Abstract The Bangladesh Readymade Garments (RMG) industry faces increasing pressure to enhance sustainability and transparency across its complex supply chain. This research develops a blockchain-based Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) framework to address these challenges. Through a structured review of existing literature, the study identifies key sustainability challenges in GSCM and explores how blockchain can help overcome these challenges, thereby providing a foundation for developing a blockchain-based GSCM framework. The proposed framework facilitates the end-to-end monitoring of sustainability practices, from the procurement of raw materials to the production of finished garments, by utilizing the immutability and transparency of blockchain technology. Smart contracts enforce predefined sustainability criteria, ensuring stakeholder accountability while providing real-time data to drive continuous improvements in resource efficiency and overall sustainability performance. This research addresses a critical gap in the existing literature by proposing a context-specific framework that integrates transparency and sustainability functionalities within a blockchain-based GSCM system. The framework aligns with relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and offering a novel approach to achieving a more transparent, accountable, and sustainable future for the Bangladesh RMG industry.
Corruption in public procurement remains a challenge to good governance, especially in developing nations. Blockchain technology has been espoused as a new paradigm for achieving sustainable public procurement practices for effective service delivery and, by extension, promoting sustainable development. Given the potential of blockchain technology, its implementation has been slow in developing countries. Additionally, there is an inadequate decision support framework to prioritize corruption-prone stages of the public procurement cycle for strategic blockchain integration at the most critical corruption-prone stages of the public procurement cycle given the scarce resources available in developing countries. Therefore, we employed a matured theory that is the principal-agent theory to identify key agency problems related to public procurement in developing countries. An interview with 25 experts and a thorough review of Ghanaâs Auditor General produced seven public procurement cycle stages. Further, a survey was designed for experts and stakeholders to prioritize the identified procurement stages under the agency problems through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Our results revealed that tender evaluation was the most critical stage susceptible to corruption, followed by contract management and procurement planning in the public procurement stages. Additionally, for the relative importance of the criteria, information asymmetry was ranked first, followed by moral hazard, and then adverse selection. This study offers a targeted framework for blockchain deployment in public procurement from an African country perspective. The outcome of this study provides insights for policymakers and procurement practitioners to know the most critical stages of public procurement stages and leverage blockchain technology given the scarcity of resources in developing countries to aid sustainable public procurement. The proposed blockchain framework can enhance service delivery, citizensâ trust, and international donor confidence in partnership and funding for public procurement projects in developing countries.
We consider a supply chain comprised of two competing manufacturers, where one is a blockchain-enabled disclosed quality information manufacturer (BP manufacturer), and the other is a manufacturer without blockchain support (OP manufacturer). The duopoly game, OP manufacturer-led Stackelberg game, and BP manufacturer-led Stackelberg game are considered. In addition, we also consider two types of consumers, namely expert consumers who exactly know blockchain and rookie consumers who have a limited knowledge of blockchain. The results demonstrate that (a) the BP manufacturer should serve both expert and rookie consumers if the percentage of expert consumers is sufficiently low; (b) the optimal blockchain-enabled disclosed quality information level increases with the blockchain ability and percentage of expert consumers; (c) blockchain adoption leads to higher profits for the OP manufacturer when the blockchain ability is high and this finding is robust under various power structures; and (d) the BP (OP) manufacturer-led Stackelberg game benefits the OP (BP) manufacturer best, and as the BP manufacturerâs decision-making grows, she needs to use blockchain to provide more detailed product quality information. Extending our work to several scenarios, we find that some of the results are robust while the others change.
Purpose Consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, striving to engage in sustainable behaviors and transactions. As a result, businesses strive to follow this trend by providing sustainable and environmentally friendly products and services; nevertheless, this has increased the prevalence of greenwashing practices. Blockchain-based traceability (BBT) technology, a system that may give transparent, traceable and trustworthy information, shows potential to help address this issue. Accordingly, the goal of this study is to explore the role of BBT in mitigating greenwashing perceptions. Design/methodology/approach In order to test the hypothesis, an empirical analysis was conducted on a sample of 440 customers. Data were analyzed by using the structural equation modeling approach. Findings Empirical results reveal that transparency and data security enable customers to trust in BBT technology, which helps to foster consumer trust in the retailer which in turn decreases greenwashing perceptions. Research limitations/implications This study adds to the expanding body of research on greenwashing by demonstrating how BBT technology can be used to reduce the issue. Practical implications This study offers insights to managers, showing that BBT technology may address greenwashing. Originality/value Existing studies on greenwashing concentrate on customers or public decision-making and on the detrimental effects of these practices, which mostly affect consumers. To the best of the authorsâ knowledge, this paper is one of the few that examines how to mitigate perceived greenwashing and develop sustainability.
JuanâJuan Qin, FU Hui-ping, Ziping Wang, Xiaochen Lyu
This paper explores a low-carbon supply chain comprising a capital-constrained manufacturer and a retailer under cap-and-trade regulation. The manufacturer can obtain financing support for both production and carbon emission reduction through either Bank Financing (BF) mode or Mixed Financing (MF) modes. The incorporation of blockchain technology is posited to enhance the transparency of uncertain emission reduction data within the supply chain, allowing banks to adjust interest rates accordingly via smart contracts. Four modes are analyzed: BF without blockchain technology, BF with blockchain technology, MF without blockchain technology, and MF with blockchain technology. Under MF, the retailer provides financing support for production cost and the bank provides financing support for carbon emission reduction. The findings indicate that the utilization of blockchain technology improves supply chain profits when its cost is moderate. Without blockchain, BF mode will be chosen when faced with intermediate bank interest rate. Conversely, when the manufacturer employs blockchain technology, the strategic choices of both the manufacturer and retailer regarding the BF and MF modes are independent of the associated cost. Additionally, BF mode becomes more attractive when the trigger point for emission reduction output is moderate and the cost of adopting blockchain technology is minimal.
ABSTRACT Blockchain technology, when combined with smart contracts, enables buyers to distinguish between greenwashed and genuinely ecoâfriendly products. The presence of counterfeit items can severely impact supply chains by diminishing brand value, eroding consumer confidence, and undermining market trust. This article explores how smart contracts can help mitigate the circulation of counterfeit goods and safeguard brands by establishing institutional trust through tamperâproof data, enhanced transparency, and improved traceability. Information asymmetry on digital marketing platforms significantly contributes to the proliferation of greenwashed counterfeit goods. We introduce an infectionâleakage model based on anecdotal case evidence to explain the interactions between different market types. The transition from relying solely on traditional written contracts, certifications, and brands to incorporating blockchain and smart contract technology is analyzed for its potential to strengthen supply chains and curtail the spread of counterfeit greenwashed products. Blockchain technology provides consumers with detailed product information, empowering them to choose authentic green products over counterfeit âlemons.â Our theoretical framework suggests that this shift to blockchain smart contracts can reduce the transaction costs associated with counterfeit infiltration, thereby protecting brands and the intellectual property rights of authentic sustainable products.
Marta Rinaldi, Mario Caterino, Stefano Riemma, Roberto Macchiaroli ¡ 5 authors
Background: Emergency scenarios present unprecedented challenges for supply chains worldwide, particularly in the management and distribution of critical supplies, where timely delivery and maintaining integrity are crucial. Methods: This article explores an innovative approach to enhance the emergency management of supply chains using blockchain technology and simulation-based modelling. The proposed methodology aims to tackle issues such as transparency, efficiency, and security, which are vital for managing logistics during crises. A case study involving a vaccine rollout is used to demonstrate how blockchain can optimise supply chain operations, reduce bottlenecks, and ensure better traceability and accountability throughout the process. The case study is specifically developed based on the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Italy. Results: The integration of blockchain technology not only enhances data integrity and security but also facilitates real-time monitoring and decision-making. Conslusions: The findings suggest that the proposed blockchain-based model can significantly improve supply chain resilience in emergency situations compared to traditional methods, thereby offering valuable insights for policymakers and supply chain managers facing future crises.
The increasing concerns over product safety and adulteration risks have heightened the need for traceability and transparency in supply chains. Blockchain technology provides a potential solution, but its adoption involves costs and strategic decisions about information disclosure. This study investigates a dual-channel supply chain consisting of a supplier and a retailer under four blockchain technology adoption scenarios and two market power structures, where the supplier uses a price-matching policy in the online channel. Stackelberg game models are formulated, and backward induction is used to derive equilibrium decisions on retail price, wholesale price, and amount of blockchain-linked information. The supplier and retailer equilibrium decisions and profits are analyzed and compared across different blockchain technology adoption scenarios and market power structures. Numerical analyses are used to verify the main theoretical results and examine the influences of the parameter values on the equilibrium results. The findings reveal the supplierâs strong incentive to adopt blockchain technology and the retailerâs decision complexity influenced by factors such as consumer shopping convenience, consumer preferences, and retailer competitive position. Additionally, the findings underscore the supplier profitability potential through the traditional retail channel and the value of the price-matching policy to optimise profits for both the supply chain members.
Kai Kang, Bing Qing Tan, Felix T.S. Chan, Xiang T.R. Kong
Many firms have launched corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to address social and environmental challenges toward Industry 5.0. Numerous firms are considering using blockchain to manage CSR. In this paper, we study the effect of blockchain on CSR within a supply chain containing a supplier, a retailer and a regulator. Since real-life supply chains operate in the long term and related decisions might evolve over time, we apply crowd intelligence to develop a tripartite evolutionary game-theoretic model for exploring the instability of the short-term strategy selection and discussing evolutionary stability. We investigate the strategic stability to uncover the evolution process of strategy selection of each player with corresponding conditions. We consider the mutual influence of three players to analyze the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) of the game. We prove the existence of ESSs and their conditions. Based on numerical studies, the theoretical findings are verified and the impact of key parameters and different initial states of players are analysed on the evolution trajectories. The results reveal that the retailer prefers to adopt blockchain if the market expansion benefited from blockchain is sufficiently large; otherwise, the supplier strictly follows CSR regulation, the retailer adopts blockchain or the regulator performs strict regulation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), leading to disruptions in supply chains, financial losses, and closures. To overcome these challenges, organizations, including those in developing economies like Malaysia, are turning to blockchain technology as a solution to enhance traditional supply chain management frameworks. This study aims to identify the factors that influence the acceptance of blockchain technology among SMEs. By drawing on established adoption theories such as the technology acceptance model (TAM), diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, and theory of planned behavior (TPB), the researchers developed a research framework. They utilized partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the causal relationships between different constructs and test their hypotheses. The findings confirmed that the constructs of the technology acceptance model, specifically perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and attitude were significantly associated with the intention to use blockchain technology. Additionally, the constructs of the diffusion of innovation theory, relative advantage and compatibility, showed significant associations with perceived ease of use, while complexity had a negligible relationship with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The construct of subjective norms from the theory of planned behavior exhibited a significant relationship with perceived usefulness and an insignificant relationship with intention to use. Finally, perceived behavioral control demonstrated a positive relationship with intention to use. The study's findings provide valuable insights for blockchain developers and organizations aiming to make informed decisions regarding the application of blockchain technology as a process innovation in SMEs.
This study aims to explore the impact of key drivers on the integration of blockchain technology implementation and green innovation practices within green supply chains. This study combines the TOE and TAM frameworks to identify six key driving factors that in the proposed model. A survey was conducted with Vietnamese enterprises, resulting in 328 valid responses from senior managers across various sectors. The PLS-SEM approach was conducted to analyze the relationships between the variables and to gain deeper insights into their interactions. The research findings highlight the significant potential of adopting blockchain and green innovation programs to enhance organizational performance. Six essential factors act as key drivers for implementing these initiatives, exerting a positive influence. Among them, Perceived Usefulness, Organizational Readiness, and Partnerships emerge as the three most influential variables within this research framework. Our research offers several valuable implications, both theoretical and practical. The structural framework model provides empirical evidence demonstrating the feasibility of achieving expected benefits for green supply chains, particularly in emerging economies such as Vietnam. Thus, these results serve as valuable references for senior managers and policy makers.
Mohammad Irfan, S. Parameswaran, Kashish Ajit Singh, Early Ridho Kismawadi
This paper explores the transformative impact of cutting-edge technologies, specifically AI and blockchain, on economic well-being. It begins by examining how AI-driven solutions are revolutionizing industries, enhancing decision-making processes, and improving financial inclusion. Blockchain technology is discussed for its potential to increase transparency, reduce fraud, and streamline financial transactions, thereby fostering trust and efficiency. The synergy between AI and blockchain is highlighted as a powerful driver for economic growth, enabling decentralized finance, secure data management, and scalable innovation. The paper further explores how these technologies are unlocking new opportunities for sustainable development, particularly in emerging markets. It concludes by emphasizing the role of AI and blockchain in shaping a future of economic prosperity, with a focus on inclusivity, sustainability, and long-term well-being.
Abstract Centrally administrated systems have historically facilitated inter-organizational data exchange in supply chains (SC), relying on the message standard electronic data interchange (EDI). However, the current use of EDI fails to meet information needs, as point-to-point interfaces complicate information sharing among multiple partners and batch processing lacks real-time capabilities. This results in information asymmetries, leading to inefficiencies. Distributed ledger technology (DLT), which offers decentralized communication and data storage, presents a potential solution. In this paper, we present a systematic literature review comparing the centralized architectures utilizing EDI applications with the decentralized architecture of DLT within SCs. We identified the limitations of the current systems and assessed whether DLT offers a solution. The findings show that DLT enhances real-time data exchange, automation potential, and transparency, but also faces shortcomings. Integrating EDI with DLT offers a promising approach to leverage synergies and address the weaknesses of both technologies, e.g., lacking standards for DLT.
It is becoming harder to manage the growing amounts of waste generated daily at an increasing rate. These problems require an efficient solution that guarantees effectiveness and transparency and maintains trust within the community. To improve the process of traditional waste management, we proposed a unique solution, âGREENLINKâ, which uses a combination of blockchain technology with the concept of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Walrasian equilibrium. Zero-knowledge proofs (cryptographic protocols) are used to verify organizations and prove compliance (e.g., certification, recycling capacity) without disclosing sensitive information. Through an iterative bidding process, the proposed framework employs Walrasian equilibrium, a technique to balance supply and demand, guaranteeing equitable pricing and effective resource distribution among participants. The transactions and waste management activities are securely recorded on an immutable ledger, ensuring accountability, traceability, and transparency. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated. Parameters like average latency, TPS, and memory consumption are calculated using Hyperledger Caliper (a blockchain performance benchmark framework).
Mohammad Rashed Hasan Polas, Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi, Mohammad Ekramol Islam, Ahmed Imran Kabir ¡ 6 authors
ABSTRACT Blockchain technology has a great potential to transform how businesses approach sustainability by offering transparency, efficiency, and accountability across various processes. By adopting blockchain, businesses can not only meet growing consumer and regulatory demands for sustainability but also create competitive advantages by promoting resource efficiency, fostering trust, and building ecoâconscious operations. Building on dynamic capabilities lens within the resourceâbased view (RBV) framework, and in order to know about antecedents and consequences of blockchain technology adoption, this study investigates how three types of organizational capabilitiesânamely, innovation capability, informationâsharing capability, and technological capabilityâmay facilitate the blockchain technology adoption and most importantly, how such adoption could impact firm performance. To test our research hypotheses, we collected survey data from 198 electronics companies in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The structural equation modelling has been used to test the model hypothesis. The findings showed that all three organizational capabilitiesâinnovation capability, informationâsharing capability, and technological capabilityâsignificantly facilitate blockchain technology adoption, which in turn leads to enhanced firm performance in smallâ and mediumâsized enterprises, demonstrating the strategic value of blockchain in driving sustainability and competitiveness in electronics companies.
Increasing demand for transparency in agri-food through customer expectation and regulatory imposition has fostered a swift adoption of blockchain technology. Demand for transparency is rising in the agri-food industry driven by consumer expectations and regulatory requirements, which has fast-tracked the adoption of blockchain technology. It creates innovative solutions to augment traceability and combat food deception, while also informing consumers about their origin. Blockchain is by nature trusted and immutable; thus, it is well suited for agri-food stock chains. Considering that the transactions on such supply chains have to be safe and transparent, the existing Smart contract technology based on Ethereum is being improved. Even if updating is difficult and disruptive, the topic of data migration and its users is growing more difficult. This has led most of the agri-food sector migration to Binance Smart Chain (BSC). BSC offers the benefits of confirmation times for transactions, a more efficient consensus mechanism, and thus better scalability. On the latter aspect, use of BSC will eventually ease the updation of smart contracts, thereby upgrading the entire speed and reliability of blockchain solutions for ensuring transparency and traceability in a supply chain.
Purpose Achieving sustainability and sustainable performance has emerged as a critical area of focus for both academic research and practice. However, this pursuit faces challenges, particularly concerning the inadequacy of supply chain information. To address this issue, our study employs the organizational information processing theory to explore how adopting blockchain technology enables firms to learn from and collaborate with their supply chain partners, ultimately facilitating their sustainable performance even in the presence of organizational inertia. Design/methodology/approach Underpinned by the organizational information processing theory and drawing data from 220 manufacturing firms in China, we use structural equation modeling to test our conceptual model. Findings Our results demonstrate that blockchain technology adoption can significantly enhance sustainable performance. Furthermore, supply chain learning acts as a mediator between blockchain technology adoption and sustainable performance, while organizational inertia plays a negative moderating role between blockchain technology adoption and supply chain learning. Originality/value These findings extend the existing literature on blockchain technology adoption and supply chain management, offering novel insights into the pivotal role of blockchain in fostering supply chain learning and achieving sustainable performance. Our study provides valuable practical implications for managers seeking to leverage blockchain technology to enhance sustainability and facilitate organizational learning.