Hanaa Fatoum, Sam Hanna, John Halamka, Douglas Sicker · 6 authors
BACKGROUND: In the era of big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), digital data have become essential for our everyday functioning and in health care services. The sensitive nature of health care data presents several crucial issues such as privacy, security, interoperability, and reliability that must be addressed in any health care data management system. However, most of the current health care systems are still facing major obstacles and are lacking in some of these areas. This is where decentralized, secure, and scalable databases, most notably blockchains, play critical roles in addressing these requirements without compromising security, thereby attracting considerable interest within the health care community. A blockchain can be maintained and widely distributed using a large network of nodes, mostly computers, each of which stores a full replica of the data. A blockchain protocol is a set of predefined rules or procedures that govern how the nodes interact with the network, view, verify, and add data to the ledger. OBJECTIVE: In this article, we aim to explore blockchain technology, its framework, current applications, and integration with other innovations, as well as opportunities in diverse areas of health care and clinical research, in addition to clarifying its future impact on the health care ecosystem. We also elucidate 2 case studies to instantiate the potential role of blockchains in health care. METHODS: To identify related existing work, terms based on Medical Subject Headings were used. We included studies focusing mainly on health care and clinical research and developed a functional framework for implementation and testing with data. The literature sources for this systematic review were PubMed, Medline, and the Cochrane library, in addition to a preliminary search of IEEE Xplore. RESULTS: The included studies demonstrated multiple framework designs and various implementations in health care including chronic disease diagnosis, management, monitoring, and evaluation. We found that blockchains exhibit many promising applications in clinical trial management such as smart-contract application, participant-controlled data access, trustless protocols, and data validity. Electronic health records (EHRs), patient-centered interoperability, remote patient monitoring, and clinical trial data management were found to be major areas for blockchain usage, which can become a key catalyst for health care innovations. CONCLUSIONS: The potential benefits of blockchains are limitless; however, concrete data on long-term clinical outcomes based on blockchains powered and supplemented by AI and IoT are yet to be obtained. Nonetheless, implementing blockchains as a novel way to integrate EHRs nationwide and manage common clinical problems in an algorithmic fashion has the potential for improving patient outcomes, health care experiences, as well as the overall health and well-being of individuals.
Anushree Tandon, Puneet Kaur, Matti Mäntymäki, Amandeep Dhir
Blockchain has gained substantial recognition for its ability to induce transformation and innovation in existing business models and frameworks. Consequently, the application of this technology to the management domain and its processes has attracted increasing interest from academia and industry. Although research addressing the use of blockchain in management has gained momentum, this field presents a discontinuous overview of the current scope and boundary of the knowledge thereon. This study addresses this lacuna using bibliometric analyses to synthesize the prior literature. Data from Scopus 586 articles, entailing contributions from 72 countries, 273 journals, 1016 organizations, and 1284 authors, were analyzed. The findings indicate a maturing research focus on blockchain applications in specific managerial sectors, such as finance and supply chain management. However, this field's conceptual evolution is posited to be in its infancy in other sectors, such as for managing luxury goods and counterfeit products. Further, the thematic classification of the extant literature led to the identification of the following four major themes of research: strategy and regulation, enablement and implication, multi-domain deployment, and the inefficiencies of bitcoin. These findings are used to propose directions for further research in this field, such as the need for methodological advancement and theoretical grounding.
Nripendra P. Rana, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, David L. Hughes
Purpose Blockchain is one of the most significant emerging technologies that is set to transform many aspects of industry and society. However, it has several major technical, social, legal, environmental and ethical complexities that offer significant challenges for mainstream use within the public sector. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has compelled many public sector employees to work remotely, highlighting a number of challenges to blockchain adoption within the Indian context signifying the pertinence of this research topic in the post-pandemic era. This study offers insight to researchers and policymakers alike on how such challenges are interdependent within this important subject. Design/methodology/approach We explored 16 unique sets of challenges selected from the literature and gathered data from nine experts from government settings, healthcare and education sectors and academia who have significant knowledge and experience of blockchain implementation and use in their respective organisations. The implementation of Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and Matriced' Impacts Croise's Multiplication Appliquée a UN Classement (MICMAC) provided a precise set of driving, linkage and dependent challenges that were used to formulate the framework. Findings The developed ISM framework is split into six different levels. The results suggest that the bottom level consists of challenges such as “Lack of standards (C9)” and “Lack of validation (C10)” form the foundation of the hierarchical structure of blockchain adoption. However, the topmost level consists of a highly dependent challenge termed “adoption of blockchain in the public sector (C16)”. The research filters the selected set of five challenges to develop a parsimonious model and formulated six propositions to examine the impact of “lack of standard (C9)”, “lack of validation (C10)” on “security issues (C3)” and “privacy concerns (C2)”, which eventually determine individuals' “reluctance to use blockchain technology (C12)”. Originality/value This research fills a key gap in exiting research by exploring the key challenges in blockchain adoption within the public sector by developing a valuable framework to model this important topic. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to address these challenges and develop a parsimonious model for challenges of blockchain adoption in the public sector settings.
Javed Aslam, Aqeela Saleem, Nokhaiz Tariq Khan, Yun Bae Kim
Planning to adopt the Blockchain is very active in many industries, especially in supply chains. Researchers believe that the Radio-frequency identification (RFIDs), yesterday’s Blockchain, is now obsolete. The strongest reason that the Blockchain is the tool of this era is its unique features; real-time information sharing, cyber-security, transparency, reliability, traceability, and visibility, all of which boost the supply-chain performance. Despite the extensive literature on Blockchain, in recent years, no clear framework has defined whether a supply chain should implement Blockchain or not. This study attempts to fill this gap by proposing a framework for complex supply chain networks. In doing so, first, we identified the supply-chain practices of the oil industry in Pakistan, then we empirically analyzed the impact of these practices on operational performance. The results show that the supply chain management (SCM) practices positively impact operational performance. On the other hand, with the help of literature, we identified different Blockchain features and their influence on different supply chain practices. This study guides managers and decision-makers to evaluate their current supply-chain practices and understand the relationship between supply-chain practices and Blockchain features, and how different Blockchain features can help improving supply-chain practices and ultimately improving operational performance.
Nazir Ullah, Waleed Mugahed Al-Rahmi, Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani, Osama Alfarraj · 5 authors
The conventional education system in developing countries has been enhanced recently by implementing the latest technology of distributed ledger. Disruptive technology is a fundamental requirement for greater accountability and visibility. We explored the key factors affecting the intentions of educational institutions to use blockchain technology for e-learning. This study proposed an expanded model of Technology Acceptance Model by integrating the diffusion of innovation theory. Based on an online survey, the conceptual model was tested and validated using structural equation modeling. The results showed that compatibility had a significant impact on blockchain use in smart learning environments. Other significant effects were also found on adoption of blockchain technology. This study offers an expanded Technology Acceptance Model for implementing blockchain that could assist decision makers in building a smart learning environment for the educational institutes for the emerging economies.
Abstract Service supply chain management is a complex process because of its intangibility, high diversity of services, trustless settings, and uncertain conditions. However, the traditional evaluating models mostly consider the historical performance data and fail to predict and diagnose the problems’ root. This paper proposes a distributed, trustworthy, tamper-proof, and learning framework for evaluating service supply chain performance based on blockchain and adaptive network-based fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) techniques, named Di-ANFIS. The main objectives of this research are as follows: (1) presenting hierarchical criteria of service supply chain performance to cope with the diagnosis of the problems’ root; (2) proposing a smart learning model to deal with the uncertainty conditions by a combination of neural network and fuzzy logic; and (3) introducing a distributed blockchain-based framework due to the dependence of ANFIS on big data and the lack of trust and security in the supply chain. Furthermore, the proposed six-layer conceptual framework consists of the data layer, connection layer, blockchain layer, smart layer, ANFIS layer, and application layer. This architecture creates a performance management system using the Internet of Things, smart contracts, and ANFIS based on the blockchain platform. The Di-ANFIS model provides a performance evaluation system without needing a third party and a reliable intermediary that provides an agile and diagnostic model in a smart and learning process. It also saves computing time and speeds up information flow.
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.
Blockchain technology has been gaining traction across different sectors. It has the potential to immensely benefit the healthcare sector, given the sector's inherent complexities, problems, and inefficiencies. However, to date, no comprehensive, evidence-based effort has been made to understand the readiness of this sector for blockchain adoption. We proposed a readiness assessment framework that encompasses the complex interplay of different underlying factors, social structures, and institutional mechanisms and that covers all key stakeholders. Based on a systematic literature review, the framework is applied to the UAE's healthcare sector and its applicability and usefulness is established. The findings show the multifaceted significance of government readiness in driving blockchain initiatives. Large firms are found to be more willing to leverage the opportunities afforded by blockchain. Lack of clarity on blockchain regulations and laws, and issues pertaining to privacy and trust are found to affect the readiness of all stakeholders. The proposed framework and the study's findings will be useful in guiding policy interventions and developing support mechanisms to strengthen areas related to blockchain adoption.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Organizational and Employee Performance
Organizational Leadership and Management Strategies
After the development and inception of cryptocurrencies, Blockchain has found much usefulness in many domains. The Blockchain technology offers several advantages like decentralization, traceability, anonymity, cryptography, collective maintenance and immutability. The possible disruption and prospective capabilities of the Blockchain technology has been extensively utilized in the Finance domain. There has been extensive exploration on the integration and application of Blockchain technology in the domain of supply chain and supply chain finance as well. But, a detail framework of application is seldom mentioned. In this research, we have studied and analyzed the possible synchronization between Blockchain technology and supply chain finance. This study also presents a conceptual framework based on Blockchain technology to enhance the efficiency of supply chain financing for small and medium scale enterprises. Finally, this study proposes three supply chain finance models and their operation processes on a Blockchain Platform.
Sondre Flovik, Robin Amir Rondestvedt Moudnib, Polyxeni Vassilakopoulou
Blockchain is expected to enable new types of interorganizational relationships, new approaches to governance and new approaches to settlement and clearing processes. Neverthless, although the interest on blockchain is on the rise, there are not many blockchain implementations in organizations and there is limited empirical research investigating the reasons for this. This paper contributes to filling this gap by investigating the following research question: what are the impeding and motivating factors for organizational blockchain adoption? Data were collected through a survey based on pairwise comparisons of key factors identified in the literature. The data collected were analyzed using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) which is a structured approach for deriving priorities among diverse elements. The results provide insights about the issues that matter the most for practitioners and show that infrastructural qualities (reliability, transparency, immutability) matter more than characteristics related to blockchain´s transformative potential (automation of transactions, decentralization). Furthermore, the results for impeding factors indicate that the most prominent concerns relate to maturity and scalability.
This paper focuses on using blockchain technology to enhance efficiency and cost reduction in foreign transactions through the banking system. Blockchain provides crucial features such as immutability of records and decentralization, which is then used to carry out foreign transactions. This process could be a major change in the transactions carried out by removing middle banks during transactions thereby speeding up the process. This paper aims at designing an Ethereum decentralized Banking Application for foreign money transfer using blockchain technology. Smart Contract helps to eliminate middle banks in the process by acting on rules specified in the contract. Every participant needs to abide by these rules which make it trustworthy and maintain the authenticity of the process.
Blockchain technology has emerged as a powerful solution for improving the security, transparency, and efficiency of financial transactions. Unlike traditional financial systems that depend on centralized intermediaries, blockchain uses decentralized distributed ledgers, cryptographic security, consensus mechanisms, and immutable records to ensure trust and data integrity. This study examines the role of blockchain in securing financial transactions and explores its core components, including distributed ledgers, cryptographic hashing, consensus protocols, smart contracts, and decentralized networks. The research analyzes how blockchain mitigates security threats such as fraud, double spending, identity theft, unauthorized access, and transaction tampering. It also investigates applications in digital payments, cross-border remittances, banking, trade finance, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance (DeFi). A blockchain-enabled financial transaction framework is proposed and evaluated using metrics such as security, transparency, scalability, efficiency, and fraud prevention. The findings indicate that blockchain significantly enhances transaction security and transparency while reducing costs and processing times. Although challenges such as scalability, regulatory issues, interoperability, and energy consumption remain, blockchain demonstrates strong potential to transform modern financial systems and support the development of secure, efficient, and decentralized financial ecosystems.
Blockchain technology and distributed ledgers are generating a lot of buzz and sparking a lot of initiatives in many sectors. The financial sector, on the other hand, is regarded as a major user of the blockchain idea. This is owing not only to the fact that the crypto-currency Bitcoin is the most well-known use of this technology, but also to significant process inefficiencies and a huge cost base problem unique to this sector. Furthermore, the financial crisis showed that even in financial services, determining the right current owner of an asset is not always feasible. Retracing ownership over a longer chain of changing buyers in global financial transaction services is even more difficult: when Bear Stearns, a US investment bank, failed in 2008 and was completely acquired by JP Morgan Chase, the number of shares offered to the acquirer was greater than the number of shares outstanding in Bear Stearns’ books. The accounting mistakes could not be resolved, and JP Morgan Chase was forced to face the consequences of extra (digital) shares.
Nowadays, smart cities are using advanced technologies to control and coordinate physical, social, and commercial enterprise systems to deliver high-quality services to their residents while guaranteeing the effective usage of available resources. Numerous major corporations, as well as government bodies, are involved in the construction of smart cities because smart city activities also need information that is obtained from organizations. Blockchain-based technology allows for peer-to-peer exchanges as a public ledger that maintains records of transactions, smart contracts, agreements, and shipments without third-party mediators. In the future, smart cities will be equipped with several innovative technologies, a huge amount of data, a lot of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and a heterogeneous environment. However, data processing among IoT devices in futuristic smart cities is a challenging task. In this paper, the author proposed a blockchain-based big data integrity service framework for IoT devices data processing in smart cities. The author collected the necessary data from various resources and applied three experiments to evaluate the key performance indicators. K-mean algorithm was used to classify the data, and blockchain strategy was applied to ensure secure communication among IoT devices. The framework was simulated and tested using 100 devices. The proposed framework allowed IoT devices to efficiently use information collected from different resources to engage in operational processes and exchange information.
Claudia Durán, Christian Fernández‐Campusano, Raúl Carrasco, Manuel Vargas · 5 authors
Blockchain technology (BC) offers an innovation platform for decentralized and transparent transactions in the maritime port industry. This technology allows guaranteeing trust, transparency and traceability of cargo and data to be tracked. Today, in the port systems of emerging market countries, BC technology is increasingly being incorporated into information and communication processes. In parallel, the social domain has begun to be explored due to the lack of link between the port and the city it occupies, and the need to incorporate public actors in decision-making at the governance level. In this sense, the present work aims to promote BC technology in order to transform data and information into useful knowledge for effective decision making, through the use of Crowdsourcing. A Crowdsourcing Blockchain (CrowdBC) conceptual framework and its architecture are generated for a port system in which the cyber-technological, social and cognitive domains (CSTC) of smart ports, the knowledge generation process and Crowdsourcing technology are interrelated. Finally, opportunities are discussed for ports that are in permanent development to reduce the gaps with the smart industry. As a discussion, two possible scenarios and recommendations for future implementations that consider the social and cognitive aspects of Industry 4.0 are presented.
The study aimed to identify the effect of smart blockchain contracts on the financial services industry in the banking sector in Jordan, through an empirical study on the Jordanian banking sector. The study population was represented by the banks in the Jordanian environment, (15) banks were selected with their various branches. As for the study sample, it consisted of (81) including (managers, deputy directors, heads of departments, major clients), representing approximately 67.5% of the total sent questionnaires. A questionnaire was used as an instrument of the study in order to collect data from the study population. The descriptive and analytical approach was used. The study concluded that there is a statistically significant relationship regarding the impact of smart blockchain contracts on the financial services industry in the banking sector in Jordan. It was found also that the smart blockchain contracts help to reduce the cost of Banking services and enhancing operational efficiency in Jordanian banks. Moreover, they enhance and develop banking services and upgrade them in Jordanian banks. In light of the results of the field study, the researcher recommended that Jordanian banks should rely on smart Blockchain contracts in the field of banking sector that will contribute to reducing costs related to remittances and raising the operational efficiency of these banks.
Maitha Al Ketbi, Khaled Shuaib, Ezedin Barka, Marton Gergely
Aim/Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose a new information security controls framework for blockchain technology, which is currently absent from the National and International Information Security Standards. Background: Blockchain technology is a secure and relatively new technology of distributed digital ledgers, which is based on inter-linked blocks of transactions, providing great benefits such as decentralization, transparency, immutability, and automation. There is a rapid growth in the adoption of blockchain technology in different solutions and applications and within different industries throughout the world, such as finance, supply chain, digital identity, energy, healthcare, real estate, and the government sector. Methodology: Risk assessment and treatments were performed on five blockchain use cases to determine their associated risks with respect to security controls. Contribution: The significance of the proposed security controls is manifested in complementing the frameworks that were already established by the International and National Information Security Standards in order to keep pace with the emerging blockchain technology and prevent/reduce its associated information security risks. Findings: The analysis results showed that the proposed security controls herein can mitigate relevant information security risks in blockchain-based solutions and applications and, consequently, protect information and assets from unauthorized disclosure, modification, and destruction. Recommendations for Practitioners: The performed risk assessment on the blockchain use cases herein demonstrates that blockchain can involve security risks that require the establishment of certain measures in order to avoid them. As such, practitioners should not blindly assume that through the use of blockchain all security threats are mitigated. Recommendation for Researchers: The results from our study show that some security risks not covered by existing Standards can be mitigated and reduced when applying our proposed security controls. In addition, researchers should further justify the need for such additional controls and encourage the standardization bodies to incorporate them in their future editions. Impact on Society: Similar to any other emerging technology, blockchain has several drawbacks that, in turn, could have negative impacts on society (e.g., individuals, entities and/or countries). This is mainly due to the lack of a solid national and international standards for managing and mitigating risks associated with such technology. Future Research: The majority of the blockchain use cases in this study are publicly published papers. Therefore, one limitation of this study is the lack of technical details about these respective solutions, resulting in the inability to perform a comprehensive risk identification properly. Hence, this area will be expanded upon in our future work. In addition, covering other standardization bodies in the area of distributed ledger in blockchain technology would also prove fruitful, along with respective future design of relevant security architectures.
The blockchain (a distributed ledger) is commonly known as the backbone of the emerging digital cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, and potentially disruptive technology for the monetary system and the financial industry. However, the impact of the blockchain technology goes beyond financial sector and could also influence supply chain management, commerce, health care, real estate, data storage, supercomputing power, decentralized notarization, marketing etc. In this paper we examine the potential of blockchain technology to influence and even disrupt marketing. The areas of influence of the blockchain on marketing include but are not limited to creation of new products and services, ensuring trust and transparency, disintermediation, privacy and data ownership, digital identity, customer relationship management, loyalty programs, advertising, fighting click fraud, supply chain management, etc. Since the application of the blockchain in marketing is novel, mostly conceptual, unmatured and still in development the influence and the potential disruption of this technology is envisioned for the years to come. Anyway, there are already promising projects that have potential to change the landscape in this industry and to provide first-movers advantage for the existing or the emerging brands.
Daniel Mago Vistro, Muhammad Shoaib Farooq, Attique Ur Rehman, Mohsin Ali Khan
Taxation department of Pakistan collects and keeps record of legislated taxes imposed by governments. Pakistan is among those countries which still maintain records of taxations in registers, thus maintaining immutability of records is really hard. Tax records have great risk of being lost or altered by someone and results in leading towards committing fraud in taxes. Blockchain has provided advantage to many industries because of its enhanced security and traceability in current trustless environment. We have presented a tax management solution which has an objective to provide secure, efficient and auditable system in Pakistan environment using blockchain technology. Our proposed methodology is about digitizing of the records of taxations using the blockchain distributed ledger based technology. Finally, future work prediction is also given, which will help getting directions for controlling fraud cases from most senior officers posts.
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.
The 21st Century is all about technology. People are open to accepting new technologies as the need for modernization is increasing every single day. Blockchain is one of those new and revolutionary technologies that will have a significant impact on the market and industry. In layman’s terms, Blockchain is a data structure that stores transactional records while also ensuring security, transparency, and decentralization. There is a digital signature on every transaction on a blockchain, which proves the authenticity of the blockchain. In a Blockchain, data is stored which is tamper-proof and cannot be changed as it uses encryption and digital signatures. To change a record on a blockchain, one needs to change several records, and one needs to change the distributed ledger. That’s why it’s quite impossible to change the data which has already been entered into a Blockchain. The Blockchain is a technology that will allow transactions simply, safely, effectively, and also safely. This is a very promising technology. It’s already in a lot of places. It can also solve any problem in the banking sector. This technology became famous after introducing the first cryptocurrency, which is known as bitcoin. Right now, there is a huge problem with banking, and the Blockchain can solve these problems. This paper will demonstrate transacting over a secure, blockchain-based network and therefore eliminate the need for intermediary entities. This paper is a review-based paper that provides the application and opportunities of the Blockchain in the banking system. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the application and opportunities of the Blockchain for a secure banking system. In this review investigation and analysis of this paper at the beginning, related work from other authors in the same fields has been discussed. Then the working method of the Blockchain technology has been introduced with analysis. The use of blockchain technology for secure banking has been discussed. The main achievement of this paper is to demonstrate how the Blockchain works and how it can be useful in the secure banking industry.
Blockchain technology has the characteristics of decentralization and immutability. Since it appears, blockchain technology has received widespread attention and is considered to be the most revolutionary technology with the most promising development after cloud computing, Internet accelerated speed, and big data. Therefore, a wave of application of blockchain technology has set off around the world today. Supply chain finance is based on multi-party, relatively closed environment, and requires controllable and trusted data as supporting factors. Naturally, it has great potential room for combining with blockchain technology. The application of blockchain technology in the field of supply chain finance can provide new solutions to the problems in the development of supply chain finance. Therefore, the research on supply chain finance based on blockchain has become a new research hotspot. This article reviews the current literature on the application of blockchain to supply chain finance. Numerous studies have shown that the application of blockchain technology will open a new door for the development of supply chain finance and promote the vigorous and healthy development of supply chain finance.
Purpose This paper aims to retrieve key components of blockchain applications in supply chain areas. It applies natural language processing methods to generate useful insights from academic literature. Design/methodology/approach It first applies a text mining method to retrieve information from scientific journal papers on the related topics. The text information is then analyzed through machine learning (ML) models to identify the important implications from the existing literature. Findings The research findings are three-fold. While challenges are of concern, the focus should be given to the design and implementation of blockchain in the supply chain field. Integration with internet of things is considered to be of higher importance. Blockchain plays a crucial role in food sustainability. Research limitations/implications The research findings offer insights for both policymakers and business managers on blockchain implementation in the supply chain. Practical implications This paper exemplifies the model as situated in the interface of human-based and machine-learned analysis, potentially offering an interesting and relevant avenue for blockchain and supply chain management researchers. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, the research is the very first attempt to apply ML algorithms to analyzing the full contents of blockchain-related research, in the supply chain sector, thereby providing new insights and complementing existing literature.