Xiaolong Xu, Ji Gu, Hanzhi Yan, Wentao Liu · 6 authors
In Industry 4.0, the development of intelligent supply chains is the key to improving enterprise efficiency and customer satisfaction. At present, the strategy with blockchain to optimize the supply chain ensures the security of data sharing and interaction between different suppliers. However, the quality of service (QoS) loss in time efficiency and supplier cooperation is still a severe problem in these strategies. Therefore, it is essential to conduct reputable supplier selection to reduce QoS loss under the premise of blockchain security. Meanwhile, choosing a reputable supplier as the primary peer in the blockchain consensus process can also effectively reduce transaction latency. To solve this problem, a reputation-aware supplier assessment system, named SAS, is proposed. Specifically, Canopy and K-medoids are utilized to classify suppliers preliminarily. Then backpropagation neural network is deployed to evaluate supplier reputation. The results show that SAS is effective in supplier reputation evaluation through extensive experiments.
A phenomenon-based approach is used to learn more about how blockchain technology could improve Ghana’s economic sectors in terms of cost savings, efficiency, and reliability with reduced risks. With our proposed blockchain-enabled frameworks, we describe how blockchains’ Internet-of-Things (IoTs) and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) might reduce transaction, contract, and monitoring-related costs in the Agriculture & Agro-processing sector’s supply chains. We also demonstrate how Smart Contracts (SMCs) and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) can improve time and cost-based efficiencies in local procurements, logistic contract execution, and supply chains across the Mining & Minerals processing sector. With the help of IoTs, DLTs, and SMCs, information asymmetries in the finance sector can be reduced to improve the financing for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Technological-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) elements remain crucial in the adoption of blockchain technology. As a result, it’s critical to provide adequate frameworks for blockchain adoption.
Problem definition: Smart contract improves the supply chain efficiency by enabling the supplier’s commitment to postshipment financing decisions, which mitigates the bank’s lending risk exposure and thereby reduces the financing cost. This paper investigates how smart contract adoption could facilitate trade finance activities and create value for supply chain firms. Academic/practical relevance: As the emerging blockchain technology could potentially reshape the trade financing landscape, understanding the impact of smart contract adoption and its interaction with trade finance activities is practically relevant and of great importance. Methodology: We develop a two-stage game-theoretic model and adopt supply chain finance theory to characterize the strategic interactions between supply chain firms in the presence of both operational risk (demand uncertainty) and financial risks (credit and liquidity risks). Results: We find that the value of smart contract depends critically on the trade finance structures, including both preshipment and postshipment financing schemes. Under the baseline trade finance model (with purchase order financing as preshipment financing and factoring as postshipment financing), smart contract alleviates the supplier’s overpricing behavior caused by commitment frictions and helps restore the supply chain efficiency. When buyer direct financing serves as an alternative preshipment financing, smart contract might discourage the retailer from offering buyer direct financing, which significantly hurts the supplier and thus reduces the supply chain profit. When invoice trading serves as the alternative postshipment financing, the supplier always chooses invoice trading over factoring because of its trading flexibility, which in turn, makes the commitment frictions ubiquitous and unresolvable (namely, commitment trap). As a result, invoice trading could unexpectedly lead to a lower supplier’s profit. Luckily, such an adoption dilemma can be resolved by smart contract adoption in conjunction with factoring. Managerial implications: Our findings provide guidelines for and insights into when smart contract should be adopted and its interactions with different trade finance schemes. In particular, smart contract adoption does not always benefit the supply chain.
Pedro Reyes, Michael Gravier, Patrick Jaska, John K. Visich
The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of blockchain on global supply chain operational and managerial processes. This article reviews and classifies the existing empirical evidence of blockchain applications in the global suppbly chain. We utilize the Mooneyet al.framework to organize this evidence into operational and managerial business value processes and the effects—automational, informational, and transformational. Our findings indicate that blockchain is not following the Mooneyet al.stage model proposed in 1996 since the empirical evidence is evenly spread between the three effect categories. In addition, we have identified possible reasons why blockchain is not following the Mooneyet al.stage model. Our study concludes with nine propositions as a guide on how to facilitate blockchain deployment and future research. Limitations of this article concerning blockchain are the lack of consistency and understanding of standards and the lack of information on blockchain implementation, which is referred to as the“grey space.”Blockchain today is where radio-frequency identification (RFID) was in 2002 and the bar code was in 1980. Therefore, future research work could be expanded to investigate case studies of blockchain implementations as they become available across the global supply chain. For practitioners, the empirical evidence presented in this article can help identify applications and implementation steps for building the business case where blockchain can have a greater impact on the organization. This article fills a void in the literature by providing practitioners and academics with a better understanding of blockchain and its applications for implementation.
Many supply chains within developing countries lack transparency and are fraught with fraud, corruption, and a substantial number of intermediaries. For several decades, the cocoa sector has faced multiple social, economic, and environmental challenges, some of which include the issue of child labor and very low incomes for farmers, leading to poor living conditions. Blockchain technology has a high potential to reduce—or completely eradicate—some of these hurdles. In this article, we present a blockchain-based solution based on the open-source framework Hyperledger Fabric for the cocoa supply chain to promote transparency and reduce fraud. In doing so, we explicitly describe how farmers can be directly integrated into the whole blockchain solution considering the limited infrastructure, knowledge, and technologies available to them. Since about 70% of all cocoa worldwide is produced in West Africa, this case study uses the cocoa sector in Ghana as an example.
Defined as a distributed ledger enabling the record of transactions between actors verifiably and permanently, the Blockchain technology first appeared as a disruptive technology in the financial sector. However, in the last few years, this technology attracted the attention of several researchers and business stakeholders who were interested in exploring the potential of this technology in other sectors and the supply chain in one of them as it is perceived as a backbone of a new digital supply chain. Among the pillars of Blockchain technology is its ability to guarantee that data will never be altered and that it will be shared in real time with all parties interested in the transaction due to the decentralized nature of the blockchain. This will increase the traceability, transparency, and performance of the supply chain. The literature concerning Blockchain in non-financial applications mainly focused on the technological part and the Business Process Modeling, lacking in terms of standard methodology for designing a strategy to develop and validate the overall Blockchain solution and integrate it in the Business Strategy. The literature concerning Blockchain technology application in non-financial sectors mainly focused on the general integration lacking the technological part and the business process modeling. Thus, this paper aims to overcome this lack by presenting how the blockchain technology can alter the way supply chain processes are designed and executed as an example we chose to work on the procure to pay process. The main purpose of this work is to explore how blockchain technology can be integrated into a typical procure-to-pay process, what opportunities can be identified from the technology. To achieve this purpose, we studied the related literature review, and we analyzed the relevant Academic and practitioner research based on qualitative and deductive methodology. That way, it lays a basis for future research which enables valuable insight for procurement managers and offers opportunities to master the most pressing challenges.
Propósito. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo identificar la literatura científica existente en torno al valor y precio de los NFTs. Metodología. La metodología utilizada en el presente artículo consta de un análisis bibliométrico, se usa la base de datos Scopus desde la primera aparicion de un artículo hasta la actualidad. Hallazgos. Los resultados muestran que existe muy poca literatura científica entorno al valor y precio de los NFTs, se logró identificar ocho artículos, en donde solamente tres contribuyen en su totalidad a la descripción de las variables valor y precio, además se encuentran variables incidentes en el valor y precio de los NFTs lo que llevaría a tener el potencial de generar nuevo conocimiento en este ámbito, realizar propuestas teóricas en modelos de valuación y precio para estos activos. Originalidad.La investigación se realizó considerando solamente a la base de datos Scopus utilizando el software VosViewr, se recomienda para futuras investigaciones tomar en cuenta otras bases de datos.
Tianjian Yang, LI Chun-mei, Xiongping Yue, Beibei Zhang
Enterprises in low-carbon supply chains have been exploring blockchain technology in order to make carbon data transparent. However, there is still some opaque information in the market, such as the value-added service efficiency. How do supply chain members make decisions between information sharing and blockchain adoption? This study considers blockchain adoption and information sharing in a low-carbon supply chain with a single manufacturer and a single retailer. The retailer has private information about value-added services and decides how to share it with the manufacturer. We examine six combined strategies comprised of blockchain scenarios and information sharing formats (no sharing, voluntary sharing, and mandatory sharing). The results indicate that supply chain members prefer blockchain technology under no sharing and voluntary sharing. Under mandatory sharing, supply chain members have incentives to participate in blockchain when the value-added service efficiency exceeds a threshold value. While the manufacturer prefers to obtain the value-added service information, the retailer decides to share information depending on the value-added service efficiency. Besides, supply chain members’ attitude toward the sharing contract also depends on the value-added service efficiency.
As an information technology that could significantly improve supply chain visibility and process automation, blockchain has been extensively applied in the field of supply chain finance (SCF). However, tradeoffs among the security, the operation cost, and the efficiency of the blockchain system may cause the SCF system dominated by a financial institution to inevitably fall into the dilemmas of risky or un-economic if the blockchain technology is applied inappropriately. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to optimise the blockchain application in the financial institution-based SCF system. We first analyse the application of blockchain security in SCF, and then the performance tradeoffs of blockchain and its impact on the performance of the supported SCF system. Based on the analysis above, an optimisation approach has been proposed and a corresponding non-linear integer programming (NIP) model has been constructed to select the best blockchain design schemes for the SCF system to achieve overall optimal in terms of security, cost, and efficiency. A designed ant colony algorithm is used to solve the optimisation problem. An application case analysis is used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the optimisation model.
The production control for the mass individualisation paradigm of R&D-stage products is challenging due to the mix-flow and frequently-disturbed environment. With the convergence of the sustainable development goals and the increasing individualised demands in products, resilient manufacturing is envisioned in Industry 5.0 proposition. Concerning that conventional centralised production control methods suffer from low stability and inefficiency of decisions under frequent disruptions, this paper establishes a blockchained smart contract pyramid-driven multi-agent autonomous process control (BSCP-MAAPC) approach for improving the timeliness and adaptability of control towards resilient individualised manufacturing. Firstly, a blockchain-based multi-agent system architecture is designed based on agent encapsulation of manufacturing units. Blockchained smart contracts are used as the enabler of the multi-agent system for peer-to-peer negotiation and coordination of tasks. Secondly, a quad-play blockchained smart contract pyramid together with a series of decentralised control patterns are designed to enable the initial task dispatching of various individualised demands, as well as rapid dynamic adjustment of schedule in response to internal random disruptions. Finally, a blockchained smart contract pyramid-driven multi-agent autonomous process control system prototype is built in the ManuChain system, and experiments are conducted to analyze the proposed BSCP-MAAPC approach in different environments.HIGHLIGHTSA blockchained smart contract pyramid-driven multi-agent autonomous process control (BSCP-MAAPC) approach.A quad-play blockchained smart contract pyramid together with a series of decentralized control patterns.Blockchained smart contracts as the enabler of the multi-agent system for peer-to-peer negotiation and coordination of tasks.
Against the backdrop of the booming supply chain finance and logistics industry, Logistics 4.0 has emerged. However, the financing capacity of today's logistics companies is still unable to respond to the needs of the rapid development of the supply chain. On the one hand, the problem of logistics companies’ lack of existing high-value collateral in supply chain finance has led to a clutter of their credit data and difficulty in verifying their creditworthiness. On the other hand, the massive access to logistics companies’ business information can also lead to privacy leaks. At the same time, the transparency feature of blockchain is used to solve the financing dilemma of many industries in supply chain finance. On this basis, we propose a blockchain-based financing scheme (BFS) for logistics company. BFS utilises more efficient and interpretative smart contract technology, as well as improved privacy information query and invocation algorithms, to realise automatic control of entity node privacy information flow and significantly simplifying the steps and lowering the thresholds to financing for logistics companies, while protecting the privacy of their data. After extensive simulation testing, BFS can run supply chain blocks at a stable transaction throughput of around 280 RPS, with data transfers that meet the financing needs of logistics companies, providing a higher and more stable performance than the native Hyperledger Fabric.
Karim Zkik, Amine Belhadi, Syed Abdul Rehman Khan, Sachin Kamble · 6 authors
Blockchain technology (BT) is a disruptive technology to achieve sustainable supply chain performance. The previous literature suggests a slow rate of BT adoption in improving sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP) in the agriculture context. This study explores and evaluates barriers and enablers to the adoption of BT for SSCP in e-enabled agriculture supply chains. using a novel hybrid technique integrating the Pythagorean Fuzzy sets (PFS), Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT), and VIKOR. Data was collected data from 215 agriculture firms in Asia and North Africa. The results presented strategies for implementing BT for SSCP in e-agriculture supply chains and recommended (1) developing transparency readiness in sustainability, (2) collaboration among supply chain partners, (3) upgrading data access control (4) management commitment (5) collaboration with governments. The study presents several implications to managers to redirect strategies and focus efforts on the most significant enablers to promote BT implementation for SSCP in e-enabled SSCP.
Naoum Tsolakis, Roman Schumacher, Manoj Dora, Mukesh Kumar
Digitalisation is expected to transform end-to-end supply chain operations by leveraging the technical capabilities of advanced technology applications. Notwithstanding the operations-wise merits associated with the implementation of digital technologies, individually, their combined effect has been overlooked owing to limited real-world evidence. In this regard, this research explores the joint implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain Technology (BCT) in supply chains for extending operations performance boundaries and fostering sustainable development and data monetisation. Specifically, this study empirically studied the tuna fish supply chain in Thailand to identify respective end-to-end operations, observe material and data-handling processes, and envision the implementation of AI and BCT. Therefore, we first mapped the business processes and the system-level interactions to understand the governing material, data, and information flows that could be facilitated through the combined implementation of AI and BCT in the respective supply chain. The mapping results illustrate the central role of AI and BCT in digital supply chains' management, while the associated sustainability and data monetisation impact depends on the parameters and objectives set by the involved system stakeholders. Afterwards, we proposed a unified framework that captures the key data elements that need to be digitally handled in AI and BCT enabled food supply chains for driving value delivery. Overall, the empirically-driven modelling approach is anticipated to support academics and practitioners' decision-making in studying and introducing digital interventions toward sustainability and data monetisation.
(1) Background: With the development of blockchain technology and fierce competition between tourism platforms, tourism platforms can adopt blockchain technology to disclose product information to enhance their core competitiveness. As for a tourism O2O, i.e., online to offline, supply chain, the tourism platform sells the product online, and the tour operator provides services offline. (2) Methods: We establish a game theory model and study the optimal strategies of supply chain members in two scenarios (decentralized and centralized) when the online platform does not adopt or adopts blockchain technology. Then, we introduce a two-part tariff contract for coordination. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of the cost of adopting blockchain technology, disclosing information and the proportion of information-sensitive consumers on the optimal strategies. (3) Conclusions: When the costs of adopting blockchain technology and information disclosure are low, if the proportion of information-sensitive consumers is large, adopting blockchain technology is beneficial to supply chain members. Compared with a wholesale price contract, a two-part tariff contract can encourage the platform to improve information disclosure quality, so the tour operator can adjust their cooperation contract to achieve Pareto improvements. Under a two-part tariff contract, the tourism platforms are more likely to disclose information and can effectively regulate the operational performance of the tourism O2O supply chain.
Purpose This paper aims to analyze the benefits of the blockchain to the circular economy (CE), which is composed of both closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) systems and reverse omnichannel solutions. By ensuring transparency, traceability, visibility and security, the blockchain allows firms to acquire operational capabilities through a CLSC and service capabilities through a reverse omnichannel, which can boost business performance considerably. The related network of relationships can be reinforced by establishing incentives, which entail both smart contracts in the blockchain and active return approaches in CE. Design/methodology/approach After identifying the boundaries of the theoretical framework, several research hypotheses are developed according to the literature review and emerging gaps. These gaps link to the impact of the blockchain on CE systems (CLSC and reverse omnichannel), as well as the influence on business performance. The hypotheses are then tested using structural equation modeling and adopting a partial least squares-path modeling technique on a dataset composed of 157 firms. Finally, multigroup analysis is used to test the impact of incentives on the research hypotheses. Findings The blockchain facilitates a more efficient CE system, although reverse omnichannel solutions seldom bring any benefits to performance. The shift from a passive to an active return approach must be carefully evaluated. The CLSC network can benefit from an active return approach by developing appealing incentives for collectors and enhancing the positive effects of the blockchain. In contrast, consumer incentives can have detrimental effects on the blockchain. Various combinations of incentives can only bring a few business performance increases, while collector incentives are vital to reinforce the CE system's operational and service capabilities. Originality/value This paper takes a new approach toward the study of CE, which considers a dual circular system composed of a CLSC and a reverse omnichannel. The research explores whether the adoption of blockchain technology enables better return processes by improving the operations in CLSC and services in reverse omnichannel. Finally, this is the first empirical work to evaluate the benefits emerging from incentives, which can activate smart contracts in the blockchain and enable active return approaches in CE.
There are hypes towards blockchain-based traceability systems (BCTS) both from academia and industry. This paper discusses challenges and policy recommendations for BCTS from a viewpoint of industrial application and market competition. First, the potentials of BCTS and the gaps between the ideal and the reality of BCTS are elaborated. Second, we discuss the applicability of BCTS. Third, by a game-theoretic model, we study when supply chains should invest in BCTS. Investment is recommended when investment cost is relatively low compared to the price and market competition is less intense. A prisoner's dilemma arises when investment cost is at a moderate level.
Industry 4.0 technologies are transforming the conventional supply chain (SC) functioning and positively impacting sustainability. Blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) are two dimensions of industry 4.0 that play a crucial role in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and reverse logistics. This review paper focuses on investigating the impact of these technologies on SSCM separately and with their combination on forward and reverse SCs. A total of 197 papers were extracted from the Scopus database till 2020 and finally, 174 articles relevant to our paper were shortlisted and analysed after an in-depth review. The effects of these technologies on sustainability are studied separately by different researchers earlier, but their integration can lead to various insights and disclose several opportunities. The paper portrays insights on the development of Blockchain and IoT to know the current trends, industry-wide applications, challenges, and future research opportunities on SC sustainability.
Abstract Supply chains around the globe are faced with difficulties and disruptions due to the worldwide pandemic situation and digital solutions are needed. There is significant research interest in the implementation of blockchain technology (BCT) for supply chain management (SCM). A challenge that remains is analyzing the interactions of BCT in different areas of SCM. This study aims to identify the influential dimensions of the impact of BCT adoption in SCM and to discuss the synergetic and counter-synergetic effects between these dimensions. Advantages, disadvantages, and constraints of adopting BCT in the SCM context are explored through a systematic literature review, which provides the foundation for identifying the dimensions of impact. The interactions between these dimensions are conceptually discussed. This study introduces three dimensions of the impact of implementing BCT in SCM: ‘operations and processes’, ‘supply chain relationships’, and ‘innovation and data access’. These dimensions are interrelated and have overlapping areas within them, which leads to synergetic and counter-synergetic effects. The overlaps and synergies of the three dimensions of impact are illustrated, and the virtuous and vicious cycles of BCT adoption in SCM cases are highlighted. This study assists scholars and practitioners by clarifying the synergetic relationships within the dimensions of the impact of BCT in SCM and by providing considerations to prevent undesirable effects and expand desired ones.
In the development of traditional supply-chain finance, the information asymmetry of all parties in the supply chain has become the primary problem hindering its development. Blockchain technology is an effective method to solve the problem of information silos. Based on differential game theory, this paper constructs a game model of supply-chain financial information-sharing behavior based on blockchain technology. Three scenarios of independent decision, the cost-subsidy mechanism of financial institutions, and dealers and collaborative decisions are studied, and the theoretical model is verified through a simulation algorithm. The results show that information sharing in supply-chain finance based on blockchain technology is much higher than that of traditional supply-chain finance, and the use of blockchain technology can promote more sustainable development of supply chains. Blockchain technology can effectively solve the information-silo effect, and the information sharing cost-subsidy mechanism can effectively relieve the cost pressure of information sharing and optimize the supply-chain structure. In addition, the amount of information and benefits shared among the three parties of supply-chain finance based on blockchain technology and the overall benefits show an increasing and stabilized trend over time. This study provides a reference for supply-chain finance members to reasonably choose the optimal strategic behavior.
Shusheng Ding, Tianxiang Cui, Xiangling Wu, Anna Min Du
A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) launched by the Bank of England could enable businesses to directly make electronic payments. It can be argued that digital payment is helpful in supply chain management applications. However, the adoption of CBDC in the supply chain could bring new turbulence since the CBDC value may fluctuate. Therefore, this paper intends to optimize the production plan of manufacturing supply chain based on a volatility clustering model by reducing CBDC value uncertainty. We apply both GARCH model and machine learning model to depict the CBDC volatility clustering. Empirically, we employed Baltic Dry Index, Bitcoin and exchange rate as main variables with sample period from 2015 to 2021 to evaluate the performance of the two models. On this basis, we reveal that our machine learning model overwhelmingly outperforms the GARCH model. Consequently, our result implies that manufacturing companies’ performance can be strengthened through CBDC uncertainty reduction.