Blockchain Papers

Jacky Akoka, Isabelle Comyn-Wattiau

No abstract is available for this record.

Ilkka Kuronen

The purpose of this thesis was to provide information on whether the currency Bitcoin is viable and beneficial for businesses as a payment method or a business model. Interview, customer questionnaire and analysis of Bitcoin services, products and legislation were used to create a better understanding of viability of the currency.\n\nTheoretical part of the thesis explains how Bitcoin and its markets function. Later parts of the theoretical part lays out different services and products that can be built around Bitcoin. The objective of the theoretical part is to give better understanding of the general idea of Bitcoin for readers who are unfamiliar with the subject as it is a new concept.\n\nThe empirical research part of the thesis was conducted with both qualitative and quantitative methods. Methods used were a qualitative theme interview and a quanti-tative customer questionnaire. The theme interview was conducted with a brick and mortar store, which had previously used Bitcoin as a payment method. The interview was conducted over the phone and a planned theme structure was used. The ques-tionnaire was conducted in two different Bitcoin related communities and it was used to find out their previous and planned Bitcoin payment method usage.\n\nTrough empirical research it turned out that Bitcoin retail payment method is not very popular and that it has many problems and disadvantages in its current form. Online payment methods appeared to be more popular among users.\n\nFrom the research it was concluded that Bitcoin online payment methods using mer-chant solution services are viable, when transaction fees and times are at their normal level. Online payment methods involve less investment and risk compared to retail Bitcoin payment methods, which don’t have much demand, require staff training and purchasing and maintaining of separate payment devices. Online payment methods appeared to have some advantages compared to traditional payment methods as well as normally they involve smaller transaction fees when using a Bitcoin merchant ser-vice as opposed to using credit or debit card company payment services. It should be noted that at the end of the research Bitcoin transaction feeds and transaction con-firmation times rose significantly, which temporarily made the business use of the currency mostly untenable.

Yuanyuan Zhang, Lulu Ren

In real life, there is a problem of capital fracture in some enterprises especially small and medium enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. In order to research how retailers choose the optimal financing mode, this paper analyzes the double channel and three- stage supply chain under capital constraint of retailers, uses multi-objective nonlinear programming method, constructs the delayed payment financing model and the loan financing model respectively and gives the optimal decentralized decisions of suppliers, manufacturers and retailers under the two modes. The research shows that under the coexistence of the delayed payment financing model and the loan financing model, when the delayed payment rate is equal to the lending rate, if the retailers choose the delayed payment model, then it can not only increase the profits but also improve the market competitiveness and expand the market. This provides certain theory and numerical reference basis for retailers to choose a financing model.

Yueliang Su, Baoyu Zhong

The innovation of supply chain financial services can alleviate the plight of SMEs financing difficulties. In the aspect of supply chain finance model, there is a credit guarantee financing model, which is different from the simple external financing and internal financing mode of supply chain. Based on this, this paper studies the decision-making of supply chain finance under the partial credit guarantee of core enterprises. First of all, the paper constructs a simple supply chain financing model, consisting of a bank, a core enterprise and a retailer. And then, considering the credit guarantee financing model, calculate the expected profit function. Stackelberg game model is used to give the optimal decision of each subject in decentralized system and the optimal decision in centralized system. Finally, in order to make a more specific and detailed study on the profit and decision-making based on the credit guarantee financing model, the important parameters of the model are analyzed. Through the calculation, it is proved that under the credit guarantee of the core enterprise, the retailer has the optimal ordering strategy, and the core enterprise has the best wholesale price. The influences of the partial credit guarantee coefficient and the retailer’s loan coefficient on the supply chain finance decision-making are also studied.

Peter Ittermann, Jonathan Niehaus, Hartmut Hirsch‐Kreinsen, Johannes Dregger · 5 authors

This paper is dealing with the ongoing debate of the digitization of german industry, the so-called „Industrie 4.0“, and its social consequences. The discussed new technologies like cyber-physical production systems, autonomous logistic systems and smart devices are about to get integrated in work places, that are embedded in existing organizational and social structures, thus making ‘complementary innovations’ and a coordinated design necessary. Our paper presents a human-centered design of industrial labor in a framework depicting the dilemma between what is techno-logically feasible and labor-politically desirable, under the constraint of an economically reasonable design of work and technology. The analytical approach is the “socio-technical system” which as-sumes that there are certain varieties of organizational design at the interfaces of its sub-systems ‘technology’, ‘human’ and ‘organization’. These considerations are transformed into a framework, called Social Manufacturing and Logistics, which brings together these perspectives and leads to a complementary holistic design of industrial labor under the conditions of a progressive digitization of manufacturing. Its characteristics are: hybrid interaction between human and machine, flexible integrated work and decentralized systems. Finally, we outline some organizational and social con-ditions to realize such a framework.

Jani Kurki

In this thesis, I explore how blockchain technology can improve pharmaceutical supply chain operations and discuss how the technology should be implemented. Furthermore, I study how the life science company Bayer's pharmaceutical division can utilize blockchain technology in its supply chain operations. I begin by defining the concepts of blockchain technology, smart contracts and pharmaceutical supply chain. Then I discuss the benefits and implementation in different sections: participating entities and information flow, contracts and payments, logistics, transparency and product security and blockchain infrastructure and governance. Both Bayer and the industry as a whole can benefit from blockchain technology. Blockchain enables for example efficient, safe and private transactions, product transparency and security and open information sharing without exposing trade secrets. For the first time a platform for all stakeholders can be developed that enables transacting information and value simultaneously.

Zhao Zheng-ji

Quantity discount contract is widely used in practical management and is paid much attention by management research. Until now, there is a lack of research on the quantity discount contract for supply chain under uncertain and price-dependant demand. On the other hand, when formulating contract the global supply chain contract should take some international finance and/or trade factors into account, in addition to the usual factors of the supply chain in one country. So far, those international finance and/or trade factors are ignored by nearly all related researches on supply chain contract. Products with short life cycle but long production time has uncertain demand and their demand depends on selling price. This paper investigates the quantity discount and its combined contract for global supply chains based on the theory of interest rate parity. For the additive demand case, which random variable obeys uniform distribution, the quantity discount contract for supply chains is developed from two aspects. Firstly, the contract with quantity discount is developed under uncertain and price-dependant demand. Also, the combined contract with quantity discount and the transfer payment are designed to coordinate the supply chain. Secondly, the paper pays attention to the global supply chain which takes exchange rate, international transport cost and tariff into account. In this paper, four decision models are proposed: decentralized decision-making with no contract, centralized decision-making, quantity discount, the combined contract with quantity discount, and transfer payment. On the basis of the results of Nicholas, the optimal selling price, the optimal order quantity, and the expected profit of each party of the supply chain are obtained for each decision-making model. The results are shown as follows:(1) For the random demand in the additive form, which is subject to uniform distribution, the optimal selling price and the optimal order quantity are obtained. The contract with quantity discount, that is(d *, p* dinate global supply chains.(2) Although the optimal selling price and the optimal ordering quantity of the d, q*d), is prescribed to coorseller with the quantity discount contract, i.e.(d *, p*, *d qd), is respectively equal to the optimal selling price and the optimal order quantity with centralized decision-making, and the maximum profit for the system of the supply chain can also be obtained. However, the supply chain is not coordinated with only quantity discount. The profit of the supplier becomes less seriously.(3) With the combined contract with quantity discount and transfer payment, i.e.(d *, p* profit for the system of the supply chain is obtained, but also the profit of the seller and that of the supplier are also improved. d, q*d, ?), not only the maximumSo, the supply chain is coordinated.(4) For the combined contract with quantity discount and transfer payment, i.e.(d *, p*, q*d d,?), the discount rated *is affected by the sharing ratio of the international transport cost and the tariff rates, but has nothing to do with the exchange rate e. The other parameters are affected by these three factors.(5) To the product with short life cycle but long production time, the parameters of the combined contract are determined by the parties of the global supply chain if the long term exchange rate is forecasted by the theory of interest rate parity. The profit of the global supply chain system is further improved by the combined contract on the basis of the profit without considering changes in exchange rate. The coordination result is nearly close to that of the global supply chain with practical exchange rate. Therefore, the global supply chain is coordinated more perfectly.

Komali Yenneti, Premakumara Jagath Dickella Gamaralalage

The solid waste sector is a significant contributor to methane (CH 4 ) emissions with a global warming potential (GWP) of 21 times more than that of CO 2 bringing the need for preventive actions from this sector. In the recent years, composting projects both centralized and decentralized have proved to be addressing this issue. However, much of the decentralized composting projects failed due to their financial and other operational constraints that arise during the course of the implementation. On this regard, the current article reviews the potential of carbon finance as an opportunity for funding decentralized composting projects through demonstrating the application through emission calculation of four cities in Asia. On assessing the emissions, it also identifies the benefits associated with the emissions reduction from the composting projects which might not be available in the absence of the projects. The article also discusses the various carbon financing strategies available in the present market to identify the potential market for inclusion of decentralized composting projects. In the process, the article identifies the issues in the implementation of decentralized composting projects under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other carbon markets in general.

Torben Juul Andersen, Bo Bernhard Nielsen

There is general consensus that coordination and integration are needed to achieve efficient outcomes while distributed decision power and autonomous actions are essential to develop innovative responses. These dual requirements for operational optimization and ongoing business innovation capture the essence of organizational ambidexterity as the means to sustain performance over time when environmental conditions change. This paper incorporates strategic management and organization theoretical rationales in a model that combines elements of integration and experimentation in the strategy making process and thereby extends the evolving literature on the ambidextrous organization. The performance relationships of the ambidextrous integrative strategy making model are investigated on the basis of a cross-sectional sample of 185 business entities operating in different manufacturing industries. Results of structural equation analyses indicate that superior performance in the ambidextrous organizations is associated with efficiencies derived from adherence to centralized strategic planning and effectiveness generated by decentralized innovative behavior through participation and autonomous actions. The study enhances our understanding of ambidexterity as the result of combined strategy making processes that balance the needs for economic efficiency and organizational adaptability.

Tianfei Li, Linyan Sun

No abstract is available for this record.

Andrew Campbell, Arndt Sorge, Mark J. Warner

No abstract is available for this record.