Blockchain Papers

Vineet Chouhan, Raj Bahadur Sharma, M. L. Vasita, Shubham Goswami

The blockchain technology (BCT) or distributed ledgers is an emergent technology that allows the autonomous and immutable preservation of checked data by offering a revolutionary forum of a modern, decentralized and transparent exchange system for industries and companies. The inherited characteristics of BCT foster trust by clarity and traceability in every transaction involving records, products and financial capital. Through initial concerns, governments and major companies have recently investigated the implementation and improvement of this BCT in different fields of use, including supply chain (SC) networks. Slowly, the community of this sector realizes how profoundly blockchain (BC) could affect their industry. BC’s ability to guarantee accuracy, quality control and authenticity of data, coupled with smart contractual partnerships, represents a major reconsideration of SC and supply chain management (SCM). It provides more and more logistic items with sensors that produce data in the SC, for example, on the shipment status. This data must be processed in an external, open manner. Current practices for the types of obstacles to implementing BCTs are implemented in the fields of interorganizational, intraorganizational, technological and external barriers. Procurement costs, shipping costs, inventory costs and quality costs are the four primary reasons that increased the expenses in the conventional supply chains. In this research, we have identified the barriers against the use or development of sustainable SCM, by taking views of 500 working professionals of various global SC-oriented companies. The study’s outcome by using linear regression reviled economic obstacles, cross barriers, structure barriers and communication threats. Related barriers are BC barriers in general. Similarly, it can limit the use of BCT for SC. To improve these problems and to improve sustainability, the SC should also decrease resource use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, check that the commodity is renewable in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, increase recycling, improve emissions sharing schemes (ETS) and improve governance using information management mechanism by understanding the barriers.

Seyed Abbas Borhani, Jafar Babajani, Iman Raeesi Vanani, Saber Sheri Anaqiz · 5 authors

Considering the capabilities of Blockchain technology, the present study examines the important issue of acceptance of this technology by the producers and users of financial reporting. First, the study has reviewed the available theoretical and experimental foundations and according to technology acceptance model (TAM, henceforth) has presented a theoretical model and extracted the factors affecting the acceptance of this technology in financial reporting. Then, by adopting a qualitative method and analyzing the content of 11 semi-structured interviews, the initial theoretical model is modified and the factors affecting this technique have identified in financial reporting. Finally, by collecting and analyzing 35 questionnaires by applying fuzzy Delphi method, the final model has been given and the view of the preparation and users of financial reporting regarding the acceptance of this technology have been evaluated. Financial reporting embraces blockchain technology, and the main reason for the adoption of this new technology is the perceived usefulness as a result of the positive impact on the qualitative characteristics of information. This scientific research helps to better understand the factors involved in the adoption of new techniques by financial reporting developers and their impact on the current intention and application of the system in the field of financial reporting.

Mohammad Rokibul Kabir, Md. Aminul Islam, Marniati Marniati, Herawati Herawati

Owing to the lack of research in emerging Asian nations, this research aimed to unearth the determinants of blockchain acceptance for supply chain financing by a Bangladeshi financing company called IPDC. Centred on a technology acceptance framework called UTAUT (unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) and open innovation research, an expanded model with a mediating variable is developed for this study. This research work employs the deductive inference method in conjunction with the positivism paradigm. A structural questionnaire was used to gather data, which were then processed through Smart-PLS (partial least square) for SEM (structural equation modeling). The survey includes all the people who are directly or indirectly involved in the supply chain financing platform of IPDC. The study consists of seven direct hypotheses and one mediating hypothesis. The results show that all the direct hypotheses except the impact of social influence on the behavioural intention to use (BINTU) blockchain are significant. The mediating hypothesis indicating the role of BINTU in the relationship between facilitating conditions (FCON) and the actual use of blockchain is also supported. FCON and BINTU together explain 88.7% variation in blockchain use behaviour for supply chain financing. The research advances past findings by employing an expanded UTAUT framework and validating observations with the other relevant studies throughout the world.

Amit Kumar Bhardwaj, Arunesh Garg, Yuvraj Gajpal

In recent times, organizations are increasingly adopting blockchain technology in their supply chains due to various advantages such as cost optimization, effective and verified record-keeping, transparency, and route tracking. This paper aims to examine the factors influencing the intention of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India to adopt blockchain technology in their supply chains. A questionnaire-based survey was used to collect data from 216 SMEs in the northern states of India. The study has considered an integrated technology adoption framework consisting of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI), and Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE). Using this integrated TAM-TOE-DOI framework, the study has proposed eleven hypotheses related to factors of blockchain technology adoption. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) have been used to test the hypotheses. The results show that relative advantage, technology compatibility, technology readiness, top management support, perceived usefulness, and vendor support have a positive influence on the intention of Indian SMEs to adopt blockchain technology in their supply chains. The complexity of technology and cost concerns act as inhibitors to the technology adoption by SMEs. Furthermore, the three factors, namely, security concerns, perceived ease of use, and regulatory support, do not influence the intention to adopt the technology. The study contributes to filling a significant gap in the academic literature since only a few studies have endeavored to ascertain the technology adoption factors by supply chains of SMEs in a developing country like India. The study has also proposed a novel integrated technology adoption framework that can be employed by future studies. The findings are expected to enable SMEs to understand important factors to be considered for adopting blockchain technology in their supply chains. Furthermore, the study may benefit the blockchain technology developers and suppliers as they can offer customized solutions based on the findings.

Tahereh Saheb, Faranak Hosseinpouli Mamaghani

No abstract is available for this record.

Maryam Philsoophian, Peyman Akhavan, Morteza Namvar

Purpose Sharing knowledge with business partners is a challenging issue as firms need to share their valuable know-how assets with individuals or other companies out of their organizational boundaries. As supply chain management (SCM) deals with various stakeholders, firms face difficulties with privacy and ownership when they share their know-how with suppliers or business partners. This study introduces blockchain technology as a mediator in improving knowledge sharing (KS) practices in supply chains. Design/methodology/approach The data have been collected from surveys with 116 experts working in blockchain start-ups and organizations, and the authors used structural equation modeling for its analysis. Findings The results show that two features of blockchain technology, namely transparency and security, have the highest impacts on mediating knowledge sharing impacts on supply chain performance. The authors’ findings also highlight that among the performance metrics of SCM, speed is highly improved when blockchain technology is used for knowledge sharing. Their study provides guidance for managers on how to improve SCM performance through KS, which is empowered by a blockchain system. Originality/value The authors’ findings help organizations to improve supply chain actions, improve innovation, enhance competitive advantage and increase the speed of relationships in the supply chain. The research also contributes literature by analyzing the key factors showing how knowledge sharing structure may be improved by blockchain technology which would be helpful for both academics and practitioners.

R. Vedapradha, Hariharan Ravi

Purpose This study aims to analyze the importance of disruptive technological innovations on qualitative service delivery and their impact on the investment banks’ employee performance. Design/methodology/approach The cluster sampling method has been used to collect the primary data from the 250 respondents from foreign investment banks. Variables used are employee performance, service delivery, technology, security, operations, strategy and quality through chi-square, linear stepwise multiple regression analysis and correlation. Findings Storage network, operating cost, client reporting, cloud system and money laundering are the highest and most significant predictors of employee performance. Employee performance multiplies every unit with a strategic solution owing to positive and robust correlation (0.944). Fusion technology-based banks offer quality service to their clients. Originality/value A combination of artificial intelligence and blockchain ensures increasing automation to improve efficiency and reduce the operating cost creating a seamless integration in fraud detection, customer support, risk management, security, digitization and automation process, algorithmic trading, wealth management, etc.

Jiaguo Liu, Huimin Zhang, Lu Zhen

As an essential carrier of cross-border trade, the maritime supply chain has always been plagued by long service cycles, complex structures, and heterogeneous information from multiple sources. In this context, as a distributed database system, the emerging blockchain technology has the characteristics of decentralization, tamper-proofness, and traceability, which can be correctly applied in the maritime industry to promote its transformation and upgrading. However, blockchain application in the maritime supply chain remains notably absent, leaving this critical topic almost unexplored. Thus, we first conduct a comprehensive literature review and an industrial investigation to clarify the current status, problems, and challenges of the blockchain-based maritime supply chain system (BMSCS). We construct a new operation management mode of the maritime supply chain and propose an integrated BMSCS suitable for global economic development. Finally, based on comparison of the current research results, reasonable suggestions for the future operation and development of the BMSCS are put forward to enhance the coordination among members, accelerate the application of blockchain in the maritime industry, and gradually realise the intelligent operation of the maritime supply chain.

Elnaz Irannezhad, Hamed Faroqi

This paper proposes a multi-layer integrated IoT-blockchain conceptual architecture to solve the issues of the traditional bill of ladings, namely double-spending, duplicated documents, masqueraded information, and fraud and hacking threads related to the complexity of traditional format and fragmented supply chain activities. We formulate the tasks and functions of each IoT-blockchain layer and illustrates how the proposed conceptual architecture can overcome several inefficiency and security issues in the status quo. The proposed conceptual architecture can link IoT and blockchain technologies with port community systems’ practices to reduce potential risks behind issuing the bill of lading.

Nien-Ping Chen, Kao-Yi Shen, Chiung‐Ju Liang

Banks attempt to invest in emerging financial technology (FinTech), such as blockchain, to enhance competitiveness. There is a great deal of literature on the technical and legal aspects of blockchain. However, there is little specific guidance on how banks can apply a holistic model to evaluate the blockchain-based business. This study proposes a hybrid decision model with confidence-weighted fuzzy assessments to address this valuable research topic. Supported by a group of seasoned experts, five major blockchain-based business models are evaluated for a domestic bank in Taiwan. The key findings contribute to understanding the importance of the involved factors and identifying the ideal business strategy for the bank. The result suggests that the most crucial dimension is policies and regulations, not the technical capability of banks.

Ajay Kumar Shrestha, Julita Vassileva, Sandhya Joshi, Jennifer Just

BACKGROUND: In the collaborative business environment, blockchain coupled with smart contract removes the reliance on a central system and offers data integrity which is crucial when the transacting parties rely on the shared data. The acceptance of such blockchain-based systems is necessary for the continued use of the services. Despite many extensive studies evaluating the performance of blockchain-based systems, few have focused on users' acceptance of real-life applications. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this research is to evaluate the user acceptance of a real-life blockchain-based system (BBS) by observing various latent variables affecting the development of users' attitudes and intention to use the system. It also aims to uncover the dimensions and role of trust, security and privacy alongside the primary Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)-based predictors and their causal relationship with the users' behavior to adopt such BBS. METHODS: We tested the augmented TAM with Trust Model on a BBS that comprises two subsystems: a Shopping Cart System (SCS), a system oriented towards end-users and a Data Sharing System (DSS), a system oriented towards system administrators. We set research questions and hypotheses, and conducted online surveys by requesting each participant to respond to the questionnaire after using the respective system. The main study comprises two separate sub-studies: the first study was performed on SCS and the second on DSS. Furthermore, each study data comprises initial pre-test and post-test data scores. We analyzed the research model with partial least square structural equation modelling. RESULTS: The empirical study validates our research model and supports most of the research hypotheses. Based on our findings, we deduce that TAM-based predictors and trust constructs cannot be applied uniformly to BBS. Depending on the specifics of the BBS, the relationships between perceived trust antecedents and attitudes towards the system might change. For SCS, trust is the strongest determinant of attitudes towards system, while DSS has perceived privacy as the strongest determinant of attitudes towards system. Quality of system shows the strongest total effect on intention to use SCS, while perceived usefulness has the strongest total effect on intention to use DSS. Trust has a positive significant effect on users' attitudes towards both BSS, while security does not have any significant effect on users' attitudes toward BBS. In SCS, privacy positively affects trust, but security has no significant effect on trust, whereas, in DSS, both privacy and security have significant effects on trust. In both BBS, trust has a moderating effect on privacy that correlates with attitudes towards BBS, whereas security does not have any mediating role between privacy and attitudes towards BBS. Hence, we recommend that while developing BBS, particular attention should be paid to increasing user trust and perceived privacy.

Rosa Lombardi, Charl de Villiers, Nicola Moscariello, Michele Pizzo

Purpose This paper presents a systematic literature review, including content and bibliometric analyses, of the impact of blockchain technology (BT) in auditing, to identify trends, research areas and construct an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach The authors include studies from 2010 to 2020 in their structured literature review (SLR), using accounting journals on the Scopus database, which yielded 40 articles with blockchain and auditing at its core. Findings One of the contributions of the authors’ analyses is to group the prior research, and therefore also the agenda for future research, into three main research areas: (1) Blockchain as a tool for auditing professionals to improve business information systems to save time and prevent fraud; (2) Smart contracts enabling Audit 4.0 efficiency, reporting, disclosure and transparency; (3) Cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a springboard for corporate governance and new venture financing. The authors’ findings have several important implications for practice and theory. Practical implications The results of this study emphasise that (1) the disruption of blockchain in auditing is in a nascent phase and there is a need for compelling empirical studies and potential for the involvement of practitioners; (2) there may be a need to reconsider audit procedures especially suited for digitalisation and BT adoption; (3) standards, guidelines and training are required to pivot towards and confront the challenge BT will represent for auditing; and (4) there are two sides to the BT coin for auditing, enthusiasm about the potential and risk upon implementation. These practical implications can also be seen as a template for future research in a quest to align theory and practice. Originality/value The authors’ SLR facilitates the identification of research areas and implications, forming a useful baseline for practitioners, professionals and academics, as they draft the state of the art on the disruption of blockchain in auditing, highlighting how BT is changing auditing activities and traditions.

Faheem Ahmad Reegu, Salwani Mohd Daud, Zaid Hakami, Kaiser Kariem Reegu · 5 authors

The digital archive of the patient's personal health records is the Electronic Health Record (EHR) that has various advantages. For finding the best solution to resolve the associated issues, a detailed study is required to utilize modern technologies and standards so that these issues and errors can be minimized. There are several issues associated with implementing the EHR, including data management, privacy, and patient data security. This research aims to examine the use of the Blockchain in EHR frameworks as per the national and international standards of EHR to reduce the associated issues. A blockchain-based framework can be successful in solving the current challenges in EHR. It allows storing, sharing, managing, controlling, and maintaining patient information between healthcare providers. The study illustrated the related difficulties of integrating EHR and proposed Blockchain as a solution to help manage the records and preserve privacy, confidentiality, usability and protection of patient-related details. This study helps to understand the current challenges better and help in the proper implementation of Blockchain technology in EHR.

Maria Cadiz Dyball, Ravi Seethamraju

Blockchain is claimed to disrupt the external audit function by enhancing the reliability of both external and internal audit evidence. This study examined the impact of client use of blockchain technology on audit risk and audit approach. It referred to the Australian Auditing Standard ASA 315 Identifying and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement and van Buuren et al.'s continuum of audit approaches to frame semi‐structured interviews with 28 blockchain stakeholders including audit partners. The study found that blockchain clients are perceived to be riskier than other clients and that inherent and control risks are amplified. The audit approach is not definitive with two likely approaches: a combination of direct, indirect, account‐level and entity‐level evidence and an increase in indirect and entity‐level evidence. This study's findings are useful for audit practitioners, standard setters and regulators.

Ahmed Muayad Younus, Valliappan Raju

The study objectives implementation of smart contract technology and its impact on individual, environmental and organizational factors, particularly considering the moderating effect of organizational culture. Consequently, to fill this research gap, this study extends the concepts of implementation of smart contract technology by investigating an original conceptual framework. This conceptual framework is subjected to empirical testing, implemented through 361 employees who met the population inclusion criteria set forth in this study in gas and oil companies in Iraq. Data is collected through a self-administration questionnaire and analyzed through structural equation modeling (PLS). The results suggest that: (1) sustainable performance by developing a smart contract and secure contracts; (2) organizational culture has a partially significant positive moderating effect; (3)the country achieves economic profits and companies can achieve long-term goals and a competitive advantage in the business environment and achieve sustainability.

Rukshanda Kamran, Nasreen Khan, Balan Sundarakani

Purpose Blockchain technology offers a lot of potential benefits in supply chain management. However, there is a need of a reference model which addresses the gaps in existing frameworks. This paper aims to propose a blockchain technology-based reference model which can be applied to global logistics operations. Design/methodology/approach The researchers have integrated the fit-for-purpose theoretical framework and prototyping methodology to design the reference model, a blockchain-based logistics, tracking and traceability system (BLTTS). The researchers demonstrated the application of the reference model through a health-care supply chain case study. The proposed BLTTS can be implemented across global logistics operations for business performance improvement. Findings The research provides a framework and recommendations for global companies to consider when adopting the blockchain technology for implementation. The researchers found that the Ethereum blockchain technology improves security of the data shared within the block through the secure hashing algorithm 1. The hash algorithm ensures anonymity of the involved parties. The model integrates blockchain with supply chain thus creating transparent process, efficiency and real-time communication. Research limitations/implications The reference model will offer a better solution to global logistics operations challenges. It provides recommendations to key stakeholders involved in logistics operations segment of the logistics industry while adopting blockchain technology. Apart from the methodological limitation of the study, the system compatibility and the layer configuration aspects might be posing potential challenges while upscaling the implementation. Originality/value The proposed reference model overcomes the drawbacks of existing models as it integrates Ethereum technology. In addition, the researchers have applied the model to demonstrate its functioning in real-time environment, which could guide for future research.

Algan Tezel, Pedro Febrero, Eleni Papadonikolaki, İbrahim Yitmen

The interest in the implementation of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) is on the rise in the construction sector. One specific type of DLT that has recently attracted much attention is blockchain. Blockchain has been mostly discussed conceptually for construction to date. This study presents some empirical discussions on supply chain management (SCM) applications of blockchain for construction by collecting feedback for three blockchain-based models: project bank accounts (PBAs) for payments, reverse auction–based tendering for bidding, and asset tokenization for project financing. The feedback was collected from three focus groups and a workshop. The working prototypes for the models were developed on Ethereum. The implementation of blockchain in payment arrangements was found to be simpler than in tendering and project tokenization workflows. However, the blockchain integration of those workflows may have large-scale impacts on the sector in the future. A broad set of general and model-specific benefits/opportunities and requirements/challenges was also identified for blockchain in construction. Some of these include streamlined, transparent transactions and rational trust building, and the need for challenging the sector culture, upscaling the legacy information technology (IT) systems, and compliance with the regulatory structures.

Shimaa Ouf

This paper introduces an architecture to improve the pharmaceutical supply chain's security by using the Internet of Things, semantic web, and blockchain. This architecture increases transparency and visibility of drug flows and improves the representation of the increasing amounts of data that have been generated from pharmaceutical supply chain transactions. The pharmaceutical companies have problems dealing with the complexity of their supply chains, which represent the full life cycle of drugs from extracting raw materials, production, distribution, tracking of drugs, and quality assurance to use by patients. They need to create an efficient, effective, transparent, immutable, and secured supply chains to achieve a competitive advantage in a fast-changing market. A proposed architecture which applies the semantic web technology is implemented to enhance the representation capability of the IoT-blockchain based pharmaceutical supply chain data by annotating them with semantically rich languages to conduct formal reasoning, and aggregating data from heterogeneous sources in easy way and an interoperable manner. The proposed architecture integrates IoT, blockchain, and semantic web to help pharmaceutical companies improving their supply chains in transit and storage, improving patient satisfaction, trust through transparency, preventing drug counterfeit and sharing and reusing knowledge related to the pharmaceutical supply chain with other systems.

Sonia Abdennadher, Rihab Grassa, Hareb Abdulla, Abdulla Alfalasi

Purpose Blockchain looks to be the next step of technology transformation and would redesign the business landscape. It is expected to have an impact on business methods in the next few years; which add new challenges and complexity to the accounting and assurance profession. This paper aims to analyze the perceptions of accountants and auditors toward the implementation of blockchain technology in the UAE after the government decided to transform 50% of government transactions into the blockchain platform by 2021. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach has been used in this study. A semi-structural interview has been conducted with 19 accountants, internal auditors, auditors and risk managers on the potential opportunities and challenges of blockchain technology on accounting and auditing practices in the UAE. Findings The findings show that the blockchain impacts on the accounting profession in terms of recording of transactions, storing evidence and providing a secured environment for conducting business transactions. For the auditors, the results indicate that the blockchain changes their audit process and strategy. The blockchain has great potential to supplement traditional auditing by providing a low-cost and decentralized audit process and automated audit evidence. The accounting of the companies will not be changed but it will be automated with the development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain activities. The blockchain will be developed in assurance services through the awareness and involvement of accounts and auditors. Originality/value The study contributes to the existing literature as follows. First, the research is one of the very few studies that discussed empirically the effect of blockchain on the accounting and assurance profession, which contributes to improved knowledge about the potential of blockchain technology to accounting and assurance services. Second, our research is the first to explore the accountants and financial auditors’ perceptions regarding the potential effect of blockchain technology on their profession in the UAE context after the government decided to transform 50% of government transactions into the blockchain platform by 2021. Third, the research identifies the pending challenges for blockchain and possible factors for its effectiveness.

Pervez Akhtar, Nora Azima, Abdul Ghafar, Shahab Ud Din

Blockchain technology, as a distributed digital ledger technology that ensures traceability, security, and transparency is displaying potential for easing some comprehensive supply chain problems. Scholars have started analyzing systematically the potential benefits and effects of block-chain on numerous activities of an organization. This paper presents the barricades in the adoption of blockchain technology in supply chain management. The potential benefits of blockchain adoption such as quality, cost, speed, transparency, durability, and immutability are also discussed in this paper. We present the early literature discussing the use of blockchain in the field of the supply chain to enhance accountability and transparency. This study explains the several mechanisms by which supply chain managers can prepare their organizational structure to adopt the latest technology. It further highlights the mechanisms to achieve supply chain objectives. Part of this paper also discusses how blockchains, a potentially disruptive solution that is on its early evolution, can overcome several potential barricades. Future research directions are proposed which can further provide insights into overcoming barriers and adoption of blockchain technology in the field of supply chain management.

V. Lakshman Narayana, Divya Midhunchakkaravarthy

The utilization of energy in blockchain division is high as resource allocation models are using this technology and the rundown of resource utilization cases is continually developing. The communicated and permanent nature of blockchain innovation might be utilized to quicken the progressing change to increasingly decentralized and digitalized vitality frameworks and to address a portion of the difficulties the business is confronting in providing security in identification of authorized users and resource allocation transactions among the authorized users. The allocated resources to the users need to be recorded, otherwise the attackers may use them for malicious operations. In any case, blockchain is a developing innovation and it is viewed as a basic vulnerability by numerous users as the difficulties and chances of execution are still to a great extent. There is in this way an absence of information and shortage of dynamic gadgets for getting why, when and how the innovation can include significant worth. The proposed Resource Allocation for Authorized Users using Time specific Blockchain Methodology (RAAUTBM) performs resource allocation to authorized users to avoid malicious actions among blockchain-based use cases and increase practical information about how blockchain could be actualized. The RAAUTBM model verifies all the users for allotting access to the system. The proposed model allots the resources only to the authorized users and to identify the malicious users and remove them from the framework. The resources once allotted to a user remains for a time interval and then the resource is re-allotted to other authorized users for avoiding delay. Resource exchanges in this segment are known to be dull and wasteful, to a limited extent because of the absence of promoted straightforwardness. This research work centers around the advancement of a blockchain application that can improve the resource exchange procedure among authorized users. The proposed model is compared with the traditional methods and the results demonstrate that the proposed model is effective in allocating resources only to the authorized users.

Şemsettin Çiğdem

The integration of digital technologies into business processes has a history of more than half a century. With the integration of technologies in the supply chain, businesses began benefiting from the possibilities as early as the 1970s. The emergence of ERP in the 1990s represents the beginning of a new era of the supply chain. Increasing competition and sustainability pressure have done businesses far from being sufficient on their own to respond to environmental conditions. This situation has made it necessary for companies to establish efficient supply chains. One of the main elements that ensure the efficiency of supply chains is that the flows in the supply chain can be monitored in real-time, and the problems that may arise can be intervened on time. Nowadays, businesses can obtain large amounts of data by integrating the Internet of Things technology into their business processes, can store and transfer this data more effectively with cloud computing technology, and can provide useful outputs for business goals with big data analytics. Especially in the last few years, blockchain opportunities have become more prominent. Businesses have begun to look for ways to gain gains by integrating this technology into the supply chain. In this study, the current academic situation in supply chain management has been revealed by the bibliometric analysis of studies published on the Web of Science. Important actors in the field were identified, and their primary contributions to the field were revealed. Content analysis of the terms used in related studies and the development and interactions of the concepts over time are among the research findings. Through this study, both a general phenomenon of the field and various predictions regarding the future directions it will take are provided.

Shahzad Ali, Chen Wenyu, Rajesh Kumar

Current trends in global business and enterprise typically force companies that create, distribute and sell products to employ long and diverse supply chain networks. While delivering value, these networks also have several challenges: tracking orders, receipts, and payments while tracking digital assets. This paper presents a decentralized blockchain-based traceability solution that provides secure and transparent transactions between parties in the supply chain. We design smart contracts for authenticating the agreement between multiple parties and traceability of the supply chain. Furthermore, We design a session generation scheme for authentication of the parties. The proposed design achieved user data integrity, secure key agreement, immutability, transaction traceability, and provide secure auditing. Our results show that the proposed smart contract and the session-based scheme have high scalability and performance in latency time and response time.

Hao Sen Andrew Fang

Background: The healthcare industry is the new frontier for blockchain technology. Given its properties of immutability and decentralization, blockchain represents an opportunity for unprecedented level of privacy and security for all stakeholders by ensuring data integrity while giving patients control over their own health data. On a backdrop of rising interest in blockchain in general and blockchain healthcare applications in particular, there has been a proliferation of blockchain healthcare projects over the past few years. The aim of this review is to identify and understand real-world blockchain healthcare projects that have attained commercial success in the highly competitive blockchain market. Methods and findings: A scoping review was performed in January 2021 on all projects in the CoinMarketCap database. Following a pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, eligible projects were selected. A single reviewer then reviewed each project's official website and whitepaper (where available) and performed data abstraction; 10 blockchain healthcare projects fulfilled the selection criteria. The review found that these projects made up 0.24% of the total number of actively tracked projects on CoinMarketCap. In terms of market capitalization, the total market capitalization for the projects was US$65,078,849, comprising less than 0.01% of the total market capitalization of all projects. Among the projects, the most frequent type was for personal health tracking. Conclusions: This review revealed that blockchain health projects currently comprise a small fraction of the overall number of commercially successful blockchain projects. However, because this sub-industry is still in its early stages, there are reasons to be optimistic that many more blockchain health projects will emerge and attain commercial success in future. Findings from this review done from an entrepreneurial perspective should help with the identification of future projects most likely to succeed.