Purpose This research tries to find the blockchain-based resilience strategies that can help the supply chains of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to recover from the disruptions and work effectively in a resource-based view perspective. Design/methodology/approach Eight broad strategies and 32 sub-strategies are identified from the literature review. Delphi study was carried out, and detailed discussion with 16 experts helped in finalizing these strategies. Further, the best-worst method (BWM) prioritized these strategies. Findings The findings suggests that “building social capital,” improving “coordination capabilities,” “sensitivity towards market,” “flexibility in process and production,” “reduction in process and lead time,”and “having a resource efficiency and redundancy” are the top strategies on which the top management should focus to overcome the situations of disruptions and enhance performance of MSMEs. Practical implications The blockchain-based strategies will enable the companies in tracing the products from the company to customers. Further, the customers will be able to identify their manufacturers, the raw materials used in manufacturing, and the life and quality of raw used materials. Altogether the textile industry will become more sensitive toward environmental practices. Originality/value The previous research has not identified and evaluated the blockchain-based resilience strategies, and therefore this study tries to fill this gap. This study used a smaller sample from the experts, so the results may vary if the larger data set is used and hypothesis testing can be done.
Blockchain technology offers a promising solution for supply chain traceability by providing an immutable, decentralized ledger for recording transactions and tracking the movement of goods. This can improve transparency, accountability, and efficiency in supply chain operations. However, implementing blockchain for supply chain traceability also poses several challenges. One major challenge is the lack of standardization and interoperability between different blockchain platforms, which can make it difficult for different supply chain partners to communicate and share information. Additionally, there are concerns about the scalability and performance of blockchain networks, as well as the need for secure and reliable data management. Despite these challenges, the potential benefits of blockchain for supply chain traceability are significant, and research and development in this area is ongoing to address these challenges and unlock the full potential of blockchain technology for supply chain management.
Muhammad Hamza Naseem, Jiaqi Yang, Tongxia Zhang, Waseem Alam
Digital technologies like blockchain, the Internet of Things, and smart warehouses have been developed due to the fourth industrial revolution, or “Industry 4.0.” Any business’ supply chain includes several stakeholders, including manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, and final consumers. The demand for firms to utilize these technologies to gain competitive advantages has intensified in the modern world due to rising worldwide rivalry. Additionally, the adoption of blockchain technology, in particular, can have a huge impact on a company’s reverse logistics, accelerating processes by decentralizing, tracking, and overseeing the delivery of items to final consumers. The goal of this study is to pinpoint those significant obstacles because several must be overcome for blockchain technology to be successfully implemented in reverse logistics. This study identified 16 impediments to the adoption of blockchain technology after a thorough analysis of the literature and expert opinion. The fuzzy AHP approach was used in this study to rank those barriers as this approach helps to address the complexity and uncertainty associated with decision-making in supply chain management and provides a more robust and reliable ranking of the barriers to blockchain adoption. A case study of Pakistan’s e-commerce industry was carried out. The results show that the high installation cost, stakeholders’ resistance to the blockchain, and the lack of top-management support are the critical success factors in blockchain adoption. From an industrial perspective, the study highlights the need for businesses to carefully evaluate the potential benefits and costs of adopting blockchain technology. It also underscores the importance of addressing the barriers to adoption to ensure successful implementation. By doing so, businesses can enhance their supply chain management and improve their overall competitiveness.
Summer K. Mohamed, Sandra S. G. Haddad, Mahmoud Barakat, Bojan Rosi
Due to the complexity of building supply chain resilience (SCR) towards long-term environmental sustainability amendments, the use of emerging technologies such as Blockchain Technology (BCT) can be adopted as an innovative tool to enhance the sustainability and resilience of supply chains, especially in uncertain environments. Drawing on the Knowledge-Based View (KBV) and Dynamic Capability View (DCV), this research aims to demonstrate how the adoption of BCT can enhance the environmental supply chain performance (SCP). A total of 603 valid surveys were collected from respondents from manufacturing and service organizations in Egypt. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modelling, and results revealed that BCT adoption alone had a negative direct impact on environmental SCP. However, when this relationship was mediated by SCR and sequentially mediated by customer integration and green customer information sharing, the results were positive. This research presents insights on how organizations can adapt to dynamic business environments, and, in addition, it extends the theories of KBV and DCV in an empirical contribution by filling the gap in understanding regarding how environmental SCP can be enhanced through the adoption of BCT.
Chi Minh Pham, Sachithra Lokuge, Thanh-Thuy Nguyen, Arthur Adamopoulos
Purpose With the advent of new technologies, the integration of blockchain-enabled food supply chain (FSC) implementations is on the rise. Considering the multilateral, comprehensive and complex nature of the whole blockchain-enabled FSC implementation process, understanding knowledge management (KM) practices will add value. Prior literature shows that only a few studies have focused on this topic. As such, this study aims to identify and establish key KM enablers for blockchain-enabled FSC implementations. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a qualitative research approach. By conducting 22 in-depth interviews with experienced blockchain implementation experts in FSC contexts, this study provides interesting insights for academics and practitioners. Findings The results of the analysis highlighted eight critical KM enablers that directly influence blockchain-enabled FSC implementations. They include external enablers (i.e. regulation and market competition) as well as internal enablers (i.e. people – organizational learning, strategy and leadership, culture, information technology, organizational infrastructure, processes and activities). Originality/value This study is one of the few studies that identify KM enablers for blockchain-enabled FSC implementations. Considering the novelty of decentralized blockchain implementations in FSC and its importance in transforming silo-based knowledge exchange to a decentralized operational structure, this study attempts to identify factors that increase the efficiency of blockchain implementations in FSC contexts.
Ala Abdulsalam Alarood, Adamu Abubakar, Abdulrahman Alzahrani, Faisal S. Alsubaei
The adoption of recycling and proper disposal techniques for electronic waste is crucial in advancing sustainable development. The traditional approaches of motivating people for collection of electronic waste are often insufficient due to inadequate methods reaching out, given incentives, calculating appropriate incentives associate to the task of gathering the electronic waste and a lack of transparency in the entire process. Insufficient collection of electronic waste could result in the release of numerous harmful substances into the environment. Prior research studies have been carried out to tackle the issue of electronic waste management in a broad sense. The findings of those studies indicated diverse strategies, each of which is relevant solely to a restricted range of electronic waste reprocessing circumstances. The current study has presented a proposed technique for incentivizing tasks and activities associated to collection of electronic waste through the adoption of vector space technique. Blockchain smart contact technology, has been used to implemented the strategy. The method used involves various well defined mapping of tasks, nature of activities, and their magnitude in order to derived an incentive. Some scenarios for the calculations of incentives are presented, and the findings reveals the based case is by utilizing weighting scale scheme where each tasks and activities are mapped to its associated inventive rather than providing fixed incentive values. Ethereum was used as digital token for each unit of incentive. This concept has contributed in encouraging personal accountability in the management of e-waste collection in order to cultivate sustainable behaviors for a long term solution.
Sumit Kumar Rana, Arun Kumar Rana, Sardar M N Islam Naz, Ashutosh Kumar Singh · 5 authors
The most prevalent issue in the supply chain ecosystem is introducing transparency to the system. Another issue is fostering trust among various stakeholders to support successful process execution. Depending on the domain and the stakeholders, the supply chain process may change. Thus, solving the issue is challenging. Blockchain technology, sometimes referred to as distributed ledger technology, is beneficial in many ways in a variety of industries, including finance and healthcare. Blockchain based model can resolve the issues of traditional supply chain ecosystem. It creates a decentralized and transparent system where every decision is taken with the help of consensus of the associated stakeholders. This supports an immutable ledger so unauthorized modification is not supported. In this article, we address the issues that the supply chain ecosystem faces as well as the benefits of blockchain technology in resolving these issues. As well as some of the remaining challenges and opportunities, other aspects of blockchain technology are explored that will enable it flourish in future supply chains.
Abstract This article presents a holistic and integrated framework for blockchain deployment in global Agro-food ‘supply’ chains and how to transition them to accountable and sustainable global ‘value’ chains. Though many a scholarly contributions have assessed blockchain implementation at various levels in the chain, this research holistically looks at impediments to blockchain implementation at each level in the value chain. The study first establishes interlinkages between the three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely food for all (SDG 2), health for all (SDG 3), and sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12). It assesses the legal framework (namely trade law) and regulatory requirements therein. It then employs a case-study-based approach to assess blockchain deployment from the lens of operations management. These inter-disciplinary insights offer an enabling framework to successfully implement a vertically-integrated blockchain across the entire global Agro-food value chain. An end-to-end blockchain promises accountability, and thereby, enhanced trust in trade by offering a time-stamped ledger of transactions from the farm to the fork, to the end consumer. This systematic study, and its findings therein, are expected to serve as a ready reference guide to managers and policymakers for a truly integrated farm-to-fork blockchain deployment.
Hyperautomation is a true digital transformation using advanced techniques and automates complicated business processes. Blockchain-based networks have hyper-automation turbo-boost power as they create tamper-proof, real-time data exchange networks. The study aims to examine the impact of blockchain on the performance of Chinese electronics manufacturers through the green supply chain and circular economy in the hyper-automation environment. Respondents (n = 376) in the present study were made up of employees from 300 China-based electronics companies. The results show that blockchain technology with hyper-automation can impact business performance through a circular economy and green supply chain. In addition, they have direct practical implications for Chinese electronics manufacturers moving towards a green supply chain by applying blockchain in the hyper-automation environment.
Abstract In electronic business (e-business), innovative technologies such as blockchain technology (BCT) have a fundamental impact on activities along the value chain. The perspective of the value chain in the context of blockchain technology has been explored, but contributions are mainly focused on supply chain management and tangible goods. Hence, the e-business domain lacks research, even though many beneficial features for service value chains and the transaction of intangible goods exist. Therefore, the current paper focuses on (1) how and why value chain activities are supported by using BCT and (2) how the stakeholder’s responsibilities change for value chain activities that are affected by BCT. A multiple case analysis of four e-business cases, i.e., Theta, OpenBazaar, Presearch, and Crypviser, is conducted. Based on four ideal value chains by Wirtz (2019) (cf. 4C-Net Model), steps that depend on BCT or that are supported by BCT are outlined. By conducting a cross-case analysis, we derive eight blockchain technology propositions that enlarge the existing knowledge base.
Chandramohan Dhasarathan, Mohammad Kamrul Hasan, Shayla Islam, Salwani Abdullah · 8 authors
Abstract This research focuses on addressing the privacy issues in healthcare advancement monitoring with the rapid establishment of the decentralised communication system in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). An integrated blockchain homomorphic encryption standard with an in‐build supervised learning‐based smart contract is designed to improvise personal data prevention. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has advanced in healthcare with the rapid establishment of decentralised communication systems. Distributed ledgers have resource constraints to leverage public, private, and hybrid blockchain transactions to facilitate heterogeneous operations. The authors propose a supervised learning strategy in healthcare to mitigate learning health‐related issues, improvise clinical monitoring, and ensure secure communication. The proposed approach handles the vast IoMT data by adopting blockchain for IoMT as (BIoMT) to preserve sensitive clinical information. It incorporates hybrid encryption techniques to improve patient and health records' privacy protection. BIoMT also maintains secured and sustainable supply chain management with a highly confidential decentralised framework using blockchain‐based smart contracts, which minimises data loss. Moreover, a framework is designed with a hybrid hashing that integrates a homomorphically encrypted algorithm to support a smart contract for decentralised applicability. The BIoMT approach is tested and compared with the relevant prevention mechanisms. The evaluation shows that the effects observed from the result analysis noted that the proposed method outperforms reliable prevention mechanisms compared to the existing approaches.
Blockchain technology is a major innovation that has swept through global supply chains recently. Blockchain technology has received immense attention in the supply chain industry due to its promising capabilities. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential capabilities of blockchain technology, which are highly relevant to the supply chain industry. To improve the understanding of the effect of blockchain on the supply chain, this research focuses on two crucial aspects of supply chain management, namely, supply chain capabilities and flexibility. The research procures measuring items for blockchain characteristics, supply chain capabilities, and flexibility through a questionnaire, the previous literature, and interviews conducted with industry experts. Through the use of statistical analysis, this study identifies the relationship between the above variables. The effect of blockchain on each variable is examined using a simple linear regression model. The findings disclose that blockchain technology has generated a notable impact on the supply chain capabilities and supply chain flexibility of firms. This makes blockchain technology highly essential for firms to generate a competitive advantage in the market and develop a new set of capabilities ahead of their competitors.
Overconsumption of resources is a global issue. To deal with resource depletion and mitigate impending crises, the circular economy (CE) solution provides an ecosystem by reducing waste via the reuse, repair, refurbishment, and recycling the existing materials and products. However, as the complexity of supply chains is increasing an effective CE management is very crucial. We want to address this issue by performing a feasibility study with AI-enabled blockchain technology using our developed customised NFT platform, TrackGenesis NFT, along with the OpenSea.io architecture for CE management to decrease transaction costs, enhance performance and communication along the supply chain, and reduce carbon footprints. Circulogy is an e-waste management system that can respond to supply chain challenges using blockchain technologies. A supply chain can get complicated very quickly, considering that each product component has its supply chain. In our proposed solution, blockchain provides a solution to this by establishing transparency in every node of the product's lifecycle and users can exchange or sell/buy NFTs. There are multiple copies of the audit trail for every transaction using blockchain, which will provide the ability to track and reuse/recycle Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).
Chiara Acciarini, Francesco Cappa, Giovanni Costanzo, Martina Prisco · 7 authors
Blockchain technology is continuing to spread in many sectors, including the food industry, which has begun to embrace it in order to face new transformative trends. Indeed, since it is based on distributed ledgers and the encryption of stored data, blockchains may provide greater security for information delivered. It is still unclear what effects the use of blockchains has on customer behavior in the food sector. Consequently, our analyses tested the impact that blockchains have on customer purchase intentions in the food sector. Our results show that information provided to customers about the use of a blockchain to protect information throughout the supply chain can positively influence their purchase intentions. This study, consequently, offers new insights into the benefits generated by blockchains in the food sector and contributes to scientific understanding of the phenomenon overall. Moreover, our results provide insights that are also useful for managers and policymakers to further spread the use of blockchains.
Simon Wong, John Yeung, Yui‐yip Lau, Tomoya Kawasaki
In the last six years, there has been a rise in research interest with regard to the applications of blockchain technology in supply chains and how these applications bring benefits to supply chain management. In a broader sense, an essential research focus that has been discussed in the literature is the way in which this emerging blockchain technology in supply chains brings sustainable benefits to a community. The rationale for incorporating cloud technology into a blockchain and integrating the blockchain with machine learning for supply chain applications is to maintain technical sustainability. While previous studies suggested and reported sustainable practices of applying blockchain technology in supply chains, the means with which these practices are brought about by the cloud-based blockchain integrated with machine learning (CBML) have not been thoroughly explored in the literature. The case study presented in this paper aims to fill this gap by exploring technically, environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable practices through the use cases of CBML for supply chain management by the international leading container shipping company Maersk. The use cases by Maersk presented in published documents were collected from the Internet and then analyzed. This document analysis was performed in two ways. The first way was a technical review of the blockchain technology used by Maersk with a consideration of technical sustainability to ensure scalability and big data analytics. The other way was to analyze the applications of the CBML by Maersk to indicate how environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability can be achieved. On the other hand, this paper also highlights the negative technical, environmental, economic, and social sustainability impacts caused by Maersk and discusses implications for future research directions.
Xingfen Liu, Zhongbao Zhou, Feimin Zhong, Jianmai Shi
Abstract Blockchain technology is commonly used in many industries. One current application is that providing supply chain transparency, sellers can disclose product information to consumers for authentication and certification. To examine the supply chain blockchain based transparency‐level strategy and its interact with different refund policies, in a two‐echelon supply chain, we consider a supplier decides on the transparency level and wholesale price, and a retailer decides on retail price and provides full refund (policy F), or partial refund (policy P), or no refund (policy N) policy to consumers. We find the refund policy choice and the transparency‐level strategy have a mutual influence. A lenient refund policy (a higher refund) can generate more demand, which makes the supplier to provide a high transparency level, whereas a high consumer's transparency awareness also promotes the retailer to choose a more lenient refund policy. We find Pareto improvement exists under a cost‐sharing strategy, and the retailer is willing to share part of the adoption cost only when the efficiency of improving the transparency level is moderate. Otherwise, the retailer adopts blockchain technology only when there is no cost sharing. Further, different shipping cost bearers can change the sensitivity of refund policy choice, and the supplier prefers to provide a high transparency level when the retailer covers the shipping cost. When the retailer becomes more socially responsible, the supplier is more willing to provide a higher transparency level, and the retailer is more willing to provide a partial refund policy.
In the context of “double carbon”, constructing green supply chains is the only way to implement sustainable development strategies in the manufacturing industry. This paper, therefore, examines the manufacturing supply chain for low-carbon products. More recently, the lack of technical information flow due to data barriers up and down the supply chain has led to high energy consumption, the serious waste of raw materials, and the substandard production of green products. Therefore, the level of supply chain data governance must be improved to enhance the sustainability of the supply chain. By studying blockchain-based data governance and government policy incentives for manufacturing supply chains, this study constructed an evolutionary game model based on prospect theory for the tripartite relation of government, manufacturers, and retailers. The difference between the perceived and actual value was introduced into a three-way evolutionary game model based on prospect theory to optimize the practical implications of the model. The model was then simulated using system dynamics. Through the simulation, it could be concluded that the ability of the three-way evolutionary game to reach the optimal stability point is only related to the sensitivity of the retailer’s perceived value. Additionally, the outcome of the three-way evolutionary game can be unstable, with changes in perceived value sensitivity. Finally, relevant policy recommendations are made. The innovation of this study is establishing a data governance platform that uses data governance to build green supply chains. Additionally, the government was added to the subjects of the game to explore the role of government policy in data governance and sustainable development. In addition, the evolutionary game model was incorporated with prospect theory and traditional expected utility theory, and the rational deficits and preferences of decision makers were taken into account, which brings the results closer to the reality of the situation.
Mariana de la Roche, Laura Kajtazi, Åsa Dahlborn, Louis Helmer
This chapter describes the challenges and vulnerabilities of current supply chain management and presents the benefits of implementing blockchain and DLT technology in the supply chain processes. For a more precise understanding, the chapter presents a summary of the characteristics of blockchain technology and an overview of the energy consumption of different blockchain protocols to demystify the negative criticism of blockchain technologies in terms of energy consumption. The purpose of analyzing the characteristics and energy requirements is to present the potential of DLTs to positively impact supply chains and make the blockchain industry more sustainable. After describing the sector's challenges and the technology's characteristics, the chapter presents case studies in which DLT has been successfully integrated into the supply chain of various products and goods. The chapter concludes by highlighting the necessary conditions to promote the adoption of DLT technology globally.
The fierce competition in international markets and the rapid advancements in information technology result in shorter lead times, lower transportation capacity, and higher demand. The supply chain network is one of the most crucial areas of concentration in the majority of business circumstances. Blockchain technology is a promising option for safe information exchange in the supply chain network. Although preserving security at every level of the blockchain is somewhat important, cryptographic methodologies are frequently used in the existing works. The novel perceptive craving game search (PCGS) optimization algorithm is used to optimally generate the key for data sanitization, which assures the privacy of logistics data. Here, the original logistics data obtained from the manufacturer is sanitized with an optimal key generated by using the PCGS optimization algorithm, avoiding the risk of unauthorized access and data swarm that causes the system to lag. Moreover, the sanitized data obtained from the manufacturer is transmitted to the allowed parties via different sub-chains. The same generated key is used on the receiving customer side for reconstructing the original information from the sanitized data. The performance and results of the proposed blockchain-based privacy preservation model are validated using various parameters.
Purpose With refineries contributing 68% of CO 2 emissions from stationary combustion sources alone, smart technologies and the circular economy (CE) model for resource loop optimization can be a solution for carbon neutrality, especially within petroleum. Thus, this study aims to explore energy conservation by green technology improvement as a CE strategy for resource loop optimization and digital incorporation to maximize reprocessing lead ability rate and carbon-neutral benefits. Design/methodology/approach A game theory approach with Stackelberg equilibrium is considered under government cap-and-trade regulation to stimulate green technology improvement. The refinery acts as a Stackelberg leader and invests in green technology and the retailer as the Stackelberg follower, collects end-of-life lubricants against refund price and offers a two-part-tariff contract to the manufacturer having a significant role in smart technologies. Findings First, green technology improvement is directly influenced by the reprocessing capability and refund price and digital technologies are significant to consider. Second, a two-part-tariff contract coordinates the supply chain for limited reprocessing capability by the retailer. Lastly, the government can effectively manipulate the development of green technology by changing the permit price depending on the intentions. Research limitations/implications The primary limitation is this study has focused on the petroleum sector and data was referenced from the oil refineries of a single country. Practical implications Overall, this study provides empirical guidance for policymakers on how to leverage energy-efficient smart technologies for lubricant reprocessing, enabling resource optimization as part of a CE strategy in the petroleum industry and advancing sustainable development goals. Originality/value The suggested model responds to the contemporary literature related to CO 2 emissions and CE initiatives across the petroleum sector with the extended role of smart technologies and government cap-and-trade regulations.