Blockchain Papers

Seyyed Jalaladdin Hosseini Dehshiri, Mir Seyed Mohammad Mohsen Emamat, Maghsoud Amiri

No abstract is available for this record.

Chuanni He, Min Liu, Zhigao Wang, Gongfan Chen · 6 authors

The expected benefit of smart contract (SC) relies heavily on its completeness and adaptability. Previous studies have discussed the application of SC on construction at the conceptual level, while a method to reflect human preferences as action items to enforce schedule executability is not available for construction managers. The objectives of this research are (1) to develop a method to generalize human preference as scheduling practices, and (2) to utilize SC technology to facilitate the execution of the practice. Performance data of different labor investment and production rate arrangements were obtained through a simulation of a high-rise construction project operation. This research used a Choquet Integral-based approach to aggregate owners’ preferences on workspace overlap, manpower utilization, and project duration to customize the optimum scenarios for resource utilization. Such decision rules were bundled with payment transactions and then embedded as agreements in an SC-based scheduling platform. The SC platform developed can provide the optimized resource utilization solution under different preferences, meanwhile timely disseminate schedule information and facilitate payment transactions. The research findings will assist project managers to quickly react to unexpected changes in management preferences in manpower, space, or schedule by developing adaptable resource utilization solutions. It will also help them to enforce the execution of the plan timely using the SC scheduling platform.

Ke Fu, Ce Wang, Jiayan Xu

No abstract is available for this record.

Tarun Kumar Agrawal, Jannis Angelis, Wajid Ali Khilji, Ravi Kalaiarasan · 5 authors

Blockchain technologies can support traceability, transparency and trust among participants. This has primarily been explored in established supply chains and not in the growing use of business networks or ecosystems, which is a notable limitation since supply chains typically are organised with a dominant actor that ensures common information systems and standards that negate blockchain benefits. Hence, this study explores the design of a blockchain-based collaborative framework for resource sharing using smart contracts. These are particularly well-suited for supporting operations in broader networks or ecosystems beyond supply chains with established collaborations and hierarchies. Based on a systematic literature review, a demonstrator framework was developed for stakeholder interactions through a procurement and distribution unit backed with blockchain technology. The framework consists of (a) network architecture to demonstrate partner interactions; (b) rules for network working principles based on supply collaboration requirements; (c) UML diagram to define smart contract interaction sequence; and (d) algorithm for smart contract network verification and validation. Applicability of these smart contracts was verified by deployment on an Ethereum blockchain. The demonstrator framework ensures quality and data authenticity in supply networks, so it is useful for effective resource utilisation in networks where outsourcing and production surpluses are major issues.

E. Suresh Babu, Ilaiah Kavati, Soumya Ranjan Nayak, Uttam Ghosh · 5 authors

This paper proposes a secure and transparent pharmaceutical supply chain system using a permissioned blockchain network. This work focuses on (i) Enhancing the security of origin information across the supply chain with proper identification and authentication among the supplier, distributor, and other members of the system, (ii) Secure storing of the Supply Drugs Information (SDI) in the blockchain in a distributed manner, (iii) Traceability and transparent sharing of information across supply chain system. This proposed work also performs automatic transactions between suppliers and the distributors, tracking the provenance, adequate verification, and reducing supply chains’ risk. The proposed system has been implemented using Hyperledger fabric and evaluated using Hyperledger Calliper to test its performance. Finally, we analyzed the proposed work's performance in terms of throughput, transaction latency, and network load. The results have shown that better transaction processing power and security than other existing systems of the blockchain.

Praveen Vijaya Raj Pushpa Raj, Sunil Kumar Jauhar, M. Ramkumar, Saurabh Pratap

No abstract is available for this record.

Thomas K. Dasaklis, Theodore G. Voutsinas, Giannis Τ. Tsoulfas, Fran Casino

In recent years, traceability systems have been developed as practical tools for improving supply chain (SC) transparency and visibility, especially in health and safety-sensitive sectors like food and pharmaceuticals. Blockchain-related SC traceability research has received significant attention during the last several years, and arguably blockchain is currently the most promising technology for providing traceability-related services in SC networks. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the various technical implementation aspects of blockchain-enabled SC traceability systems. We apply different drivers for classifying the selected literature, such as (a) the various domains of the available blockchain-enabled SC traceability systems and relevant methodologies applied; (b) the implementation maturity of these traceability systems along with technical implementation details; and (c) the sustainability perspective (economic, environmental, social) prevalent to these implementations. We provide key takeaways regarding the open issues and challenges of current blockchain traceability implementations and fruitful future research areas. Despite the significant volume and plethora of blockchain-enabled SC traceability systems, academia has so far focused on unstructured experimentation of blockchain-associated SC traceability solutions, and there is a clear need for developing and testing real-life traceability solutions, especially taking into account feasibility and cost-related SC aspects.

Maher Agi, Ashish Kumar Jha

Blockchain technology has been growing in importance and acceptability over the past few years. Yet, there is limited empirical research on the organizational and technology specific factors that play a critical role in driving its adoption in the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework for blockchain adoption in the supply chain by identifying the enablers and empirically evaluating their interdependencies and impact on adoption. 20 enablers of blockchain adoption in the supply chain are identified using an extensive literature review and theoretical lenses from the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and the business technology adoption model developed by Iacovou, Benbassat and Dexter (1995). In the confirmatory phase, we employ the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to extract logic from data collected from 37 French experts about the impact of the enablers and their interdependencies. Our paper extends the multi-theoretic empirical studies to blockchain technology and identifies the enablers of blockchain adoption from technological, organizational, supply chain and external environment perspectives. Regarding the importance of the categories of enablers, we find that the relative advantage of the technology and the external pressure are the most prominent categories of enablers that impact blockchain adoption in the supply chain. Our analysis also shows the important causal role on adoption of the potential of blockchain to reduce transaction cost, the consumer interest in traceability data and the establishment of a regulatory framework for blockchain usage.

Sana Elhidaoui, Khalid Benhida, Said El Fezazi, Srinivas Kota · 5 authors

The main purpose of this paper is to study the critical success factors (CSFs) of the blockchain technology (BCT) adoption in green supply chain management (GSCM) which might be literally afirst attempt and also propose aconceptual framework of aGSCM model adopting the BCT, which will be promoting the combination of these two areas in the future. Acritical literature review of the BCT, GSCM, and BCT-based GSCM was conducted to identify the most relevant factors of BCT adoption, followed by the model formulation with the help of interpretive structural modelling (ISM) consisting of CSFs and relationships between those based on experts’ views. The overall results emphasized that ‘recording and trading’-related factors may contribute to the BCT adoption, while others like smart contract must be enhanced. This study supports previous conceptual work on BCT and GSCM and could serve as astarting point to assist in decision-making.

Yang Liu, Ziyu Zhou, Yongsheng Yang, Yan Ma

Port supply chains play a very important role in the process of economic globalization. Lack of trust of the mechanism is the main factor in restricting the development of port supply chains. Blockchains have great potential to solve the trust problem among all participants using port supply chains, which can reduce costs and improve efficiency. As the bridge between blockchains and port supply chains, smart contracts reconstruct the business process of blockchain-empowered port supply chains. In this article, we present an architecture of a consortium blockchain-empowered port supply chain system, and propose a system verification framework for the smart contracts of port supply chains with probabilistic behaviors. The smart contracts are modeled as DTMCs (Discrete-Time Markov Chains), which are automatically transformed through the BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) description of the smart contracts. The requirements are specified by PCTL (Probabilistic Computation Tree Logic). Moreover, we implement the customs clearance process of the Shanghai Yangshan Port based on blockchain Hyperledger Fabric, and reconstruct the clearance process with smart contracts. We use it to demonstrate the effectiveness of this framework, and identify the smart contracts that do not meet the expected needs of users.

Abirami Raja Santhi, Padmakumar Muthuswamy

Background: Blockchain is a digitally managed, distributed, and decentralized ledger used to record transactions in an immutable format. Its characteristics in providing trust, transparency, and traceability make it attractive for applications where transactions are involved. Originally intended to support financial transactions, the technology has gained attention even in non-financial sectors such as health care, manufacturing, retail, and government services. Methods: For centuries, the various functions of manufacturing industries have worked based on the relationship and trust that they have with their upstream and downstream stakeholders. In addition, as the conventional factories are growing into giant gigafactories, the participation of several intermediaries further complicates the supply chain and logistics operations. Hence, the article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of blockchain technology in addressing supply chain and logistics-related challenges by analyzing, organizing, and reviewing the literature. Results: The study shows that blockchain technology can transform the supply chain and logistics into secure, agile, trusted, and transparent functions. A conceptualized application scenario demonstrates the benefits of blockchain technology in providing provenance and traceability to critical products. Conclusions: In particular, a private or permissioned blockchain is suitable for multi-organizational businesses such as supply chain and logistics. In addition, IoT-blockchain integration, smart contracts, and asset tracking has immense benefits in the future.

Ihab K. A. Hamdan, Aziguli Wulamu, Dezheng Zhang, Eli Sumarliah · 5 authors

Purpose This paper seeks to discover whether the technical, organisational and technology acceptance model (TAM) factors will significantly affect the adoption of blockchain technology (ABT) amongst SMEs. Design/methodology/approach The research employs structural equation modelling (SEM) and a machine learning approach to identify factors influencing the ABT behaviour that leaders can use to predict the prospect of the ABT in their enterprises. Information was collected from 255 respondents representing 166 SMEs in the food industry, Palestine. Findings The analyses reveal that the ABT is positively and significantly shaped by TAM factors: (1) perceived benefits and (2) perceived ease of using blockchain. Simultaneously, the former is significantly influenced by compatibility and upper management support, while the latter is affected by complexity. Finally, education and training affect both factors. Originality/value This paper is amongst the first attempts to examine the ABT behaviour in the food industry using the integration of SEM and machine learning approach.

Anand K. Bapatla, Saraju P. Mohanty, Elias Kougianos, Deepak Puthal · 5 authors

Abstract Globalisation has facilitated different industries to eliminate geographical boundaries and equipped organisations to work collectively to produce goods. Pharmaceuticals is one such industry which has majorly benefited from globalisation to reduce costs and increase profitability at different aspects of research, development, manufacturing of drugs and finally distribution of drugs. Globalisation not only reduces costs and increases profits for the industry, it also makes essential medication available to all individuals even at remote areas of undeveloped, developing and developed countries. As the number of entities or participants grew in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC), the complexity and abstractness of the drug delivery from manufacturer to consumer has increased, which raised new concerns like counterfeit medication, incorrect, incomplete or no information about the drug reaching the consumer thus undermining customer confidence and most importantly distribution delays which can cause serious impact on the life of the consumer as well as business growth. Considering all these challenges, there is a dire need for a robust PSC which can eliminate blind parties and provide a transparent chain. A transparent PSC will eliminate data fragmentation between different participating entities by creating a trail of secure, single source of truth for the entire life cycle of a medicine, thereby eliminating the introduction of counterfeits and ensuring the consumer safety. This article proposes a novel Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based transparent supply chain for PSC and proof‐of‐concept is implemented to analyse the scalability and efficiency of the proposed architecture. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is one of the technologies which can provide such transparent PSC and Smart Contracts (SC) are the most commonly used component in such systems to implement business logic and access control mechanisms. The proposed PharmaChain model investigates all the interactions between the main entities in PSC and also addresses smart contract issues such as re‐entrance, randomness and lacking trustworthy data feed. Results are compared with other proposed solutions for PSC based on DLT.

Ilhaam A. Omar, Mazin Debe, Raja Jayaraman, Khaled Salah · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Batool Alawi, Muneer Mohammed Saeed Al Mubarak, Allam Hamdan

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the application of Blockchain technology for Supply Chain Management. The research approach includes a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making framework based on Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process. The framework analyses a set of Blockchain implementation criteria and their importance ranking for achieving Supply Chain Management. The findings suggest that, to implement Blockchain technology for Supply Chain Management, the most important criterion is Traceability followed by Security and Smart Contact. Decision makers can make use of the developed framework in the supply chain section to evaluate readiness of Blockchain technology and its benefits for Supply Chain frameworks. This will lead to effective allocations for resources and budgets in their planning for various Blockchain deployment.

David John Petersen

No abstract is available for this record.

Tsan‐Ming Choi

No abstract is available for this record.

Guojun Ji, Zhou Shu, Kee‐hung Lai, Kim Hua Tan · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Samuel Yousefı, Babak Mohamadpour Tosarkani

No abstract is available for this record.

Zhongbao Zhou, Xingfen Liu, Feimin Zhong, Jianmai Shi

No abstract is available for this record.

Mohamed Grida, Noha A. Mostafa

Purpose Smart contracts are self-executing computer programmes that have the potential to be used in several applications instead of traditional written contracts. With the recent rise of smart systems (e.g. Internet of things) and digital platforms (e.g. blockchain), smart contracts are gaining high interest in both business and academia. In this work, a framework for smart contracts was proposed with using reputation as the system currency, and conducts currency mining through fulfilling the physical commitments that are agreed upon. Design/methodology/approach A game theory model is developed to represent the proposed system, and then a system dynamics simulator is used to check the response of the blockchain with different sizes. Findings The numerical results showed that the proposed system could identify the takeover attacks and protect the blockchain from being controlled by an outsider. Another important finding is that careful setting of the maximum currency amount can improve the scalability of the blockchain and prevent the currency inflation. Research limitations/implications This work is proposed as a conceptual framework for supply chain 4.0. Future work will be dedicated to implement and experiment the proposed framework for other characteristics that may be encountered in the context of supply chain 4.0, such as different suppliers' tiers, different customer typologies and smart logistics applications, which may reveal other challenges and provide additional interesting insights. Practical implications By using the proposed framework, smart contracts and blockchains can be implemented to handle many issues in the context of operations and supply chain 4.0, especially in times of turbulence such as the COVID-19 global pandemic crisis. Originality/value This work emphasizes that smart contracts are not too smart to be applied in the context of supply chain 4.0. The proposed framework of smart contracts is expected to serve supply chain 4.0 by automating the knowledge work and enabling scenario planning through the game theory model. It will also improve online transparency and order processing in real-time through secured multitier connectivity. This can be applied in global supply chain functions backed with digitization, notably during the time of the pandemic, in which e-commerce and online shopping have changed the rules of the game.

Fang Zhou, Ting‐Yu Chen

No abstract is available for this record.

Iman Ghasemian Sahebi, Alireza Mosayebi, Behzad Masoomi, F. Marandi

No abstract is available for this record.

João C. Ferreira, Ana Martins, Ulpan Tokkozhina, Berit Irene Helgheim

No abstract is available for this record.