance of phasewise and selective adoption of blockchain innovation in facilitating optimal success scenarios, and 3) a demonstration that the CAM framework is a valuable tool for assessing innovation systems in varied contexts.