Health tourism is a rapidly growing health service model in the world. Today, its use by health service demanders has become widespread. The health tourism sector is a sector that combines health and tourism, where individuals who demand health services can receive treatment services by traveling. In the health sector, where technology is used intensively, innovative approaches are emerging in the provision of health services. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), a new digital asset that has emerged in recent years with the development of blockchain, offers different usage areas in health tourism with its features. NFTs are defined as unique digital assets and are supported by blockchain technology. This new approach offers innovative opportunities for health tourists and health tourism organizations, data security, and payment methods. This innovative technology can make the health tourism experience more transparent and secure. This study is expected to contribute to the sector with an innovative alternative payment method for practitioners in health tourism, which is an international service model.
This study highlights both theoretical as well as practical contributions to improving traceability in supply chain management with special focus on the fish supply chain. As a theoretical contribution, it highlights how blockchain technology can contribute to improving supply chain transparency in various sectors by providing real-time visibility. Concerning practical contributions, this study adopted a case study approach in the Philippines to track and trace the fish supply chain from bait to plate. It deploys a project titled ‘Tracy’, a blockchain-based information technology artifact to support fishermen in the Philippines, who are facing numerous challenges in the seafood industry such as different standards and regulations, requirements for international exports, catch certification, etc. This study specifically contributes to developing a smartphone app through the Tracy project that allows fishermen to view the history of their fish captures and exchanges (such as the name of the fish species, weight, and length of the fish, date of capture, and vessel name). The update of transaction histories, the identity of the fishermen, and the amount of fish that has to be sold are additional updates also made possible by this app. This research study concludes with overall study outcomes and limitations with future research.
Mohd Helmi Ali, Leanne Chung, Kim Hua Tan, Zafir Mohd Makhbul · 6 authors
Blockchain infrastructures’ promising benefits and tremendous growth revolutionised supply chain; especially for the highly concerned industry with integrity issues such as halal food. Drawing on the technology, organisation, environment framework and diffusion of innovation theory, this study investigates the factors that affect halal food SMEs (HFSMEs). The questionnaires covering 500 halal-certified SMEs were conducted in Malaysia. The results showed that the theory of diffusion of innovation (DOI) and technological-organisational-environmental (TOE) model was tested with 175 respondents, showing top management support, trialability, external support, and competitive pressure are the critical factors influencing HFSMEs’ intention to adopt BT. In contrast, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, uncertainty and security, observability, organisational readiness, and government regulations show no effect on intention. In addition, supply chain integration (SCI) is a moderating factor in diffusing BT.
The aim of this research study is to investigate how blockchain technology can enhance transparency and responsibility within the food supply chain. with a focus on three supply chains: dairy, agriculture, and seafood. The challenges associated with these supply chains, including issues related to food safety, sustainability, and labor practices, are discussed. This research study proposes three different solutions based on blockchain technology to address these challenges. Firstly, a framework model for traceability in the dairy supply chain is presented. Secondly, a proposal for a theoretical framework of an agriculture food supply chain system that utilizes blockchain technology. Finally, a blockchain-based solution is presented to enhance traceability and accountability in the seafood supply chain. In the agriculture supply chain, the current centralized system has communication gaps and lacks product origin information. This research study proposes a fully decentralized and secure system using smart contracts for transaction coordination, which ensures transparency and integrity in the supply chain. Food traceability is a critical issue for dairy products globally, but reliable solutions are lacking. This research study discusses the need for advancement in traceability solutions for domestic dairy brands to enhance food safety. The dairy industry's concerns regarding traceability and food safety can potentially be addressed by exploring the use of blockchain and its related technologies. A review of the use of blockchain in the fish supply chain, suggests that while it is a promising concept that creates a transparent, supervisable, safe, and convenient supply chain, it is still immature and challenging to implement due to its complexity. The review highlights the need for further research and development in this area to fully realize the potential of blockchain technology in the fish supply chain.
Lovina Yogarajan, Mohammad Masukujjaman, Mohd Helmi Ali, Norlin Khalid · 6 authors
This study examines the effect of blockchain adoption on the agri-food supply chain. A systematic literature review approach was used to analyze and synthesize the findings from the existing literature, focusing on fundamental research themes, research gaps, and the direction of future research on the impact of blockchain adoption in the agri-food supply chain. Twenty-seven full-length articles were considered and thematically analyzed in this study. The authors identified eight themes from the literature, including factors responsible for blockchain adoption and new research areas such as digitalization and the impact after adoption. These themes shed light on the agri-food supply chain practices following the adoption of blockchain technology. Moreover, this study provides a foundation for strategic and policy initiatives in the agri-food industry involving blockchain technology. The findings indicate that critical factors driving blockchain technology adoption in the agri-food industry include ensuring food traceability and transparency, food safety and security, food supply and logistics, food integrity, environmental awareness, and reducing food waste. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of guidelines and policy-level involvement after adopting blockchain technology, particularly in facilitating accurate quantification and promoting digitalization to address challenges and streamline processes. The study concludes by suggesting future research avenues for blockchain technology in the supply chain domain.
Kadim Lahcen Nadime, Rajaa Benabbou, Salma Mouatassim, Jamal Benhra
For decades, the perishable goods supply chains have lacked the necessary advancements to become as profitable as other industries. Due to the industry's time-constrained nature and the products' inherent characteristics, most operations need to be streamlined to avoid product expiration and recalls. Tracking perishable products in supply chains and ensuring their conformity to the standards and norms has become a priority. Customers are informed now more than ever and expect a wide range of selection and high-quality products. To meet these demands, perishable supply chains must operate as efficiently as possible, using novel methods and techniques. Blockchain technology has been used for various purposes, but few have considered perishable supply chains. The use of Blockchain in this industry will help reduce food waste and increase transparency in the supply chain. This paper proposes a proof of concept that uses smart contracts and Blockchain technology to manage perishable products flow between suppliers, retailers, and customers to allow the transfer of ownership and the tracking of the shelf-life span of dairy products. The truffle framework is used to build, test and deploy the smart contracts using solidity, while Ganache is used to simulate a test network based on the Ethereum Blockchain.
By providing transparency, immutability, and security in the tracking of products from raw materials to end-users, blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the supply chain management of health supplements. Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the supply chain management of health supplements. The decentralized structure of blockchain makes it possible for the information to be shared among stakeholders in a way that is both secure and unobtrusive. This helps to reduce the probability of counterfeit goods being sold and ensures that regulatory requirements are met. The uses of blockchain technology in the health supplement sector are investigated in this article. These applications include traceability, inventory management, and payment processing. In addition to this, it offers a discussion of the difficulties and constraints that may arise from applying blockchain technology to the management of the supply chain for nutritional supplements, as well as potential solutions for overcoming these obstacles. In the health supplement industry as a whole, the implementation of blockchain technology has the potential to promote transparency, accountability, and trust, which would ultimately be to the advantage of both customers and enterprises. The promising findings of this study done thus far highlight the necessity of future research and the use of blockchain technology in the health supplement business.
Mehran Sabz Gashtasebi, Homayoun Yousefi, Mohammad Amin Kouhbor
Blockchain is a novel and disruptive technology that has the potential to transform the current international business and trade processes that rely on traditional intermediaries.It is a distributed ledger that verifies and records transactions using a peer-to-peer network over time in a sequence of blocks, secured by cryptographic functions that are complex, immutable and tamperproof.International maritime trade, which is the main mode of global transportation, expects to change its business model by adopting blockchain, which enables a decentralized architecture of international transactions without intermediaries and facilitates paperless trade.Moreover, blockchain aims to address the problems and inefficiencies that plague maritime trade.However, there are key factors that influence the adoption of blockchain in maritime trade that need to be investigated in order to successfully implement this technology in the future.This study examined the impact of blockchain technology on maritime trade and identified the factors affecting its acceptance in Iranian maritime trade using the research background, literature review and interviews with experts who were PMO managers.These factors were validated by the Delphi method and then categorized and prioritized using the theoretical framework of technology, organization, environment (TOE) and analytical hierarchy process.The results indicated that "blockchain benefits" in the "technology" dimension, "human resource capability" in the "organization" dimension and "government support and policy" in the "environment" dimension were ranked first.These findings could assist the stakeholders in Iran's maritime trade, such as ports, customs, government agencies, and transportation logistics companies, in developing strategies for the successful adoption and advancement of blockchain and enhancing their organizational competitiveness.
Evripidis P. Kechagias, Sotiris P. Gayialis, Georgios A. Papadopoulos, Georgios Papoutsis
In today's era, humanity has been overwhelmed by technological revolutions that have changed and will continue to change how business operations are performed, directly or indirectly. At the same time, the processes within the supply chain are quite complex, and as technology and processes evolve, they become more and more challenging. Traceability has become a critical issue in the food industry to ensure safety, quality, and compliance with regulations. The adoption of blockchain technology in the food supply chain has gained significant attention as a potential solution to improve traceability. This paper presents the development of a distributed application for table olives' traceability on the Ethereum network. The paper also presents a methodological framework, which can help anyone aiming to implement an Ethereum decentralized application and demonstrates the practical use of the developed application by a Greek table olives producer. The application significantly improved the producer's product traceability by providing a secure, transparent, and efficient solution for tracking and tracing the products in the supply chain. The app reduced the time, increased the accuracy and reliability of data, improved supply chain efficiency, and helped the producer comply with international regulations and standards.
Adhi Kusnadi, Yandra Arkeman, Khaswar Syamsu, Sony Hartono Wijaya
Consuming halal food is mandatory for Muslims, but meeting the growing demand for halal products has been a challenge for Muslim producers. Importing halal products from non-Muslim countries can raise doubts about their halal status. Therefore, a traceability system is needed to ensure the halalness of products. This research proposes a new traceability system by utilizing ERP, Blockchain, and smart contract technologies based on HAS 23000. This study is the first to combine these technologies. Using the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) method, the design diagram has been successfully developed into an application system prototype. The use of ERP can help companies reduce operational costs, while the combination with blockchain technology ensures more transparent information, data protection, and system security. The system also uses smart contracts to make automated decisions. By managing the procurement of halal products, companies can ensure that products with halal assurance reach consumers.
Rafael Granillo Macías, Isidro Jesús González-Hernández, Elìas Olivares-Benítez
Blockchain is an emerging technology with the potential to radically transform logistics in the highly complex environment of the agri-food supply chain. The key challenges of the agri-food sector include overcoming the limitations (time, cost and quality) to developing global and efficient transparency and traceability of food, eliminating expensive intermediaries, and ensuring no disruption between suppliers and retailers. This paper describes a practical approach by not only using smart contracts to integrate various stakeholders but also incorporating a Public Participation Geographic Information System platform to ensure traceability of the operations conducted in an agri-food supply chain. As a factor in improving distribution and minimising intermediaries, third-party logistics participation is included in this research. Through a case study, the entities and interactions between processes within a blockchain system based on a smart contract are identified. The findings reveal an innovative blockchain approach to logistics in the agri-food supply chain.
Purpose The paper examines the intent to adopt blockchain-facilitated Halal traceability (BFHT) scheme in Indonesian firms' Halal food supply chain (SC). This study integrates Halal-focused attitude, innovation diffusion and institutional theories to construct the model. Design/methodology/approach Data collection uses a simple random sampling method. Respondents are company leaders with experience and knowledge regarding Halal SC. The SEM-PLS approach was applied to test the hypothetical structure. Findings The intent to adopt BFHT is considerably affected by perceived attractiveness, as perceived attractiveness is considerably affected by institutional forces, which are significantly influenced by Halal-focused attitude. Firms that follow a completely Halal-focused attitude show higher awareness regarding institutional forces that motivate them to adopt a BFHT. Originality/value This research is among the initial works regarding Halal SCs that integrate Halal-focused attitude, innovation diffusion and institutional theories to recognise firms' intent to adopt a BFHT scheme.
Urbanization has led to increasing fish consumption, resulting in high demand for fish and fish products. Challenges in this sector, include fraudulent fish supply, overfishing, unscientific handling, quality concerns, etc. Blockchain-based systems in the seafood sector could provide traceability access to the seafood for the consumers and authorities to know if the seafood consumed/sold is legal, ethical, hygienic, economic, etc. Blockchain platforms like Ethereum promote secure digital collaboration of the actors across the supply chain eliminating the intermediaries. The literature documents a very limited number of blockchains that operate in the fisheries sector. Pacifical Atato is designed to promote and develop yellowfin tuna supply chains of Pacific island nations. Project Provenance Limited seeks to bring an end to the unsustainable fishing practices. Tuna distribution through transparent, novel chains is the goal of TraSeable solutions. Treum explored the investments to develop the supply chains of fisheries in the South Pacific. IBM’s Food Trust traces food supplies, including farmed shrimp from India, and is affiliated with retailers like Walmart, Nestle, etc. OpenSC is a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) project that ensures ethical product sourcing and uses QR (Quick Response) code scanning and RFID (Radio Frequency Technology) to track fish.
Phi Dinh Hoang, Emmanuel L. C. VI M. Plan, Nguyễn Thị Ngà
PurposeAs an emerging technological and financial asset, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have yet to be completely understood and, owing to bubble-like behavior along with pandemic effects, literature has mostly focused on pricing mechanisms and spillover effects between cryptocurrency and NFTs.This work aims to determine the significant determinants of trading activity in NFT collections quantified by the number of transactions as a means to characterize NFTs investors behaviours. Design/methodology/approachNFTs collection-week data from the Ethereum blockchain were scraped.Together with collection-specific features, we employ factor analysis and rich regression estimation to identify the factors that are significantly correlated to trading activity. FindingsOur results, consistent across the different models and methodologies, indicate that the historical transaction and pricing as well as Ethereum market activity are the important determinants of NFTs trading activity.Certain collection-specific properties also show significant relationship with NFTs trading activities, such as age, size, creators commision, collection attention, and utility. Research limitations/implicationsOur work calls for more studies to fully understand the effect of wash trades and on NFT market activity. Practical implicationsOur results give recommendations to NFT investors and can guide them in performing sensible investment decisions at the level of selecting potential liquid and valuable collections.Given NFTs trading activity closely associate with NFTs market liquidity, understanding the determinants of NFTs trading provide important implications for preventing market failure.
Antonio Mileti, Daniele Arduini, Gordon Watson, Adriana Giangrande
This study explores the application and critical issues related to the implementation of blockchain technology (BT) to the aquaculture sector, in order to understand the possibilities of improving the relationship with the supply chain and the end consumer, with a view to a sustainability for the marine environment and circular economy. Starting from considerations of commercial and political challenges related to credibility and fairness for all parties involved—from producers, to retailers, to end consumers—the procedure adopted was applied to the case of an Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture project, developed in the sea of Taranto (Italy). Furthermore, it considered two different end markets: the food market for farmed fish and the ornamental fish market for marine aquariums. The results of the study confirm that although the implementation of BT by industries and producers of marine species has the potential to lead to successful sustainability solutions, such adoption is feasible over time only if all actors in the supply chain, from aquaculture companies, to retailers, to consumers, are actively and consciously involved and can access common benefits.
Norlaila Mazura Hj. Mohaiyadin, Aini Aman, Mohd Rizal Palil, Suzana Muhamad Said
This study identifies how blockchain technology can address accountability and transparency challenges in waqf management system by using institutional theory and Islamic institutional logic. An interpretative qualitative research approach is employed, with case studies of Malaysian public university waqf administrators, and data analysis is performed using open, axial, and selective coding. The findings suggest that in terms of coercive isomorphism there are two transparency challenges related to blockchain solutions in the waqf management system: 1) errors in the issuance of receipts (process), which are expected to be overcome by blockchain solutions in the form of individual network technology and ID identifiers; and 2) difficulties in waqf distribution (process), which are predicted to be solved by blockchain solutions in the form of controlling tools, public ledgers, and obtaining waqf distribution data. In normative isomorphism, there are two accountability challenges with blockchain solutions in the waqf management system: 1) difficulties in controlling waqf activities (process), which are expected to be overcome by blockchain solutions which allow internal control; and 2) decisions on waqf distribution (output), which should be solved by blockchain solutions which allow awareness among stakeholders of waqf distribution. In mimetic isomorphism, there is one accountability challenge in the process which has blockchain solutions in the waqf management system, namely system integration, which is predicted to be overcome by a blockchain solution related to traceability. The contributions of the study include extending institutional theory and Islamic institutional logic, and providing blockchain best practices for waqf institutions in addressing accountability and transparency challenges.
Mohammod Abul Kashem, Mohammad Shamsuddoha, Tasnuba Nasir, Asma Akter Chowdhury
Purpose This paper reviews the role of two significant smart technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology (BT) in achieving sustainable tourism success. Such changes will maintain consistent tourism growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by improving environmental, social and economic sustainability. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a qualitative approach focusing on AI and blockchain-based adaptations towards sustainability in technology-driven platforms, particularly in the tourism sector. However, this study is conceptualized with Day's (1989) IMRAD (introduction, methods, results and discussion) framework and Hall's (2012) suggestions. This reinforced the structure of this article by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) concept. In addition, the entire study proceeds by way of accentuating the research question. Findings The potential of these technologies (AI and blockchain) can internalize a win-win situation for economic prosperity and sustainable conservation of environmental resources. Even though, apathy among potential tourists (of traditional mass tourism) can be revived under sustainable tourism in the region through smart technology. Replacing traditional practices and policies with innovative technologies can reduce the adverse effect on environmental and cultural resources. Originality/value This research justifies the potential for AI and blockchain to balance economy-oriented tourism and sustainability-prone technologically advanced tourism as a caustic issue for the MENA region. Indeed, this study has revitalized and transformed the less eventful margins of leading cultural-heritage-based tourism into sustainable profitability with concerns over diversity, socio-economic conditions, economic recession and burgeoning geopolitical instability.
Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan, Phạm Thị Ánh Ngọc, Jamal Roskam
Fishery and aquaculture sectors use blockchains to enhance traceability and transparency in value chains and to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. The aim of this paper is to provide the current status and future prospects of blockchain application in worldwide fisheries and aquaculture. A literature review was conducted using blockchain and global value chain frameworks. Results indicate that generally, the use of blockchain is vertically driven by the requirements of markets and business competitiveness. The majority of the blockchain use cases are for traceability and storytelling, and to a lesser extent for payments or incentives. Moreover, there has been limited use cases of blockchain at horizontal level, such as decentralized finance (de-fi), enabling fishers to gain capital access and entering global markets. Overall, enhancing the adoption of blockchain should address suitability, incentives, and trust factors in using blockchain. As future prospects, projects in fishery and aquaculture could better utilize the full potential of blockchains by (1) incorporating financing, capital, and insurance through de-fi solutions, (2) providing tangible incentives, and (3) using automation such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) in data collection to improve quality and trust in data.