Applying blockchain technology for information sharing in supply chain is driven by many factors, but developing trust is one of the most proposed. However, trust is a multidimensional, intangible concept without an agreed-upon definition. Whereas some argue that trust is the main driver of blockchain technology, others have found a negative relationship. This study focuses on how applying blockchain in supply chain management can influence trust and proposes a corresponding research agenda. Trust and blockchain technology discussions are scattered throughout the literature. Thus, a systematic literature review was performed based on a conceptual trust framework. This study discovered a gap in linking trust theories to blockchain technology applications especially in supply chain management, and provided insights into trust's reciprocal nature. Current literature strongly expects trust as a consequence for blockchain adoption if considered in the technology. Simultaneously, trust in supply chain partners is strongly expected as an antecedent to blockchain because it requires openness in information sharing. Thus, propositions and agenda for future research are suggested. The research is limited to literature findings due to the immaturity and low scalability of blockchain technology adoption; however, the most reviewed articles in less than two years old, increase the results' accuracy.
Supply chain visibility allows a state of being able to see end to end in a supply chain. Sustainable supply chain visibility is premised on sharing of mutually benefiting information, to achieve associated sustainability objectives including those related to economic, environmental and social goals. Sustainable supply chains strive for distinctive visibility with its attendant benefits that include improving and strengthening the supply chain for competitive advantage. Advances in technology such as blockchain technology can help facilitate effective management of sustainable supply chain visibility and in delivering associated benefits. The relational characteristics of blockchain and sustainable supply chain visibility has recently been reported in the literature with some emphasis on the capacity, capability and context of sustainable supply chain visibility. This paper explores a notion of context-awareness and blockchain in relation to sustainable supply chain visibility. A landscape for an architecture of a blockchain-based sustainable supply chain visibility management platform centred on context-awareness is suggested. The main thrust of the considerations is provisioning of secure, auditable and mutually benefiting sustainable supply chain information sharing, for distinctive visibility, in heterogeneous context-aware scenarios whilst recognising the underlying characteristics of sustainable supply chain visibility.
Li Yan, Sun Yin-He, Yang Qian, Sun Zhi-Yu · 6 authors
The use of new technologies to empower the social co-governance of food safety is a consensus in the theoretical and practical fields of food safety governance modernization. Based on the innovative features of the block chain such as non-tampering, consensus mechanism, and a smart contract, this paper proposes a new method to facilitate the achievement of the effect of social co-governance of food safety. Firstly, it provides a profound analysis of the causes of food safety problems and the drawbacks of traditional centralized supervision, and proposes a solution with decentralized features and the design process of smart contracts to realize the chaining and integration of finite credible data in the process of food circulation; secondly, it constructs a mathematical model through finite credible data on the chain and obtains the probabilistic consensus results of food safety through rigorous derivation; Finally, the scheme, model and algorithm are effectively practiced through the experimental environment of mature block chain platform and provincial food supervision platform. The example shows that the market failure problem in food safety can be greatly alleviated by the non-tampering feature of block chain; the consensus results formed by the credible data uploading, model construction and data derivation through smart contracts can greatly alleviate the problem of involution of government administrative supervision; and the social co-governance capacity of food safety can be improved through information sharing with the active synergy of multiple subjects of co-governance.
Mikuláš Černý, Marián Gogola, Stanislav Kubaľák, Ján Ondruš
Processes associated with the transformation of inputs (raw materials, components) into outputs (goods, finished products) and their transport to the place of consumption are an essential part of the functioning of today’s society. These processes are becoming more complex with the gradual globalization. As the complexity of the supply chain increases, so does the risk of disruption. There are problems such as a lack of information on the origin of the products, a lack of real-time information and, with that, a problem with tracking shipments. With a large number of documents, the risk of fraud and forgery also increases. Due to the large number of stakeholders in logistics chains, the level of transparency is being lost. One possible solution to eliminate the risk of supply chain complexity is to integrate blockchain technology into the supply chain. Thanks to properties such as distribution, immutability, transparency, blockchain can have great potential to solve the problems of the traditional supply chain. The aim of this paper is to describe the basic problems of the traditional supply chain, which can disrupt its course. In the next part, we will introduce the basics of blockchain technology and describe what processes of the traditional supply chain could be replaced by this technology.
With the development of supply chain finance, the credit risk of small‐ and medium‐sized financing enterprises from the perspective of supply chain finance has arisen. Risk management is one of the key tasks of the credit business of banks and other financial institutions, which runs through all aspects of the credit business before, during, and after the loan. This article combines blockchain and fuzzy neural network algorithms to study the credit risk of SME financing from the perspective of supply chain finance. This article builds a supply chain financial system through blockchain technology and integrates supply chain financial information into blocks. The fuzzy neural network algorithm is used for financial data processing and risk assessment, effectively solving and improving the risk processing level of the supply chain. Through further simulation, the application effect of blockchain and machine learning algorithms in the supply chain financial system was verified.
Muhammad Khan, Shoaib Imtiaz, Gohar Saleem Parvaiz, Arif Hussain · 5 authors
There has been incredible interest in Internet-of-Things (IoT) and blockchain technology (BCT) around the world and across sectors. Following great achievement in the other sectors, the implementation of IoT and BCT have gained great interest in Humanitarian Logistics (HL) at many levels despite remaining in an earlier stage. The profit and non-profit organizations both are under increasing worldwide pressure for transparency, with donors and governments calling for enhanced transparency and information exchange in the humanitarian sector. This study, which is based on transactive memory systems (TMS) theory perspectives, proposes a study framework to understand “how can the transparency, public trust, and coordination in HL be improved through the integration of IoT with BCT?”. We framed and tested six research hypotheses, using data collected from Humanitarian Organizations (HOs) employees. We have applied a Covariance-based structure equation model (CB-SEM) with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). This study results confirm that our all hypotheses were supported. The research results show that the association between explanatory variables (i.e., IoT and BCT) and the response variables (i.e., public trust and coordination) is mediated by transparency. This study provides substantial and valid contributions to the literature on IoT, BCT, transparency, public trust and coordination. This study proves that transparency plays a crucial role in enhancing public trust, coordination, and ultimately HL performance through the integration of IoT with BCT. The study results could be helpful for all the stakeholders of disaster risk management since they are insistently looking for strategies to support afflicts. Our study is a good candidate solution to raise awareness of fast, fair, and safe HL to reveal research gaps and provide opportunities for future research. The study will provide an enormous understanding of IoT and BCT in HL, which has not been investigated empirically before.
<abstract> This study aims to better understand the role of centralized and decentralized ledgers in the money supply process. The aim is to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of these tools in the context of finance and banking. A thorough investigation of the prior literature was carried out using sources extracted from various academic databases. A SWOT analysis based on an integrative literature review methodology was conducted to synthesize various research contributions and analyze relevant information related to centralized and decentralized ledgers. The findings reveal that centralized ledgers are still critical in the record-keeping of financial transactions, despite the strengths and opportunities of decentralized ledgers outweighing those of centralized ledgers. This study helps to increase the understanding of financial and banking sector managers concerning the importance of decentralized ledgers in delivering more value to customers. </abstract>
Ahmad Musamih, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Junaid Arshad · 7 authors
Healthcare supply chains are complex structures spanning across multiple organizational and geographical boundaries, providing critical backbone to services vital for everyday life. The inherent complexity of such systems can introduce impurities including inaccurate information, lack of transparency and limited data provenance. Counterfeit drugs is one consequence of such limitations within existing supply chains which not only has serious adverse impact on human health but also causes severe economic loss to the healthcare industry. Consequently, existing studies have emphasized the need for a robust, end-to-end track and trace system for pharmaceutical supply chains. Therein, an end-to-end product tracking system across the pharmaceutical supply chain is paramount to ensuring product safety and eliminating counterfeits. Most existing track and trace systems are centralized leading to data privacy, transparency and authenticity issues in healthcare supply chains. In this article, we present an Ethereum blockchain-based approach leveraging smart contracts and decentralized off-chain storage for efficient product traceability in the healthcare supply chain. The smart contract guarantees data provenance, eliminates the need for intermediaries and provides a secure, immutable history of transactions to all stakeholders. We present the system architecture and detailed algorithms that govern the working principles of our proposed solution. We perform testing and validation, and present cost and security analysis of the system to evaluate its effectiveness to enhance traceability within pharmaceutical supply chains.
Despite there are some arguments about blockchain, it has been highlighted as an important distributed secure technology in the 21 st century. It is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value. Dobrovnik et al. (2018) suggest that blockchain is a revolutionising technology that would change industries at an international level, add values to firms and supply chain networks, improve commerce, and drive economy. Although blockchain has attracted attentions, very few blockchain studies have been focussed on supply chain integration and collaboration areas. This study illustrates the possibilities of applying blockchain technology in the coordination of activities for effective and efficient supply chain management. The study takes a closer look at the use of blockchain in supply chains beyond cryptocurrency, payment, and finance via the use of smart contract and consensus algorithm (i.e., imposing constraints). The key attributes of blockchain are discussed and potential questions were identified in New Zealand. The expected outcome of this study will advance the understanding of the blockchain and supply chain literature, besides inspire both researchers and practitioners to consider the use of blockchain in different context-aware future studies.
Arvind Upadhyay, Julius Oluwasunkanmi Ayodele, Anil Kumar, Jose Arturo Garza‐Reyes
Purpose This paper aims to explore the challenges and opportunities of blockchain technology adoption from the lens of the technological–organisational–environmental (TOE) framework for operational excellence in the UK automotive industry context. Design/methodology/approach The research methodology of this study follows a systematic review approach, which analyses existing academic published research papers in the top 35 academic journals. There was no specific timeframe established for this study and shortlisting the articles through a set of used keywords. A sample of 71 articles was shortlisted and analysed to provide a discussion on technological and management challenges and opportunities of blockchain adoption from the lens of the TOE framework for operational excellence. Findings The findings of this study present significant theoretical and managerial implications and deep understanding for firms seeking to understand the challenges and opportunities of blockchain adoption for their operational excellence. Research limitations/implications The systematic literature approach was considered for the present study to explore existing academic papers on technological and management challenges and opportunities from the lens of TOE framework for operational excellence, whereas a more specified method meta-analysis can be considered for future research. The study has been explored in the UK automotive industry context, which has been considered as the limitation of generalisation across countries and industries. Originality/value This paper represents the most comprehensive literature study related to the technological and management challenges and opportunities of blockchain from the TOE framework angle for operational excellence.
The next-generation technologies enabled by the industry 4.0 revolution put immense pressure on traditional ISA95 compliant manufacturing systems to evolve into smart manufacturing systems. Unfortunately, the transformation of old to new manufacturing technologies is a slow process. Therefore, the manufacturing industry is currently in a situation that the legacy and modern manufacturing systems share the same factory environment. This heterogeneous ecosystem leads to challenges in systems scalability, interoperability, information security, and data quality domains. Our former research effort concluded that blockchain technology has promising features to address these challenges. Moreover, our systematic assessment revealed that most of the ISA95 enterprise functions are suitable for applying blockchain technology. However, no blockchain reference architecture explicitly focuses on the ISA95 compliant traditional and smart manufacturing systems available in the literature. This research aims to fill the gap by first methodically specifying the design requirements and then meticulously elaborating on how the reference architecture components fulfill the design requirements.
Kevin Gordillo Orjuela, Paulo Alonso Gaona-García, Carlos Montenegro
In recent years an effort has been made to improve supply chain management (SCM) and traceability control in different industrial sectors, for example, in agriculture one of the main concerns is about to know where is the product in particular moment and where it will be next. Problem here is, as many other systems, the centralisation of information and trust problems derived from human interaction with transactions in the system. Based on this context of lack of trust, we propose the design and development of a platform using a database based on Blockchain technologies, the platform’s main effort is to propose a solution for agriculture SCM and control over internet taking as study case Colombian agriculture negotiation process.
In this paper, a new digital business model for independent construction logistics consultants, which features the conceptualization of a sociomaterial blockchain solution for integrated information, material and economic flows, is proposed. Theoretically, we offer an understanding of the economic flow, stress the optimization of construction logistics through flow integration, analyse current approaches to understanding blockchain, adopt sociomateriality to envision a suitable blockchain solution, and consider the way blockchain can constitute part of the value proposition of a related digital business model. Methodologically, we systematically reviewed the literature on blockchain-related construction research, and conducted empirical studies on independent logistics consultants in the Swedish context for more than a year. On the one hand, the literature review reveals that core blockchain properties can generate value for construction logistics (e.g. shared ledger structure and reduction of accounting rework) – however, apart from visions and prototypes, there currently exist no use cases, and potential implementational constraints and security issues are limitedly considered. One the other hand, the empirical findings show that independent construction logistics consultants in the sociomaterial Swedish context are suitable candidates for the proposed digital business model. By combining the literature and empirical insights, a permissioned private proof-of-authority blockchain solution integrating the supply chain flows in a generic sociomaterial setting is conceptualized. This solution is then embedded in the value proposition of a digital business model for an independent construction logistics consultant. The proposition includes, among others, improved process management and increased productivity, while the consultants’ competitive advantage through innovation is facilitated. Other business model segments, like key resources, are also updated via the blockchain solution, while some, like channels, are not significantly affected. To not hinder the realization of this digital business model, issues like the lack of blockchain awareness, and the existing power balances within sociomaterial constellations, have to be addressed.
Clara Walsh, Philip O’Reilly, Rob Gleasure, John McAvoy · 5 authors
Blockchain technology has received much attention in the media and there is an increasing interest amongst organizations within financial services due to the potential benefits. As blockchain-based systems are a nascent technology, the requirements of the technology need to be understood, to allow blockchain systems to be successfully integrated within financial service organizations. There are gaps in academic research in understanding how managers evaluate the value of a blockchain-based system. This study develops a model to explain manager resistance to implementing blockchain-based systems in financial services organizations. This research advances the theoretical understanding of managers’ perspectives on blockchain-based systems and models their resistance to blockchain technology.
SUMMARY As companies begin to explore and develop technology solutions based on blockchain and smart contracts, there is a need to understand the impact of blockchain and smart contracts on the assessment of internal controls and enterprise risk. Especially since the distributed ledger and smart contracts blur the system boundaries between trading partners, there is a need to understand whether internal control assessments based on a single company approach is adequate in an integrated and collaborative environment. This paper provides an overview of smart contracts for practitioners and describes the associated risks of engaging in a blockchain consortium. We also list potential questions related to internal controls that may be considered when either engaging in a consortium or executing a smart contract. We then discuss whether current frameworks, specifically the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations' (COSO) integrated and COSO's Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) frameworks, adequately address a collaborative supply chain ecosystem.
While blockchain was designed as a ledger for cryptocurrency transactions, it can record transactions of anything of value. Blockchain is increasingly used to prove the integrity of commodities, tracing their supply chain journey from the source to the end user. Yet, transferring this technology from a cryptocurrency context to a supply chain setting is not without difficulties. This article explores the implications for multinational and transnational companies in using blockchain as a means to address modern slavery. The research identifies five challenges: verification, inclusion, trust, privacy, and normativity.
Maritime industry is one of the most globally connected industries that include transportation of numerous types of goods and documents across the world. With that said, it is safe to say that abundance of financial and paper-trail transactions are made every day in order for goods to be transported from one place to another. The scope of this paper is to show that by implementing blockchain technology savings in time and money could be generated. This paper presents costs of container freights and rates in the last few years and assumes possible future costs of container freights and rates if blockchain based technology is implemented. Additionally, by using comparative method economical and time value of “traditional” bill of lading is compared with a blockchain bill of lading solution. It is also important to mention the potential impact of the blockchain technology on the world environment and ecology by reducing global paper consumption and emissions from vehicles that are used in the transportation process. This paper also gives a descriptive and comprehensive overview of current and future applications of blockchain technology in maritime industry.
Algan Tezel, Eleni Papadonikolaki, İbrahim Yitmen, Per Hilletofth
Abstract Blockchain, a peer-to-peer, controlled, distributed database structure, has the potential to profoundly affect current business transactions in the construction industry through smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, and reliable asset tracking. The construction industry is often criticized for being slow in embracing emerging technologies and not effectively diffusing them through its supply chains. Often, the extensive fragmentation, traditional procurement structures, destructive competition, lack of collaboration and transparency, low-profit margins, and human resources are shown as the main culprits for this. As blockchain technology makes its presence felt strongly in many other industries like finance and banking, this study investigates the preparation of construction supply chains for blockchain technology through an explorative analysis. Empirical data for the study were collected through semi-structured interviews with 17 subject experts. Alongside presenting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT), the study exhibits the requirements for and steps toward a construction supply structure facilitated by blockchain technology.
Oscar Rodríguez-Espíndola, Soumyadeb Chowdhury, Ahmad Beltagui, Pável Albores
The growing importance of humanitarian operations has created an imperative to overcome the complications currently recorded in the field. Challenges such as delays, congestion, poor communication and lack of accountability may represent opportunities to test the reported advantages of emergent disruptive technologies. Meanwhile, the literature on humanitarian supply chains looks at isolated applications of technology and lacks a framework for understanding challenges and solutions, a gap that this article aims to fill. Using a case study based on the flood of Tabasco of 2007 in Mexico, this research identifies solutions based on the use of emergent disruptive technologies. Furthermore, this article argues that the integration of different technologies is essential to deliver real benefits to the humanitarian supply chain. As a result, it proposes a framework to improve the flow of information, products and financial resources in humanitarian supply chains integrating three emergent disruptive technologies; Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and 3D Printing. The analysis presented shows the potential of the framework to reduce congestion in the supply chain, enhance simultaneous collaboration of different stakeholders, decrease lead times, increase transparency, traceability and accountability of material and financial resources, and allow victims to get involved in the fulfilment of their own needs.
Purpose This paper aims to investigate how blockchain has moved beyond cryptocurrencies and is being deployed to enhance visibility and trust in supply chains, their limitations and potential impact. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative analysis are undertaken via case studies drawn from food companies using semi-structured interviews. Findings Blockchain is demonstrated as an enabler of visibility in supply chains. Applications at scale are most likely for products where the end consumer is prepared to pay the premium currently required to fund the technology, e.g. baby food. Challenges remain in four areas: trust of the technology, human error and fraud at the boundaries, governance, consumer data access and willingness to pay. Research limitations/implications The paper shows that blockchain can be utilised as part of a system generating visibility and trust in supply chains. Research directs academic attention to issues that remain to be addressed. The challenges pertaining to the technology itself we believe to be generalisable; those specific to the food industry may not hold elsewhere. Practical implications From live case studies, we provide empirical evidence that blockchain provides visibility of exchanges and reliable data in fully digitised supply chains. This provides provenance and guards against counterfeit goods. However, firms will need to work to gain consumer buy-in for the technology following repeated past claims of trustworthiness. Originality/value This paper provides primary evidence from blockchain use cases “in the wild”. The exploratory case studies examine application of blockchain for supply chain visibility.