Blockchain technology allows fresh agricultural enterprises to share records stored on the chain, and the technology can benefit information management systems, such as decentralization and transparency. This study uses game theory to examine a blockchain introduction strategy for fresh agricultural enterprises in a competitive environment, considering consumer traceability preferences. We establish a pricing decision model in traditional and blockchain traceability modes and identify optimal solutions. Additionally, we analyze the impact of the blockchain introduction strategy, consumer preferences, and blockchain influence factor on optimal pricing decisions. The results indicate that the introduction of blockchain could improve the profits of enterprises under certain conditions. Moreover, consumer traceability preferences and the blockchain influence factor could significantly affect the blockchain introduction strategy. We also discover that when the blockchain influence factor meets a certain range, introducing blockchain technique in the traceability system could shift demand from traditional enterprises to blockchain enterprises. The total market demand for blockchain enterprises under the blockchain traceability mode will increase, whereas that of traditional enterprises under the blockchain traceability mode will decrease. Both consumer traceability preferences and the blockchain influence factor could significantly affect optimal pricing. Finally, some management suggestions are provided for the traceability of fresh agricultural enterprises based on the research conclusions.
Jasur Salikhov, Saidjahon Hayrutdinov, Timur Muminov
The objective of this study is to establish an efficient contractual coordination model for advancing the supply chain (SC) towards sustainability with blockchain technology. The problem of SC unsold product remanufacturing is investigated under the influence of efforts on recovery quality and information sharing within blockchain technology. Firstly, a functional model describes how the recovery quality affected by the added effort and demand of the remanufactured products is affected by the price. Secondly, the downstream SC faced market uncertainty with consumer sensitivity analyzed, and the SC information-sharing systems were reconsidered in order to improve consumer satisfaction. Then, under the conditions of information sharing and recovery quality efforts, the decentralized SC decision-making mode is discussed. The above demonstrates that the SC unsold products remanufacturing under the decentralized decision-making mode cannot be coordinated. To prove the efficiency of unsold products remanufacturing we investigated the centralized SC mode as a benchmark, which is known as the most efficient system. Finally, in order to effectively coordinate the whole chain, a mechanism of âcost and revenue sharingâ is proposed, and the constraints of supplierâs choice of remanufacturing are given. The results show that the âcost and revenue sharingâ mechanism can effectively coordinate the SC and the expected profits of downstream and upstream will be in winâwin condition. Moreover, the âcost and revenue sharingâ mechanism in a sustainable SC unsold product remanufacturing essentially builds an incentive among members to improve the efficiency of existing resource usage and the environmental implications.
Agricultural commodity supply chains are characterised by the involvement of multiple intermediaries, lack of access to finance and poor financial conditions of farmers. Additionally, there exist numerous inefficiencies and a lack of transparency in the trading processes. Blockchain-enabled supply chain finance (SCF) solutions can potentially help to overcome these problems. However, there is limited research on the process of developing and implementing such solutions and the potential consequences of their implementation. In this paper, we apply the Context-Intervention-Mechanism-Outcome (CIMO) framework to systematically analyse case studies of four firms that have developed blockchain-enabled SCF solutions in agricultural commodity supply chains. The findings show that blockchain-enabled SCF solutions can reduce different types of transaction costs such as costs associated with information search, negotiation and contracting costs, and costs of accessing finance. The solutions designed with the core objective of improving the financial conditions of farmers will differ from those with the core objective of reducing process inefficiencies. The findings of the study will benefit companies planning to develop and implement blockchain-enabled SCF solutions, by highlighting operational challenges and offering concrete solutions on how they can be overcome.
Conflicts between supply chain members emerge because individual strategic actions may not be jointly optimal. Efforts to forecast consumer demand represent a source of conflict. The coordination of forecasts requires a powerful incentive alignment approach. This work proposes a smart contract equipped consortium blockchain system that creates an incentive structure that makes coordination with respect to forecasts economically appealing. Distortions of demand information due to uncoordinated forecasting are captured by a bullwhip measure that factors both forecast error and variance. Cooperation under the system is shown to help minimize this bullwhip measure, thus generating new outcomes for the participants that allow for a higher reward. Under a fixed payout structure, the system achieves credibility of continued cooperation, thus promoting an optimally coordinated equilibrium between the retailer and supplier. Blockchain technology represents a novel information system and consensus formation mechanism that can intermediate the behavior of a supply chain network.
The crypto and digital assets ecosystems have attracted investment, regulators, and speculators to their environment. As the blockchain-based framework can reduce transaction costs, generate distributed trust, and enable decentralized platforms, it has become a potential new base for decentralized business models. Previous studies have highlighted the advantages and drawbacks of each platform, such as interest rates, cost concerns, transparency issues, hacking issues, and hazards. Consequently, it is challenging for investors to evaluate the cryptocurrency trading system which determines the optimum exchanges and crucial aspects. Therefore, in order to rank the optimal digital token trading system, this paper develops an evaluation architecture to determine the various token trading systems. The developed architecture integrates fuzzy theory and the best-worst method (BWM) into the decision-making process to assess decision behaviors regarding preference for digital token trading systems in investors in Taiwan. First, this work establishes the views and parameters by modifying the Delphi method based on a literature review and survey. Second, the fuzzy-BWM is applied to obtain the fuzzy weights of the views and parameters. Then, defuzzification and BWM are used to rank the optimal alternatives of the digital token trading systems for investors. The results indicate that the optimal digital token trading system is the decentralized platform, and the critical parameters are gas fees, interest rates, and the mechanism of savings under fuzzy uncertain scenarios. This means that when considering the uncertain and ambiguous characteristics of the expert decision process in digital token trading systems, the evaluation is decentralized and the gas fees are the most important parameter in the digital token investment platform. Academically, the fuzzy BWM-based decision-making architecture can provide corporations and investors with valuable guidance to rank the optimal digital token trading systems based on fuzzy uncertain scenarios. Commercially, the proposed architecture could provide corporations and investors with a useful model to measure the optimal digital token trading system.
Most private permissioned blockchains in business enterprises are still in the sandbox stage, with troubles of interoperability and resource limits looming large. This structured literature review reports a current inventory of barriers to blockchain use, categorized by the largest sources of friction. In a review of 1,166 recent articles, filtering for those specifically reporting on the challenges of blockchain use in supply chains left 76 for detailed analysis. The challenges reported are clustered around four themes: (1) technical, (2) financial, (3) business ecosystem, and (4) social/cultural/regulatory, with the last two themes as prevalent as technical and financial ones. We discuss why not all industries, organizations, and locales may be ripe for blockchain use. Under specific circumstances, the value of chained data helps nudge participant, industry, and regulator coordination, critical for successful blockchain use.
The main purpose of supply chain systems based on blockchain technology is to take advantage of technology innovations to ensure that a tracked asset's audit trail is immutable. However, the challenge lies in tracking the asset among different blockchain-based supply chain systems. The model proposed in this paper has been designed to overcome the identified challenges. Specifically, the proposed model enables: (1) the asset to be tracked among different blockchain-based supply-chain systems; (2) the tracked asset's supply chain to be cryptographically verified; (3) a tracked asset to be defined in a standardized format; and (4) a tracked asset to be described with several different standardized formats. Thus, the model provides a great advantage in terms of interoperability between different blockchain-driven supply chains over other models in the literature, which will need to replicate the information in each blockchain platform they operate with, while giving flexibility to the platforms that make use of it and maintain the scalability of those logistic platforms. This work aims to examine the application of the proposed model from an operational point of view, in a scenario within the pharmaceutical sector.
Mohammod Abul Kashem, Mohammad Shamsuddoha, Tasnuba Nasir, Asma Akter Chowdhury
In response to significant disruption, supply chain optimization became sensitive to increasing consumer expectations, unexpected demand fluctuation, and inventory costs. Proactive movement, understanding, and empowerment have fostered the beneficial results of supply chain optimization, cooperation, and operational resilience. These pioneering activities are critical to achieving a paradigm shift in the supply chain, even agility in response to changing demand. However, sophisticated analytics such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain are supposed to overcome these challenges to make smarter decisions on a daily basis. Due to these facts, this study aimed to model AIâs and blockchainâs role in supply chain optimization by conducting a systematic literature review based on the idealized framework of Rejeb et al. (2022) and the SALSA mechanism. In addition, this paradigm-shifting approach will provide fairer views and options for managing forecasting, planning, monitoring, and reporting across the entire supply chain. The emphasis remains on real-time accuracy, easy access, and optimization of operational indicators such as sales, visibility, and end-to-end supply chain operations at all times and from any location. It will be an eye-opening experience to enable stakeholders and partners to communicate information collaboratively, consistently, and efficiently.
Zerin Tasnim, Mahmud Akhter Shareef, Abdullah M. Baabdullah, Abu Bakar Abdul Hamid · 5 authors
This paper employed an integrated model for examining behavioral intention to adopt blockchain technology in the supply chain management of manufacturing industries in Bangladesh. The proposed conceptual model was empirically tested using data collected from 189 supply chain managers working in manufacturing organizations in Bangladesh. The findings suggest that perceived usefulness, trading partnersâ pressure, and competitive pressure are the most important determinant of behavioral intention.
Blockchain technology has been widely used in many industries. One current application is in remanufacturing. In this paper we consider the combination of remanufacturing and blockchain, and model a supply chain composed of a manufacturer, a third-party firm, and an online platform. Among them, the manufacturer faces the cap-and-trade regulation and adopts blockchain to record the information on the used products and then remanufactures products. The platform has the power to expand the potential market size and can operate in the marketplace or reselling mode. The third-party firm collects used products for the manufacturer. We conduct a Stackelberg game analysis and obtain the following major findings: First, the optimal production quantities and optimal collection rates with and without blockchain in the marketplace and reselling modes increase with the allocated cap and platform-enabled power. Second, in the reselling or marketplace mode, the manufacturer should not adopt blockchain if the emissions intensity is low; otherwise, it should adopt blockchain. Third, selecting the reselling (marketplace) mode is more profitable for the manufacturer if the platform-enabled power is low (high). Fourth, for quantity coordination, the reselling mode under the wholesale price contract can always coordinate the manufacturer and platform, and the manufacturer, online platform, and third-party firm. However, the marketplace mode with a commission rate can only coordinate the manufacturer, online platform, and third-party firm. For social welfare coordination, the manufacturer, online platform, and third-party firm can achieve coordination in the marketplace or reselling mode. Finally, extending the work to consider the cross-channel effect, we find that the major findings for both quantity coordination and social welfare coordination in the reselling and marketplace modes still hold.
Haji Suleman Ali, Feiyan Jia, Zhiyuan Lou, Jingui Xie
Despite blockchain's potential to transform corporations by providing new ways of organizing business processes and handling information, extant research pays inadequate attention to how and under what conditions blockchain technology provides additional financial value for shareholders. Drawing on the efficient market hypothesis and signaling theory, we examined the relationship between firms' blockchain use, development announcements, and stock market reactions. We used the event study methodology to analyze a sample of blockchain projects initiated by US firms between 2016 and 2019. The sample contains 114 firm-event observations. The findings show that the average abnormal return over a 2 days event period (including the day of the announcement and the day after the announcement) was positive. This positive stock market reaction is even more substantial when firms announce blockchain projects that focus on saving cost or time. Our findings also indicate that blockchain announcements tend to elicit more positive market reactions from smaller firms. We analyzed 249 firm-event observations containing firms from around the world and conclude that blockchain technology has a non-significant long-term impact on operating performance. The contingency approach adopted in our research provides advice for selecting the right mix of blockchain investment initiatives that is most suitable for a given organizational context.
Purpose The purpose of this research is to investigate how to introduce a financing scheme to tackle the manufacturer's capital constraint problem, discuss the effects of data-driven marketing (DDM) quality, cross-channel-return (CCR) rate and financing interest rate on the members' pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions and optimal performances, and analyzes `how to achieve the coordination within a dual-channel supply chain (DSC) by contract coordination. Design/methodology/approach This work establishes a DSC model with DDM, and the offline retailer can provide internal financing to the capital-constrained online manufacturer. The demand under the price is determined based on DDM quality, customer channel preference and delivery lead time. Then, combined with the Stackelberg game, the optimal pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions are discussed under the inconsistent and consistent pricing strategies with decentralized and centralized systems. Furthermore, it designs a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract to coordinate the members under the two pricing strategies. Findings (1) The increase of DDM quality will reduce the delivery-lead-time under the inconsistent or consistent pricing strategy and will push the selling prices; (2) The growth of the CCR rate will raise selling prices and extend the delivery-lead-time under the decentralized decision; (3) Under price competition, the offline selling price is higher than the online selling price when customers prefer the offline channel and vice versa; (4) The retailer and the manufacturer can achieve a win-win situation through a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract. Originality/value This paper contributes to the studies related to DSC by investigating pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions based on DDM, CCR, internal financing and supply chain contract and proposes some managerial implications.
Sunil Tiwari, Pankaj Sharma, TsanâMing Choi, Andrew E. B. Lim
In global supply chains, third-party logistics (3PL) services have proven to be critically important in helping many supply chain agents with distribution tasks so that they can focus on their core competencies of product development and manufacturing. However, there are many inadequacies in current global supply chains that affect the functions of 3PL. These shortcomings have necessitated digital transformation in many businesses. This digitalization enhances information sharing and supply chain visibility, which improves supply chain performance; however, it may create challenges regarding cybersecurity and data quality. Blockchain technology (BCT), with features such as being highly secure and distributed, can help. In this paper, we examine the literature and identify challenges associated with 3PL and how BCT can be used for 3PL. Then, we conduct interviews with four innovation/project managers of well-established logistics companies to uncover the status of BCT adoption in 3PL and the challenges that are hampering the adoption of this technology. Finally, we propose a framework together with a decision roadmap for BCT implementation.
Problem definition: This paper provides a theoretical investigation into the value and design of a traceability-driven blockchain under different supply chain structures. Methodology/results: We use game theory to study the quality contracting equilibrium between one buyer and two suppliers and identify two fundamental functionalities of a traceability-driven blockchain. In serial supply chains, the ability to trace the sequential production process creates value by mitigating double moral hazard. In this case, traceability always improves product quality and all firmsâ profits and naturally creates a win-win. In parallel supply chains, the ability to trace the product origin enables flexible product recall, which can reduce product quality. In this case, traceability can benefit the buyer while hurting the suppliers, creating an incentive conflict. Managerial implications: Firms operating in different kinds of supply chains could face unique challenges when they adopt and design a traceability-driven blockchain. First, in serial supply chains, any firm can be the initiator of the blockchain, whereas in parallel supply chains, it may be critical for the buyer to take the lead in initiating the blockchain and properly compensate the suppliers. Second, in serial supply chains, a restricted data permission policy where each supplier shares their own traceability data with the buyer but not with each other can improve the supply chain profit, whereas in parallel supply chains, it is never optimal to restrict a firmâs access to the traceability data. Third, the suppliersâ incentive to enhance the governance of data quality is more aligned with the supply chain optimum in serial supply chains compared with parallel supply chains. Funding: M. Hu was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [Grants RGPIN-2015-06757 and RGPIN-2021-04295]. J. Liu was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72101110] and The MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [Grant 20YJC630084]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1161 .
Blockchain is a driver for digitalization in the fresh industry, but the resulting improvements in each supply chain memberâs performance are difficult to predict. In this study, we examine the effects of blockchain-based digital transition in a cold supply chain with a manufacturer, a retailer, and a third-party logistics service provider (3PL). Our study provides several managerial implications. First, blockchain adoption would lead to a preservation service level increase if the 3PL charges a low transportation fee, but a preservation service level decrease if the 3PL charges a high one. Second, the blockchain adoption may induce the manufacturer to increase its wholesale price, which does not cause the retailer to cut the order quantity but instead sets a lager one. Third, our results indicate that simply relying on the market mechanism may not enable the cold supply chain to make the optimal decision; thus, government intervention or an exogenous coordination mechanism must be introduced to drive the cold supply chain members to reach a consensus on blockchain-based digital transition. Finally, the main results in the basic model are proven to remain robust. Managerial implications are discussed and provided.
Truong Van Nguyen, Hiep Pham, Minh Nhat Nguyen, Li Zhou · 5 authors
Blockchain (BC) applications in supply chain management (SCM) have recently received extensive attention. It is important to synthesise the extant literature on the field to identify key research themes and navigate potential future directions. This study thus develops an efficient, scalable data-driven review approach that uses text mining and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)-based topic modelling for automatic content analysis of full-text documents. Our method overcomes the drawbacks of traditional systematic literature reviews using either manual coding or bibliographic analysis for article classifications, which are highly time-consuming and biased when dealing with large amounts of text. 108 papers published between 2017 and 2022 were analysed which identified 10 key research themes, including revenue management, sustainability, traceability, manufacturing system, scheduling in cloud manufacturing, healthcare SCM, anti-counterfeit system, logistics and transportation, system architecture development, and food & agriculture SC. Five future directions are then suggested, including (1) integration of BC and other emerging technologies for global and scalable SCM, (2) crypto-X applications in SCM, (3) BC-enabled closed-loop SCM, (4) the environmental and social impacts of BC-based SCM and (5) decentralised autonomous organisations in SCM.