a case study of blockchain technology in supply chain management

Blockchain Technology: A case study in supply chain management

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How Walmart Canada Uses Blockchain to Solve Supply-Chain Challenges

• Kate Vitasek,
• John Bayliss,
• Loudon Owen,
• Neeraj Srivastava

The system has drastically reduced payment disputes with freight carriers.

Walmart Canada applied blockchain to solve a common logistics nightmare: payment disputes with its 70 third-party freight carriers. To solve the problem it built a blockchain network. The system has not only virtually eliminated the payments problem; it also has led to significant operational efficiencies. This article offers five lessons on how to create a blockchain network for improving business processes.

Walmart has long been known as a leader in supply chain management. However, its prowess could not insulate it from a problem plaguing the transportation industry for decades: vast data discrepancies in the invoice and payment process for freight carriers, which required costly reconciliation efforts and caused long payment delays. Then Walmart Canada pioneered a solution: It employed blockchain, a distributed-ledger technology, to create an automated system for managing invoices from and payments to its 70 third-party freight carriers.

• Kate Vitasek is a member of the graduate and executive education faculty of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business, where she leads the university’s research and courses on highly collaborative win-win “vested” strategic business relationships.
• JB John Bayliss is an executive vice president and the chief transformation officer at Walmart Canada.
• LO Loudon Owen is chief executive officer of DLT Labs, a next-generation data management software company specializing in supply chain management and financial services.
• NS Neeraj Srivastava is a founder and the chief technology officer of DLT Labs, a next-generation data management software company specializing in supply chain management and financial services.

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Blockchain technology implementation challenges in supply chains – evidence from the case studies of multi-stakeholders

The International Journal of Logistics Management

ISSN : 0957-4093

Article publication date: 2 December 2022

Issue publication date: 19 December 2022

The aim of the research is to identify and prioritise the implementation challenges of blockchain technology and suggests ways for its implementation in supply chains.

Design/methodology/approach

Underlined by the technology, organisational, and external environment model, a conceptual framework with four challenge categories and sixteen challenges is proposed. Data collected from three stakeholder groups with experience in the implementation of blockchain technology in India is analysed by employing an analytical hierarchy process method-based case study. Further, a criticality–effort matrix analysis is performed to group challenges and suggest ways for implementation.

The analysis revels that all stakeholders perceive complexity challenge associated with the technology, organisational structure, and external environment, and issues of compatibility with existing systems, software, and business practices to be high on the criticality and effort scales, which thus require meticulous planning to manage. Likewise, top-management support issues related to insufficient understanding of how technology fits with the organisation’s policy and benefits offered by the technology requires high effort to address this challenge.

Research limitations/implications

The results were obtained by focusing on the Indian context and therefore may not apply to other nations’ contexts.

Practical implications

By investigating the challenges that the developers, consultants, and client organisations need to address, this study assists managers in developing plans to facilitate coordination among these organisations for successful blockchain implementation.

Originality/value

To the authors’ knowledge this study is the first to identify and prioritise the challenges from the perspectives of multiple stakeholder groups with experience in blockchain technology implementation.

• Analytical hierarchy process (AHP)
• Organisation
• And environment framework (TOE)
• Supply chain management

Yadlapalli, A. , Rahman, S. and Gopal, P. (2022), "Blockchain technology implementation challenges in supply chains – evidence from the case studies of multi-stakeholders", The International Journal of Logistics Management , Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 278-305. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-02-2021-0086

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Aswini Yadlapalli, Shams Rahman and Pinapala Gopal

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Blockchain refers to a ledger of data transactions recorded on a distributed database and shared with a network of independent participants ( Perdana et al. , 2021 ). Because data are recorded on a decentralised system that participants cannot control, it ensures that no one owns the system ( Upadhyay, 2020 ). Blockchain data records are referred to as blocks, and these are connected in a chain using the crypto-analytic hash function. The hash function used to validate the transactions on blocks prevents alterations to recorded data ( Wang et al. , 2019a ). The ability of a block to remain unchanged and unaltered is referred to as immutability. The decentralisation and immutability properties of the technology can revolutionise business operations because these allow the sharing of agreed information that cannot be altered by partner organisations in supply chains ( Gurtu and Johny, 2019 ; Kshetri, 2021 ). These characteristics of the technology can extend its application to building trusting relationships between the organisations in supply chains ( Queiroz and Wamba, 2019 ).

Further, the smart contract feature of blockchain technology is a computer protocol that facilitates the verification and enforcement of the negotiated terms of a contract without the need for third-party intervention ( Upadhyay, 2020 ). The protocols of a smart contract can validate various transactions, such as payment processing or asset verification ( Cole et al. , 2019 ). By ensuring that all participants are obeying the rules, smart contracts instil confidence among supply chain members. Moreover, the recent development of a permissioned blockchain that limits data access to participants who have an invitation or the permission to join the network has offered much-needed data privacy to supply chain members ( Nandi et al. , 2020 ; Wong et al. , 2020b ). Besides, implementing blockchain technology in supply chains leads to improved efficiency in forecasting demand, managing inventory, tracing the product origin, and managing the supply chain finance process ( Hald and Kinra, 2019 ). Hence, organisations are increasingly seeking ways to adopt this technology in supply chains ( Perdana et al. , 2021 ).

Most well-known blockchain technology applications in supply chains are for the traceability of products ranging from essential food items to luxury diamonds, which is aimed at promoting consumer confidence ( Gurtu and Johny, 2019 ). Similarly, blockchain-based supply chains can detect counterfeits in product categories ranging from consumer products of less public concern to medicines, a serious public health concern that endangers lives ( Gaur, 2020 ). In the transport and logistics industry, using blockchain technology to digitise and transfer key trade documents, such as the bill of lading and customs documents, can improve process efficiency and increase global trade by 15% through minimising the barriers to trade ( DHL, 2019 ).

Despite the benefits of blockchain technology when implemented in supply chains, its implementation is confined to the proof-of-concept stage ( Cole et al. , 2019 ), with limited mainstream adoption in supply chains. In a global survey, 28% of executives rated a low level of understanding of this technology as a major barrier to its implementation ( Deloitte, 2019 ). Moreover, practitioners with some understanding indicated that the lack of knowledge on implementation factors hinders their technology uptake ( Gaur, 2020 ). Saberi et al. (2019) and Kouhizadeh et al. (2021) highlighted that the successful implementation of this technology begins with identifying related challenges. Therefore, to promote blockchain diffusion in supply chains, it is necessary to ascertain the value expected to be created and the implementation strategies required to materialise its value. Hence, a significant research area is an identification, prioritisation, and development of strategies for implementing blockchain technology.

Academic literature on blockchain implementation in supply chains has started appearing from 2015 with many conference papers at the start followed by few journal articles ( Wang et al. , 2019a ). Hald and Kinra (2019) , Saberi et al. (2019) , and Tokkozhina et al. (2022) identified blockchain technology implementation challenges through literature synthesis and highlighted the need for empirical research to examine these challenges. Accordingly, Queiroz and Wamba (2019) , Wang et al. (2019a , b) , Wong et al. (2020b) , and Kouhizadeh et al. (2021) investigated the blockchain implementation challenges in India, Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia, and United States. These studies have identified complexity, lack of financial resources, lack of management support, trust, and privacy as the blockchain implementation challenges. These studies use data collected from the logistics practitioners and academics who are familiar with the technology but lack experience in implementing it. Their lack of experience raises concern about their ability to evaluate the implementation of this technology. Also, the empirical research examining real cases to investigate blockchain implementation challenges is limited warranting future research. Our study is different from various perspectives, including the scope, the methodology, the survey sample and the analysis. Particularly, this study collects the responses from the multiple stakeholders who are not only knowledgeable but also involved in the blockchain implementation. We address the objective through analytics hierarchy process (AHP)-based case study using both qualitative and quantitative data collected from various stakeholders, such as consultants, developers, and clients, who are experienced in implementing blockchain technology. The case study approach used in this study is considered appropriate as it elaborates the understanding of challenges influencing blockchain technology implementation in supply chains in Indian context ( Shah and Corley, 2006 ; Ketokivi and Choi, 2014 ). Moreover, conducting a case study is regarded as a suitable method to explore the complex phenomena surrounding the implementation of disruptive blockchain technology ( Yin, 2003 ).

The present study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this is the first such study to prioritise challenges in implementing blockchain technology in supply chains. Prioritising the identified challenges would assist in developing strategies that promote the implementation of blockchain technology. Second, the study compares the perspectives of multiple stakeholders who have adequate experience in implementing this technology. Such comparisons are critical for understanding and addressing the differences between stakeholder preferences as they join the consortium and collaborate for implementing blockchain technology.

The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. We propose a conceptual framework in section 2 through a review of the literature on technology implementation in supply chains. We discuss the research methodology to identify critical challenges in section 3 . We present the study results and related analysis in section 4 and discuss these results and their implications in section 5 and 6 respectively. We conclude the paper in section 7 by discussing the limitations of this study and future research areas.

2. Background

2.1 blockchain technology.

Based on the developments and their applications, the evolution of blockchain technology can be divided into three phases. In Phase 1, blockchain is mainly used as a cryptocurrency in applications related to currency transfer, remittance, and digital payments.

In Phase 2, businesses have realised decentralized ledger an underlying principle of blockchain technology can be separated from the cryptocurrency application and used for inter-organisational collaboration. The development of decentralised applications (DApp) is considered as the major aspect of blockchain evolution in Phase 2.

Advancement in Phase 3 of blockchain technology evolution can be seen in automating the validation process of data recording through the internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Integration of IoT into blockchain creates a “de facto standardized Ledger of Everything” that brings the highest degree of accountability with no more human errors and missed transactions ( Pournader et al. , 2020 ). Overall, blockchain technology has evolved from being used as a digital currency application towards a wider decentralised application with the ability of automation in transaction validation.

2.2 Literature on blockchain in supply chains

Limited academic literature available on blockchain technology in supply chains can be summarised into two categories. First category of papers examines the application of blockchain technology in supply chain domains, while the second category identifies the drivers and challenges of blockchain implementation in supply chains. We discuss these two categories of papers in the following sections.

2.2.1 Blockchain application in supply chain domains

The current application of blockchain technology in supply chains falls within three broad supply chain domains such as sourcing (buy), logistics, and finance A summary of these studies is provided in (see Table 1 ) and discussed below.

Buy (sourcing) function referred to as procurement plays an important role in identifying and managing the intra- and inter-organisational issues which impact supply chain resilience. The use of blockchain technology to trace the product origins assists in making sure the products are from conflict-free sources and thus promoting trust among the supply chain members ( Kshetri, 2021 ). Moreover, the distributor ledger concept behind the blockchain technology is much like a stock ledger with the information on the purchase orders, inventory levels, goods received, shipping manifests, and invoices that can be accessed by all the supply chain members instantaneously promoting data visibility among the members ( Cole et al. , 2019 ). Overall, the availability of accurate demand forecast information also assists in managing resources effectively and reduces inventory carrying costs which facilitate the implementation of process improvement tools such as lean and six-sigma in supply chains ( Kamble et al. , 2019 ).

Logistics assists in the management and coordination of freight transport, storage, inventory management, materials handling, and information processing activities. Greater dependency on logistics services for the distribution of products from sourcing to consumption through production in global supply chains has made the logistics industry to play a critical role in efficient supply chains ( Kamble et al. , 2019 ). For seamless information flows between logistics service providers and supply chain members, the resources used for the distribution of products such as vehicles and handling equipment should be integrated with technologies such as GPS, sensors, IoT devices, or automatic image-recognition software that provides the live information to blockchain distributed database ( Vivaldini, 2021 ). Once such integration has been achieved, the permanent nature of blockchain will ensure that data cannot be modified at any time in the future. Moreover, the technology also enhances the customer experience by enabling them to trace and track the product live ( Wang et al. , 2019a ).

Supply chain finance became crucial after the global financial crisis due to the less credit availability and higher borrowing costs. To optimise financial flows in supply chains, organisations are aligning financial flows with product and information flows through technology. Smart contracts of blockchain technology facilitate supply chain finance through matching and verifying the recorded data against the agreement and trigger payment which may or may not be in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency ( Babich and Hilary, 2020 ). It can autonomously trigger other transactions when key milestones are met, such as goods being issued (creating a shipment), pickup confirmed (activating a sensor), or proof of delivery (issuing an invoice). The automation of initiating purchase orders or invoices without the use of spreadsheets or manual interference speed up the transactions and minimises the costs and time associated with intermediation ( Cole et al. , 2019 ).

In spite of the benefits, blockchain technology adoption in supply chains is relatively slow and very much limited to pilot studies ( Kouhizadeh et al. , 2021 ). Identifying and addressing the challenges that impede blockchain implementation became an important topic for investigation ( Caldarelli et al. , 2021 ). Following provides the literature on drivers and challenges of blockchain implementation in supply chains.

2.2.2 Drivers and challenges of blockchain implementation in supply chains

Literature on blockchain implementation in supply chains can be classified into two streams. First stream of literature focuses on investigating the factors driving the implementation of blockchain technology in supply chain (see for example: Kamble et al. , 2019 ; Queiroz and Wamba, 2019 ; Wong et al. , 2020a ). Kamble et al. (2019) identified the perceived usefulness of the technology and attitude of the users as the factors affecting the intention to implement blockchain technology among supply chains operating in India. Meanwhile, Queiroz and Wamba (2019) study highlighted distinct blockchain adoption behaviours between India-based and USA-based professionals. Wong et al. (2020a) identified facilitating conditions, technology readiness of the firm, and technology affinity as the factors influencing the managerial intention to implement blockchain technology among the SMEs in Malaysia. In the context of Brazil, Queiroz et al. (2021) recognised effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, trust and social influence as the factors impacting the intention to implement blockchain technology in supply chains.

Second stream of literature emphasises on examining the challenges impacting the blockchain implementation in supply chains. Casey and Wong (2017) highlighted the interoperability between different blockchains and the complexity of the rules and regulations that govern the implementation as the challenges impacting the blockchain implementation in supply chains. Through interviewing supply chain experts from multiple countries, Wang et al. (2019b) reported that complexity of the technology, high cost of implementation, lack of clear governance rules, and interoperability between two or more different blockchains and compatibility with other existing systems as the challenges of blockchain implementation. Wong et al. (2020b) in the context of Malaysia identified the pressure from competition in the market, complexity, financial resources, and relative sustainable advantage impact the implementation of blockchain technology. Meanwhile, Kouhizadeh et al. (2021) recognised lack of management commitment and support, lack of knowledge and expertise, lack of cooperation, coordination and information disclosure between supply chain members, lack of policies and industry involvement as the barriers. More recently, Caldarelli et al. (2021) identified scalability, implementation costs, and lack of standards as the challenges of blockchain implementation in apparel supply chains.

3. Blockchain implementation challenges: a conceptual framework

To understand the implementation of blockchain technology in supply chains, it is important to examine the factors influencing implementation decision-making, which is the objective of this study. Different technology adoption models and theories, such as the technology acceptance model, the theory of planned behaviour, the theory of reasoned action, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, and the technological, organisational and environmental (TOE) model are used to understand factors facilitating the implementation of the technology (e.g. Chong and Ooi, 2008 ; Lin, 2014 ). However, apart from the TOE framework and the DOI theory, all the other theories are individual-level theories that examine individual attitudes towards technology implementation. Therefore, they are not appropriate for examining technology implementation at the organisational level ( Bradford et al. , 2014 ).

In the supply chain context, the TOE framework has been applied to study the implementation of various internet-based supply chains management technologies, such as e-business, e-commerce, information and communications technology, enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic data interchange (EDI), radio frequency identification (RFID) and cloud computing ( Low et al. , 2011 ; Chan et al. , 2012 ). More recently, researchers have used the TOE framework to examine the factors impacting blockchain technology adoption ( Saberi et al. , 2019 ; Caldarelli et al. , 2021 ; Kouhizadeh et al. , 2021 ). In line with the previous studies, the TOE framework is used as an underlying theory in this study.

The TOE framework presents the technology, the organisation, and the external environment as the three factors that influence firms’ decision-making of adopting and implementing innovations. Traditional TOE models have focused at the organisational level and excluded inter-organisational relationship aspects such as the position of the firm in supply chains, trust amongst the supply chain partners, and collaboration between the firms ( Chan et al. , 2012 ). Chong and Ooi (2008) have identified the inter-organisational relationship as a crucial factor influencing the technology adoption between organisations. Table 2 presents the literature using the TOE framework to investigate technology adoptions in supply chains. In the context of blockchain technology in supply chains, challenges related to interorganisational aspects need to be addressed for successful technology implementation ( Saberi et al. , 2019 ). The theory elaboration approach considered in this study allows to add more variables to the existing framework ( Ketokivi and Choi, 2014 ). Similar to Chong and Ooi (2008) , Huang et al. (2008) , Chan et al. (2012) , and Kouhizadeh et al. (2021) this study considers the technology, organisational, external environment and interorganisational categories as the challenge categories of blockchain technology implementation in the supply chains.

3.1 Technology challenge category

A review of the recent adoption models reveals that the Roger’s (1995) DOI theory is used to identify the technology-related factors affecting the innovation adoption rate. In our study, DOI is used to provide a theoretical explanation of the technological challenges of the TOE framework ( Baker, 2011 ). The DOI theory defines compatibility, complexity, relative advantage, trialability, and observability as the factors affecting technological implementation ( Rogers, 1995 ). In the context of blockchain technology, current advancements will not be able to replace the existing systems, and therefore, a blockchain-based system should be compatible with the existing legacy system ( Lielacher, 2018 ). The technical interfaces used to connect the two systems add complexity to the implementation process. Moreover, the lack of earlier full-scale adoption of the technology in supply chains obstructs the firm’s ability to ensure its successful implementation and will impede it in realising the relative advantages offered by the technology in comparison with the conventional centralised database structure. Besides, flexibility to trial the technology in the supply chain process will play an important role in its implementation.

3.2 Organisational challenge category

Organisational context in this study refers to several factors, such as top-management support, technical know-how, financial resources, and firm size, which facilitate technology adoption in organisations ( Tornatzky and Fleischer, 1990 ). In particular, organisations with a high degree of centralisation of power with the top management are likely to make adoption decisions irrespective of resistance from lower-level managers and employees. Regarding the organisation size, large organisations can invest in resources that facilitate implementation. However, the agility and the flexibility of smaller organisations facilitate their adoption of innovations ( Wang et al. , 2019a ). Further, because organisational resources, such as financial resources and technical expertise, influence decisions on technology implementation, it is important to understand their role in the implementation process. In particular, the newness of blockchain technology and the lack of readily available, off-the-shelf software may result in greater costs for organisations ( Lielacher, 2018 ).

3.3 External environment challenge category

External environment factors such as the industry structure, the security provided by the technology service provider, and the regulatory environment may become constraints or provide opportunities for technology implementation in supply chains ( Huang et al. , 2008 ; Bradford et al. , 2014 ). The lack of government regulations regarding the recording of transactions on the blockchain has bypassed the inefficiencies likely to result from following such regulations. Despite the lack of government standards to guide blockchain implementation, organisations are carefully seeking industry use cases to understand the industry characteristics influencing blockchain implementation. Moreover, the presence of external technology providers with more than 50% mining power to validate new transactions on blockchain raises a security concern regarding the data recorded on blockchain ( Lielacher, 2018 ).

3.4 Interorganisational relationships challenge category

An interorganisational relationship is a complex construct with many dimensions, such as the partner’s power, information sharing, privacy, and trust. According to Chong and Ooi (2008) , partner power is an organisation’s ability to exert influence on another company to act in a prescribed manner. Supply chain members who trust each other will achieve the benefits of technology implementation. Thus, blockchain technology implementation depends on the degree of trust between business partners ( Saberi et al. , 2019 ). Information sharing is crucial to a successfully integrated supply chain. Despite its importance, firms do not have the confidence to share information with the members of their supply chains because their competitors may obtain this information, which would affect the firms’ business ( Chan et al. , 2012 ). Hence, the privacy that this technology offers plays an important role in its diffusion in supply chains. Based on this discussion, we propose a conceptual framework of the challenges in implementing blockchain technology in supply chains (see Figure 1 ).

4. Research methodology

Using quantitative methods to analyse a case assists in theory elaboration by providing rich insights into the context ( Kaplan and Duchon, 1988 ). In this study, to identify the critical challenges from the proposed framework, case study methodology is adopted, and AHP is used to analyse the quantitative data of the interviews. In the context of technology adoption, AHP has been widely used to analyse the data. For example, the method was used to identify the challenges influencing the decision-making regarding technology adoption ( Bigdeli et al. , 2013 ), to investigate market success and failure factors ( Adhiarna et al. , 2013 ; Park et al. , 2017 ), and to select technology providers ( Chang et al. , 2012 ).

4.1 Analytic hierarchy process: a brief overview

AHP is a multi-criteria decision-making approach that systematically analyses the complex situation and organises into components of a hierarchical structure ( Saaty, 1990 ). In this study, AHP analysis is conducted in three stages. The first stage involves the identification of critical challenge categories and the challenges of the implementation of blockchain technology and structuring them in hierarchical levels. In the second stage, data is collected through pairwise comparison of the challenges in terms of their importance to a challenge category in the next higher level. Through a comparison of challenges, several preference (square) matrices are generated. For a set of n challenges in a matrix, ( n 2  −  n )/2 judgements are needed, and the remaining judgements are reciprocals ( a ji  = 1/a ij ). We explain the data collection procedure in detail in Section 4.3 . Finally, in stage 3 unique and normalised vectors of the criticality of challenges are computed. The overall criticality of the challenges is determined by aggregating the weights throughout the hierarchy.

Once the criticality is determined, it is important to check the consistency of judgements elicited from the managers. Consistency ratio (CR) is used to measure the extent to which an established preference is retained. A CR ≤ 0.1 is recommended as acceptable ( Saaty, 1990 ). If CR > 0.1, it is suggested that the managers need to re-evaluate their judgements. Overall, the use of AHP to analyse the data satisfies the credibility and dependability criteria of the qualitative research proposed by Shah and Corley (2006) (refer to Table 3 ). In this study, Expert Choice® software is used to calculate the priority weights of challenges and challenge categories.

4.2 Case study

We adopt a multi-case approach that employs a combination of methods, including data collection through semi-structured interviews with developers, consultants, and clients and a review of internal and publicly disclosed documents and websites. The use of data from multiple stakeholders yields rich insights into the phenomena under investigation through the comparison of data from different cases ( Shah and Corley, 2006 ).

In this study, to select the cases that have experience in blockchain implementation, we adopt a two-stage approach. First, from the list of the Top IT Consulting Firms for 2018 in India ( Goodfirms, 2018 ), we distributed questionnaires and the participation criteria to the 50 top consultant and software developing organisations out of which 10 expressed their interest. Out of these 10 firms, finally, six firms who have been involved in blockchain implementation participated in the study. Based on the respondents’ role in technology implementation, we clustered the organisations into two groups, one with three developers and the other with three consultants. Second, to identify their clients, we reviewed the publicly disclosed documents of the respondent consultant and developer organisations. Based on this review, we contacted four clients who have implemented blockchain technology in their Indian operations in the supply chain context and two showed their willingness to participate in the study. Finally, we identified a total of eight respondents, namely, three developers, three consultants, and two clients, as the respondents for this study. As all these cases are involved in blockchain implementation and provide in-depth insights to address the study objectives, the number of cases does not have any impact on the study findings ( Gammelgaard, 2017 ; Mirkovski et al. , 2019 ). These selected cases clustered into different stakeholder groups assist in conducting cross-case analysis that provides crucial information on collaboration among these firms to promote blockchain implementation.

A sample size of eight respondents is deemed to be adequate, given that studies that use the AHP technique are usually conducted with fewer responses from senior executives who are knowledgeable on the issue under investigation. For instance, Abdulrahman et al. (2014) interviewed five experts to ascertain priorities regarding the reverse logistics factors, Sangka et al. (2019) interviewed ten respondents to identify the managerial competencies of third-party logistics providers, and Rahman et al. (2019) used data from five respondents to examine the challenges faced by multinational third-party logistics providers. In our study, we selected respondents who are familiar with the functionalities of blockchain technology and are experienced in the implementation of this technology as well as other technologies, such as IoT, RFID, and ERP. The selection of leading firms in the field with experience in the implementation of blockchain technology as a case study organisations and researchers’ experiences in technology implementations in supply chain assists in meeting the credibility criterion of the qualitative research (see Table 3 ). For confidentiality reasons, all firms are identified using pseudonyms.

4.2.1 Case stakeholder - developers

To maintain the anonymity of the respondents, the three developer companies included in this study are identified as Developer A1, Developer A2 and Developer A3. Developer A1 is India’s oldest (established in the year 1968) and largest IT service, consulting, and business solutions company that has more than 400,000 employees globally. Since it is the largest and oldest technology provider, Developer A1 has the potential to attract most of its existing clients to its blockchain platforms. Developer A2 is a US-based organisation and more than 70% of its 350,000 employees are located outside that country, including 130,000 employees in India. It is one of the first few organisations worldwide to have developed blockchain solutions and is known for providing the infrastructure required for blockchain technology. Developer A3 is a relatively new firm established in 2000 and offers blockchain solutions to large multinational corporations headquartered in India. All the respondents of the developer companies are in a senior executive position in the firm with an average of 15 years of experience and are involved in blockchain implementation at client’s facilities for more than 3 years (see Table 4 ).

4.2.2 Case stakeholder: consultancy firms

The three consultancy firms considered in this study are identified as Consultant B1, Consultant B2 and Consultant B3 to maintain respondent anonymity. Consultant B1, established in 1845, is the oldest financial and advisory service consultancy company, and it started offering blockchain consulting services to financial institutions in 2016. In the study context, Consultant B1 offers blockchain services to Client C2 and their trading partners, whereas Consultant B2 and Consultant B3 started offering their blockchain services to several industries in 2017. Unlike Consultant B1 and Consultant B2 who mostly offer only consultancy services, Consultant B3 also offers software solutions and is currently recognised as India’s second-largest IT provider. All the respondents have experience of over 13 years in offering consultancy services to businesses across multiple industries ranging from financial to IT services (see Table 4 ).

4.2.3 Case stakeholder: client organisations

For confidentiality reasons, the client firms are identified as Client C1 and Client C2. Client C1, established in 1907, is Asia’s first private steel company with fully integrated operations from mining to the manufacturing and marketing of finished products. Client C1 has implemented blockchain technology in collaboration with SAP, and Developer A2 to trace the life cycle of steel bars in its supply chain. Client C2 is a Fortune 500 company and India’s largest bank with operations in more than 36 countries. It is among the initial founding members of the “BankChain platform” for implementing blockchain solutions in Indian banks. Currently, Client C2 uses blockchain for recording and sharing customer information, authenticating contracts, making cross-border payments, and financing trading/supply chain organisations. Respondents from the client organisations are senior executives with over 16 years of experience and have worked on blockchain implementation project for over two years. Over the years, respondents are involved in projects implementing RFID, ERP, and IoT systems in organisations and their supply chains.

In the study context, there are several instances when Consultant B2 and Developer A2 have formed a consortium to offer blockchain services to organisations across several industries. Consultant B1 analysed Client C2’s business goals and identified the applicability of blockchain technology to this client’s existing business ecosystem. These interrelationships among the case study organisations facilitate the collection of insights into not only each technology implementation but also their interactions.

4.3 Data collection

During the interview, respondents were briefed about the study context of blockchain technology implementation in supply chains. Consultants and developers were asked to address the interview questions with the blockchain implementation at client’s supply chain in mind; whereas, respondents from client organisations answered the questions in relation to the blockchain implementation in their supply chains. A three-part questionnaire is used to conduct semi-structured interview. Part A contains questions (in the AHP format) designed to capture the respondents’ opinions on the pairwise comparison of criticality of the challenges and challenge categories. A 9-point rating scales linguistically described as equally, slightly, moderately, strongly and extremely critical corresponding to the values of 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, respectively is used to capture the degree of criticality of a challenge or challenge-category. Since the respondents were not familiar with the AHP data collection procedure, we provided them a clear explanation, through an example, about the scale and the assignment of criticality scores while making pairwise comparisons between any two challenges. Questions in Part B captures the respondents’ assessments of the effort required to manage the blockchain implementation challenges at clients’ facilities through a scale that ranges from 1 for “least effort required” to 9 for “most effort required”. In addition, respondents were asked to provide justifications for the ratings given while answering Part A and Part B of the questionnaire. Appendices 1 and 2 provides direct quotations of the relevant justifications given by the respondents during the interview. Lastly, Part C contains general questions about the company and the respondent’s background. The duration of the interviews ranged from 90 to 120 min with a short break in between. All the interview transcripts were sent to the participants for feedback, and follow-up conversations with them assisted in providing credibility to the qualitative study. Overall, the set of specific actions taken into consideration while designing this study assists in meeting the credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability criteria that bring rigour to qualitative research (see Table 3 ).

5. Results and analysis

The results are summarised in Tables 5 and 6 . The CR values presented in these tables of each respondent category are within the acceptable limit (i.e. ≤0.1), thus demonstrating that the respondents’ opinions are consistent.

5.1 Identification of critical challenges

The analysis results show that all the developers indicate that organisation (weight = 0.455) is the most critical challenge category with technical expertise (weight = 0.370) as a critical challenge that needs to be addressed. The technology (weight = 0.404) challenge category is next, and in it, complexity (weight = 0.376) is a critical challenge. The less critical challenge category, external environment (weight = 0.073), has security (weight = 0.659) as a critical challenge. Partner’s power (weight = 0.471) is a critical challenge under the least critical challenge category, interorganisational relationships (weight = 0.065).

All the consultants indicate that the technology challenge category (weight = 0.574) is more critical than the organisational (weight = 0.254), external environment (weight = 0.115), and interorganisational relationships (weight = 0.056) challenge categories. According to them, the most important challenge in each challenge category is as follows: complexity (weight = 0.382) under the technology challenge category; technical expertise (weight = 0.426) in the organisational challenge category; security (weight = 0.584) in the external environment challenge category; and partner’s power (weight = 0.365) under the interorganisational relationship challenge category (see Table 5 ).

By contrast, all clients indicate that technology is the most critical challenge category (weight = 0.518) with complexity (weight = 0.391) as the most critical challenge. It is followed by the organisational challenge category (weight = 0.330) with top-management support (weight = 0.326) as the most critical challenge; the external environment category (weight = 0.103) with security (weight = 0.455) and government regulation (weight = 0.455) as the most critical challenges; and the interorganisational relationship challenge category (weight = 0.048) with partner’s power (weight = 0.474) as the most critical challenge.

Our clients express that it is not easy for their organisation to consider the blockchain technology because of the initial costs associated with the technology and lack of awareness on operational costs of running the technology.

When our clients adopt blockchain technology in full-scale to trace the products it is important to integrate with the ERP systems of all the supply chain members.

In most cases, the opinions of the respondents are consistent with the overall judgement. Some exceptions are observed: for instance, Consultant B1 emphasises top-management support (weight = 0.368) and financial resources (weight = 0.130) from the organisational challenge category, whereas Consultant B2 and Consultant B3 prioritise compatibility and complexity from the technology challenge category as critical challenges (see Table 6 ).

5.2 Level of effort required to overcome the challenges

Compatibility of blockchain with the existing systems and IOT devices for data transfer is possible through the applications such as enterprise application adapters.

The results obtained on analysing all the consultants’ judgements indicate that they consider that challenges related to complexity (weight = 0.114); financial resources (weight = 0.100); and compatibility, observability, and government regulations which have equal weight (0.087) require increased effort. However, they indicate that privacy (weight = 0.013); trust (weight = 0.039); and security, partner’s power and technical expertise (all with weight = 0.044) are the challenges that require less effort. At the individual level, there are some differences in opinions, such as Consultant B2’s (weight = 0.069) perception that the effort required to address the challenge related to industry characteristics is high compared with the perceptions of Consultant B1 (weight = 0.057) and Consultant B3 (weight = 0.056).

The results obtained on analysing all the clients’ judgements indicate that privacy (weight = 0.095), technical expertise (weight = 0.089) and complexity (weight = 0.089) are the challenges they view as requiring more effort to address. Conversely, they consider that government regulations (weight = 0.039), industry characteristics (weight = 0.034) and partner’s power (weight = 0.034) are the challenges that require less effort. Among the clients, there are some similarities and differences in opinion. One such difference is that Client C2 (weight = 0.087) considers that a strong effort is required to address the firm size challenge, whereas Client C1 (weight = 0.057) views it as requiring relatively less effort.

5.3 Classification of challenges based on the criticality–effort matrix

Next, we perform a criticality–effort matrix analysis using a 2 × 2 format. “Implement immediately”, “plan to execute”, “seek assistance”, and “no action required for now” are the four quadrants of the matrix. The challenges in the “implement immediately” quadrant are critical for implementing blockchain technology and require less effort. The “plan to execute” quadrant challenges are critical but require great effort to address. By contrast, the challenges in the “seek assistance” quadrant are not critical and require less effort; therefore, these challenges can be addressed by seeking external assistance or outsourcing. However, the challenges in the “no action required for now” quadrant are less critical to blockchain implementation and require more effort to address than other challenges. Hence, these challenges should be addressed last, that is, no action is required at the initial stage. In this study, based on the perceptions of the developer, consultant, and client groups we draw three matrices (see Figure 2 ).

According to the developers’ perspective, the challenges of technical expertise, firm size, and security belong to the “implement immediately” quadrant. Top-management support, financial resources, complexity, compatibility, and partner’s power are the challenges in the “plan to execute” quadrant. The consultants perceive technical expertise and security as the critical challenges that require less effort (these belong to the “implement immediately” quadrant). The challenges related to complexity, compatibility, relative advantages, observability, and top-management support are grouped under the quadrant “plan to execute”. From the clients’ perspective, the challenges of trialability, relative advantages, and observability belong to the “implement immediately” quadrant. Top-management support, technical expertise, financial resources, complexity, and compatibility are the challenges in the quadrant “plan to execute” (see Figure 2 ).

6. Discussion and implications

6.1 discussion.

The analysis results indicate similarities and differences in the perceptions of stakeholder groups regarding the criticality of the challenges and the effort required to address these challenges. These differences in perceptions result in variations in the criticality–effort matrix and highlight the need for adopting different strategies to ensure successful technology implementation.

6.1.1 The “implement immediately” quadrant

Technically skilled professionals are critical. Salaries and demand for blockchain technology professionals are very high. So, it is difficult to attract and retain people with blockchain technology skills.

It is not easy to convince current employees to undergo training to use blockchain technology in their processes.

However, all the respondents believe it would be much easier to find skilled employees in the near future because educational institutes in India, such as the Indian Institute of Technology, have started offering blockchain-based courses.

We are offering services to audit the mining practice and protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the system and its information to promote our client’s confidence.

Hyperledger Fabric and smart contracts that we developed can be integrated with the IoT/sensors and smart tags to capture and record data automatically thus eliminating human errors.

As the consultants and developers have started offering new services to address the security issues associated with blockchain technology, it is perceived that the effort required by client to address the blockchain implementation challenge is less. In comparison to consultancies and developers, the client organisations placed the challenges of trialability, relative advantages and observability of the technology challenge category under the “implement immediately” quadrant.

6.1.2 The “plan to execute” quadrant

The lack of a knowledgeable and skilled workforce to implement the technology has demotivated us from its implementation.

Moreover, insufficient understanding of how technology fits with the organisation’s policy and benefits offered by the technology results in a low-level of support. Especially, as this technology is still evolving and changing continually, top management needs to offer different forms of support for different aspects. For example, Developer A2 emphasised the need for the Client’s top management to support employees undergoing the change management process. Given that 25% of organisations worldwide are replacing existing legacy systems with blockchain solutions ( Deloitte, 2019 ), top-management support is critical.

Our supply chains are complex and constantly expanding requiring multiple systems from various organisations to be compatible.

The structure of our client is so complex, with duplications in roles across several departments, it made it challenging for us to implement blockchain technology.

Meanwhile, Consultant B2 highlights that its complexity makes it difficult for its end users who are external to the organisation to appreciate the benefits that this technology offers, which affects its uptake in supply chain. To remove the complexity in implementing and running blockchain networks at their clients, Developer A1 and Developer A3 are working on creating templates, or in other words, blockchain-as-a-service. Although the development of these services requires more resources and careful planning, these will motivate more organisations to consider using blockchain technology.

6.1.3 The “seek assistance” quadrant

This technology is a democratisation of trust. However, it is abstract, understanding it requires technical knowledge. Many of the related processes are not transparent, which makes it difficult for our clients to realise its benefits and thus results in trust issues.

Therefore, consultants and developers are developing ecosystems to promote trust regarding technology implementation among their clients. Meanwhile, client organisations should seek consensus among the supply chain members to build trust.

Successful implementation of blockchain technology in supply chains depends upon the influencing capability of the dominating player.

Over the past year, Consultant B2 has worked closely with large retailers who have influenced all their supply chain members towards blockchain implementation so that they can trace the origin of the products they are selling. Meanwhile, Client C1 requires all its supply chain members to use blockchain technology to trace the life cycle of steel bars.

Blockchain implementation in India is not influenced by government regulations. But, the recognition of blockchain by the Indian government will provide confidence to organisations that intend to adopt the technology.

This is evident in the case of the blockchain implementation by Client C2 who has persuaded private banks to consider blockchain technology. Moreover, government support initiatives, such as providing training and incentives and facilitating research and development have enabled the adoption of technologies such as RFID in supply chains ( Cole et al. , 2019 ). In the study context, the Indian government’s plan of preparing a national blockchain framework will facilitate the wider deployment of this technology ( NITI Aayog, 2020 ).

The successful deployment of blockchain technology in supply chains depends on the relative advantages it offers, that is, organisations’ ability to perceive the greater benefits of this new technology compared with previous technologies ( Lielacher, 2018 ). In the study context, the participating consultants and developers believe that the lack of evidence on relative advantages is not a critical challenge that influences the technology implementation and it requires the active disclosure by firms that have successfully implemented the technology. Consultant B1 and Consultant B2 have highlighted in their interviews that they are successful in offering blockchain solutions across several industries and have published white papers illustrating the increased benefits offered by the technology compared with earlier technologies. In addition, client organisations believe that they must understand the relative advantages offered by the technology, and hence, they rely on their consultants’ white papers at this stage.

6.1.4 The “no action required for now” quadrant

There are no challenges common to all stakeholders in the quadrant “no action required for now”. Among all these challenges, the consultants and the developers perceive that the characteristics of industry affect blockchain implementation. Since its introduction, blockchain technology has been implemented in the financial industry. In 2018, the financial industry accounted for 45% of the global blockchain expenditure ( IDC, 2019 ). More recently, it has been implemented in the technology, media, telecommunication, and non-food manufacturing sectors ( Deloitte, 2019 ). Further expansion to other industries requires efforts from all the stakeholder groups on educating managers about the benefits the technology offers, and this approach will assist in meeting the projected blockchain expenditure of US$ 12.4 billion by 2023 ( IDC, 2019 ). Moreover, most of the interview respondents rated the privacy challenge as less critical because they believe the development of permissioned blockchain with limited data access to participants will address this challenge. However, significant effort and careful planning are required to customise blockchain to assign rights to respondents to review only permissible parts.

6.2 Implications

6.2.1 practical implications.

By performing criticality–effort matrix analysis, this study offers several managerial implications. First, it provides strategies to developers for bringing about advancements in blockchain technology that would improve supply chain efficiency when implemented. This study identifies the lack of technical expertise to promote technology development as a major challenge concerning developers. Therefore, developers need to focus on retaining skilled people through employee recognition programs. However, it is a major challenge in the Indian context because the IT industry accounts for a significant extent of the brain drain issue that the country experiences.

Second, this study’s findings would assist consultants in developing plans to facilitate the implementation of blockchain technology in their clients’ supply chains. The consultants identified the challenges related to the workforce as employees who either have no understanding of the technology or have no cross-industry work experience. Consultants can only acquire cross-industry skills over time with experience. Thus, consultancies need to develop an internal digital skills program to boost the technological skills of their employees. The other challenge that needs to be immediately addressed is security issues related to data mining in the blockchain. This challenge provides consultants with an opportunity to develop services to audit the mining practice and protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the system and its information.

Third, the findings of this study would facilitate organisations to develop ways for the implementation of blockchain technology in supply chains. The study results indicate that trialability, observability, and the relative advantages of the technology facilitate organisations to opt for technology implementation in supply chains. For successful blockchain implementation, organisations should form consortia with the other firms offering similar business services. Joining consortia is critical because it yields cost savings and accelerates learning among the stakeholders ( Deloitte, 2019 ).

Lastly, the study findings offer policy implications. This study identifies that the lack of regulation does not influence technology uptake. However, when government organisations implement technology it motivates the others in the industry towards technology implementation. Therefore, government organisations should take the lead in technology implementation in supply chains. In the context of developed nations, regulation plays an important role in their technology uptake, which can be observed in the case of earlier technologies, such as RFID. Hence, developing a regulatory framework would assist in the technology uptake in developed economies. Although blockchain implementation in India is not governed by any regulations, the Indian government has proposed a skill development initiative to supply the much-needed skilled workforce trained on blockchain technology. The availability of such a skilled workforce would enable India to become the next Silicon Valley.

6.2.2 Theoretical implications

The study contributes to existing research in three ways. Blockchain technology offers several benefits to emerging economies such as India where transparency is an issue ( Queiroz and Wamba, 2019 ). Despite the benefits offered by the technology, its adoption depends on how the implementation challenges are addressed ( Kouhizadeh et al. , 2021 ). The current literature on blockchain technology in supply chains has highlighted the need for research that investigates the blockchain implementation challenges through examining the real cases who have implemented the technology ( Caldarelli et al. , 2021 ; Kshetri, 2021 ). This is the first to identify and prioritise the challenges from the perspectives of multiple stakeholder groups involved in blockchain technology implementation. The use of insights from diverse stakeholder groups provides crucial insights into a well-researched concept such as the challenges of technology implementation ( Gammelgaard, 2017 ). By investigating the challenges that developers, consultants, and client organisations need to address, this study provides a holistic understanding and facilitates coordination among these stakeholder groups for successful blockchain implementation.

The second implication of the study is to theory. The selection of the TOE theory as an underpinning theory addresses the need identified by Hald and Kinra (2019) for research to adapt to organisational theory to explore the implementation of blockchain technology in supply chains. Unlike the implementation of technology in an organisation which is influenced by technology characteristics and organisational context, technology implementation in the supply chain is complex where the focal firm and its relationship with other firms determine the implementation ( Kouhizadeh et al. , 2021 ). To examine the impact of relationships among supply chain members on the implementation of blockchain technology, this study extends the TOE framework by incorporating the interorganisational relationships challenge category to examine supply chain relationships. The use of interorganisational relationships challenge category to extend theory classifies this study as the theory elaboration approach of case study analysis ( Ketokivi and Choi, 2014 ).

The third implication of the study is examining the blockchain implementation challenges in developing countries. In the literature industry characteristics, trust, information sharing, and privacy among the supply chain members are identified as the critical challenges that needs to be addressed for the successful implementation of blockchain technology in supply chains ( Kshetri, 2021 ; Wang et al. , 2019b ; Queiroz and Wamba, 2019 ; Kouhizadeh et al. , 2021 ). Whereas, our study findings indicate that these challenges are less critical in the context Indian supply chains. Rather findings of our study highlight complexity, compatibility, top management support, and technical expertise as the critical challenges. Among these critical challenges consultants and developers believe technical expertise is considered as the challenge that requires less effort to be addressed. Meanwhile, in India motivating top management to adopt new technologies that has long-term benefits and minimising the complexity associated with the informal structure in organisations requires significant effort. Thus, from theoretical perspective researchers need to focus on the challenges related to technological and organisational categories while investigating the blockchain implementation in the context of developing countries rather than the challenges related to external environment and interorganisational relationships.

7. Limitations and future research

Despite the significance of its results, this study has some limitations. The major limitation is the study context. The results were obtained by focusing on the Indian context and therefore may not be applicable to other developing nation contexts. In the future, more research is needed in other developing countries. In addition, developed countries, such as the United States and Western European nations, are expected to account for 39.7% and 24.4% respectively of the global blockchain expenditure by 2023 ( Leader insights, 2019 ), and thus, researchers need to empirically investigate the technology implementation challenges in the developed nation context.

Given the newness, very few firms in India have implemented blockchain technology. Thus, in this study the sample size of the respondents with experience in implementing blockchain technology is limited. Broader implementation of technology in the future will assist to conduct study with a larger client sample and their supply chain members. The other limitation related to the study sample is respondent groups. This study offered a comparative analysis of the criticality of blockchain implementation challenges from the perspectives of developers, consultants, and client organisations that are a part of different consortia involved in blockchain implementation. However, such consortia are increasingly being formed by firms offering similar solutions to gain cost advantages and accelerate blockchain learning. Therefore, to provide a holistic understanding of blockchain implementation, future research needs to consider the views of all the consortia members, including those of competitors or other industry members, to identify other critical challenges.

Conceptual model of challenges of blockchain implementation in supply chains

Criticality-effort matrix for the implementation of blockchain technology at the client’s supply chains

Role of blockchain technology in supply chain function

Literature used TOE framework to examine technology adoption in supply chains

Trustworthiness criteria of research

Profile of case study companies and respondents

Relative weights of challenge-categories and challenges of consultants, developers, and clients

Overall priority weights of blockchain implementation challenges at client’s facilities perceived by consultants, developers, and clients

Effort required by developers, consultants, and clients to address the blockchain implementation challenges at client’s facilities

Appendix 1 Examples of interview evidence on rating the challenge criticality

Appendix 2 examples of interview evidence on rating the effort required.

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• Published: 15 February 2024

The improvement of block chain technology simulation in supply chain management (case study: pesticide company)

• Lina Gozali 1 ,
• Helena Juliana Kristina 1 ,
• Andrew Yosua 1 ,
• Teuku Yuri M. Zagloel 2 ,
• Maslin Masrom 3 ,
• Sani Susanto 4 ,
• Harto Tanujaya 5 ,
• Agustinus Purna Irawan 5 ,
• Ariawan Gunadi 6 ,
• Vikas Kumar 7 ,
• Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes 8 ,
• Tji Beng Jap 9 &
• Frans Jusuf Daywin 1  

Scientific Reports volume  14 , Article number:  3784 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

• Energy science and technology
• Engineering

This research was conducted on industrial agriculture in Indonesia. Risk analysis was carried out based on previous research. One source of risk was obtained, namely raw materials that did not meet specifications, which was then proposed to be mitigated by evaluating supplier performance. This activity involves a lot of data, requiring efficient and effective data storage and access. The level in the simulation layout includes analysing system needs, using problem diagrams, compiling activity diagrams, deciding subprocesses, and filtering information. The analysis is carried out by comparing the use of supply chains with Blockchain and without Blockchain, which is then obtained to determine whether there is an increase. A sequentially stored data scenario describes a situation when the transaction process is in progress and is stored sequentially according to the process that occurs. Storing data in groups explains a problem when a transaction has been completed and stored in groups with similar data, making it easier to track specific data. In this regard, a simulation will be carried out using a website, namely a blockchain demo. The design stage starts with identifying system requirements, creating use case diagrams, compiling activity diagrams, determining subprocesses, and selecting information. The simulation results obtained will be analysed to determine the feasibility of Blockchain as a means of supporting risk mitigation related to data using aspects, including security, trust, traceability, sustainability, and costs.

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Introduction

Blockchain technology uses decentralised systems, distributed computing, asymmetric encryption, timestamps, and consensus algorithms 1 . Therefore, the stored data cannot be changed or modified, so this technology can guarantee security and trust when making transactions 2 . With the growing interest in Blockchain, this technology has been widely implemented in many sectors and industries, including financial, business, industrial, voting, education, health 3 , supply chain management, healthcare information systems, e-government, voting systems, smart contracts, and digital signatures, has attracted the attention of early beginners 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 .

Blockchain technology enables organisations to develop new applications that can significantly improve the supply chain. Blockchain provides transaction transparency, data security, and seamless trust, reducing costs, creating more effective supply chains, and satisfying customers 8 . Blockchain enables supply chain partners to share data in a more trusted way, leading to improved collaboration. Blockchain will be a truly transformative technology for the supply chain industry 9 .

Recently, the rise of blockchain technology has overcome many problems with characteristics such as decentralisation, digital contracts, openness, encryption, and so on 10 and can overcome supply chain problems with new traits. Moreover, in small and medium businesses, sharing information created via Blockchain has an extraordinary progress effect in improving the skills of various company resources and can increase productivity. At the current level, Blockchain has attracted much interest from experts and has been able to be applied in multiple fields. For example 11 , mentioned that Blockchain can trace and investigate the transparency and sustainability of supply chains in technological design. The agricultural supply chain system based on 12 obtained an overview of increasing business resource employment from the double chain framework of Blockchain 13 investigated several operations management researchers regarding Blockchain’s influence. If the raw material does not meet the required criteria specifications, it cannot be used because it will reduce the quality of the finished material. What happens next is that the raw materials will be returned, and a refund will be requested. This action will affect the production schedule as it cannot meet the deadline set by the buyer 14 . Blockchain technology can empower supply chain resilience management 15 . The results or impacts of supply chain performance can be in all fields without exception 16 . Blockchain technology significantly impacts changing the manifestation of criteria in traditional supply chains 17 . For this reason, it is essential to investigate the methods used to measure new achievements in the supply chain using blockchain technology.

There is a lot of enthusiasm for applications in the current financial and digital currency markets, the most prominent of which is Bitcoin. Blockchain technology has excellent capabilities that can be applied to things far beyond cryptocurrencies 18 , 19 , and most people believe that blockchain technology can overcome many of these obstacles. Blockchain itself can be accessed by all customers with a specific network at any level of the supply chain to record everything to the ledger transparently in the supply chain sector in a complete manner 20 . Blockchain technology is becoming a big trend because it can provide significant and fundamental changes in systems capable of producing highly reliable, trust-based and integral infrastructure 21 .

The level in the simulation layout includes analysing system needs, using problem diagrams, compiling activity diagrams, deciding subprocesses, and filtering information. The feasibility of blockchain technology as a means of supporting risk mitigation, many factors will be used as a reference, including security, trust, traceability, sustainability, and costs. The analysis is carried out by comparing the use of supply chains with Blockchain and without Blockchain, which is then obtained to determine whether there is an increase. The purpose of this study is to identify the use of Blockchain for the pesticide supply chain, starting from the need to use blockchain technology, simulation design, data storage can work well through simulation results, and the feasibility of Blockchain as a means of supporting risk mitigation by analysing it on five different aspects.

Literature review

Block chain technology.

Blockchain technology has great potential to solve three supply chain issues: traceability and transparency, counterfeiting, and efficiency play 22 , 23 . Blockchain technology introduces order, simplicity, trust, visibility, and automation to a chaotic environment. Blockchain dramatically streamlines paper-based processes while introducing greater security and visibility simultaneously. The technology digitally models real-world relationships across the global supply chain ecosystem. Blockchain holds details of each part and makes it accessible to each manufacturer in production. Blockchain enables firms to see across tiers in the supply chain, both upstream and downstream 24 . Blockchain is an alternative that can improve and speed up information sharing, replacing paper tracking and manual inspection systems that make supply chains vulnerable to inaccuracies 25 , 26 . This potential for information sharing can be seen as strengthening the overall ability to control the supply chain and its activities. Blockchain helps build and execute smart contracts, creating trading partner visibility and more efficient collaboration. Blockchain’s peer-to-peer transactions eliminate the need for intermediaries, reducing each transaction’s cost 27 . The technology enables a single point of contact for data, eliminates the central authority needed to validate transactions, allows decisions based on total supply chain information, and promotes collaboration with partners 28 . Additionally, Blockchain record-keeping procedures that keep track of transactional data in a secure, verifiable, and permanent produce a chain of records and ownership that is much less vulnerable to fraud and cybercrime and difficult to hack and alter. The technology establishes trust among partners by ensuring that every transaction is recorded and stored in multiple locations across the entire distributed network. Administrative functions will be drastically reduced or eliminated due to the increased visibility of transactions and the potential to avoid non-value-adding activities. In turn, it will improve supply chain efficiency and reduce system complexity. Blockchain also builds confidence in the journey of a product. Customers learn about what the product is made of, where it came from, and its impact on the environment. Producers and retailers benefit from better product tracking and empowering customers with s new information. Additionally, blockchain technology enables producers and retailers to get insight into what customers want and tailor their goods and services accordingly 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 . Figure 5.1 summarises real-world examples of Blockchain changing supply chain management 34 .

Block chain technology in transaction ledger

Blockchain is a digital and distributed cash transaction ledger, recorded and reflected directly (real-time) on a computer network or node. There is no need for a central authority to authorise transactions; therefore, Blockchain is called a trustless peer-to-peer mechanism. Blockchain technology provides a more secure way for cash ledgers to store records and databases without centralised manual intervention. So, verifying transaction archiving in a blockchain-based system is much cheaper than in a centralised human verification system. The result is an operating model for transactions in the system based on system-based trust rather than counterparty-based trust 35 .

Blockchain technology can track every activity in the Blockchain, where every record of that activity is an activity that has been validated. Each block in the Blockchain contains data from all transactions in the system over a certain period of time and can create a digital signature that can be used to verify the validity of information related to the next and previous blocks. Transactions that have been carried out will be stored in blocks. If the transaction has been verified with a consensus of all or the majority of members in the network, then the transactions that have been stored in the block cannot be changed or deleted 36 .

Agriculture business supply chain

Agrifood supply chain.

In the agrifood supply chain (ASC), collaboration is often carried out by stakeholders at several different levels, from the farm to the hands of other customers, and the influencing variables have many similarities 37 , 38 . Throughout the supply chain (SC), many stakeholders try to increase the complexity of work, resulting in a lack of transparency and many obstacles related to this 39 . The need for transparent information in the supply chain is triggered by the food crisis and food safety 40 .

Pesticide supply chain

Pesticide supply chain actors in the Agriculture industry include raw material providers/suppliers, processing/production departments, distributors, retailers, and end consumers. The primary raw material providers/suppliers in active ingredients come from abroad, namely 80% from China and the remaining 20% from Japan, Belgium, Korea, Germany, and Malaysia. In contrast, auxiliary materials and packaging materials come from local domestic suppliers 41 . Related to these obstacles, Blockchain, with its characteristics, can provide benefits in the form of more transparent, secure, and trustworthy data between the parties involved 42 . With these benefits, Blockchain can be used as an auxiliary means of accessing and collecting data necessary for supplier performance evaluation, such as ease of data tracking, transparency, distributed data, and avoidance of data manipulation 43 . This benefit also applies to other risk mitigations related to data needs 44 .

Block chain system

System requirements analysis

In designing a system, analysing needs needs to be done. Needs analysis is carried out to determine the specific needs of the system consisting of the outputs that must be produced, the inputs required to produce the output, the operations performed to produce the output, and the resources needed to make the system run and deliver output 45 .

Use case diagram

Use case diagrams are modelling to identify the behaviour of a system to be created. Use case diagrams illustrate the users in the system and what users can do to the system. Actors involved in use case diagrams have two characteristics, namely actors outside the system being developed and actors who interact with the developed system 46 .

Activity diagram

An activity diagram is a diagram that illustrates the natural dynamic nature of a system in the form of a flow model and control of activity to activity. The difference between activity diagrams and use case diagrams is that activity diagrams describe how a process runs. In contrast, use case diagrams illustrate how actors use the system to perform activities. In the activity diagram, a decision is used to describe behaviour under certain conditions. The advantage of using activity diagrams is that it makes it easy to understand the running scenario. Activity diagrams model workflow or business processes and operations internally. This diagram will describe processes in more detail than in the use case diagram 47 .

Subprocess determination

From the known processes, which subprocess will be supported by blockchain technology is selected. The selection is based on activity types full of cross-individual data transactions. The choice can also be found in the activities with the highest risk. Such increased risks need to be mitigated with a blockchain system. One form of risk is data misappropriation and manipulation 48 .

Information selection

Information selection is choosing which information from the activity will be supported by the blockchain function. This information must be carefully selected to prevent the system from managing too much data. Data needs to be made efficient without reducing the effectiveness of data transactions. The information chosen can be based on the system’s primary purpose of being applied to the Blockchain 49 .

Blockchain mechanism

In how Blockchain works, a block generally consists of 3 things: the data in the block, the hash of the block itself, and the previous block’s hash. A block must have a hash of its cryptography and the hash of the last 50 to stay connected in a chain. If the hash changes, the block will be considered invalid in the Blockchain. A hash is a string returned from a mathematical function called a hash function. The hash function takes various inputs and converts them into fixed-length strings. Even if the change to the input string is tiny, the hash function will generate a new hash that may differ significantly from the actual result. Usually, the hash function used in blockchains is SHA-256. The longer the blockchain chain, the more complex the hash value to look up 51 .

• Supply chain management

Supply Chain Management (SCM) contains information, finance, and material flows that create close collaborative relationships between suppliers, manufacturers, vendors, and customers 52 . The main goal of the supply chain (SC) is to increase overall profits through cost reduction 53 . SC currently has several social-environmental issues and sustainability problems. The considerations for sustainability issues include several socio-economic-environmental dimensions in decision-making regarding climate change, which has become the main trigger for demand and can increase customer loyalty. The issue of sustainability in SC is driven by several reasons involving concentration on social, competitive and regulatory dimensions 54 . Consumers now have concerns about sustainability issues, which also puts pressure on manufacturers and suppliers to pay attention and work together on sustainability issues 55 . New technology also makes a significant contribution to the problem of implementing sustainability in the supply chain. One of the technologies that is currently widely applied is blockchain technology. Blockchain technology provides a new colour or significant revolution in supply chain sustainability 56 .

Increasing the sustainability of SC requires the application of BT because it has many valuable benefits. Investment limitations mean that the application of BT cannot develop rapidly. Privacy considerations remain hot among SC stakeholders because too much information sharing can unintentionally distort market structures 53 . Prevention of these complications must then be managed effectively, and data and privacy issues must be addressed. Worst of all, BT can become a tool for personal abuse of power and market control 52 . Another obstacle to using BT is its high energy consumption 57 . Repeated data input also causes BT energy consumption to be high because it has to increase computing power, thereby causing more carbon emissions 58 . So, there are many risks in implementing BT in SC sustainability. Studies must be conducted on this new technology’s internal and external challenges 59 . In SC sustainability, implementing BT involves many risks and challenges from various aspects and requires identifying and prioritising accuracy and essentials. The critical research to be carried out is to identify and provide the best solution for adopting BT in SC in implementing sustainable development factors. Limitations in the real world must be overcome to produce the best solution for implementing BT. One way to determine practical solutions is to use the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach.

Block chain in supply chain management

In a network that is used jointly and independently, decentralisation can be realised; Blockchain should be able to manage supply chain activities in a decentralised manner and with integrity, so this causes many to lose the need to collaborate with other third-party systems to support communication or several related parties. Others 60 , 61 . Another important thing in the blockchain system is the ability to show the location of an item very precisely at every point and record transactions that have been carried out thoroughly 62 . Context capability is another essential feature of Blockchain. This implies that if many parties are on the network, all data changes will be appropriately recorded 63 . This ensures companies have a high level of authentication regarding the origins of their products. This helps companies significantly reduce costs and time to detect violations and errors while managing data correctly and safely for the entire organisation 64 .

Several studies have been conducted in food supply chains, designed, developed and implemented in blockchain-based system solutions. However, there is a belief that the user’s subjective matters cannot be appropriately resolved precisely by understanding the opportunities and challenges in implementing the system. It is deemed necessary to conduct behavioural science studies in information systems (IS). According to the definition of Bariff and Ginzberg 65 , research conducted on information system behaviour will have a descriptive tendency, namely looking for systematic relationships between observations of user and personnel behaviour SI. Current trends in behaviour in information systems cannot be ignored by technology but are expected to be able to develop non-technical strategies that aim to change attitudes, management policies, and organisational behaviour related to technology 66 .

Although Blockchain has some significant capabilities that optimise productivity and reduce costs, it raises significant concerns that must be addressed. It poses barriers that executives must remove over time, and decision-makers can adapt to the widespread acceptance of this technology 18 have concerns about a significant impact on technology adoption for managerial parties. Planning begins with creating a framework for appropriate blockchain adoption by professionals, who can determine the unique values associated with the organisation’s goals and culture. Another thing that could help is using alternative Design Science Research methods 67 to design an artefact to address requirements and determine the most critical priorities regarding trust at each point in the agrifood supply chain. This framework can make implementing a blockchain-based information system for food tracking easier in real-time.

The research method was carried out by holding discussions with informants with expertise in this study’s data and data assessment field. Then, secondary data in the form of historical data is obtained employing literature studies originating from the company’s official website, research, and publications that have been carried out at the company. The data collected includes general company data, supply chain mechanisms, business processes, and management. The flowchart of the research method can be seen in Fig.  1 .

Method flowchart.

The research method is described as follows: 1. Literature study of scientific journals and proceedings related to the researcher’s topic of interest. With this study, researchers can enrich themselves in knowing developments, problems and research gaps that can be researched; 2. The background formulation is carried out by the findings obtained by researchers from various sources that have been obtained, then compiled so that potential problems that need to be overcome can be found; 3. From the background that has been prepared, ideas are obtained regarding potential problems to be used as research topics that will be studied further; 4. Based on the background, problems can be found so that potential problems are identified further and clearly, and specific problem identification is obtained; 5. Then, the problem formulation and research objectives are determined so the research becomes more directed and focused; 6. Next, secondary data was searched and collected according to data relevant to the researcher’s research, namely general company data, pesticide supply chain mechanisms, pesticide supply chain business processes, pesticide supply chain management, and the results of chain risk identification and analysis. pesticide supply; 7. If the required data is sufficient, data processing can be carried out, including analysing the system’s needs under study, creating use case diagrams, compiling activity diagrams for the system, determining the subprocesses that will be simulated, and selecting information that will become simulation data; 8. Carrying out blockchain simulations according to data processed using third-party tools in the form of a blockchain simulation website, namely Demo Blockchain ( https://demoblockchain.org/ ).

Apart from that, discussions were held with four sources to increase the research’s objectivity. All resource persons are academic experts with experience and expertise related to the problem being studied. All the steps in the research methodology should be addressed carefully to guarantee objectivity and reach the research aims. The okay ( ✓ ) criteria get a minimum of 50% scores from the expertise (a minimum of two people agree with the requirements of the subprocess).

This research used the explanatory case study method 68 mixed with qualitative and quantitative evidence to illustrate specific topics within an evolution in blockchain technology. The role of theory in this research is essential to construct a preliminary theory and requires theoretical propositions. The rationale for a single-case study represents unique circumstances. Analysis Technique with Logic models in Repeated cause-effect relationship with individual level or organizational-level logic model. The structure reporting with comparative analysis repeats the same case study two or more times, comparing alternative descriptions or explanations. This case study’s identity as real and anonymous with full disclosure is the most desirable option, helping readers link in previous research and ease of review.

Data collection

Data was collected in 2020 by Agusti and Mulyati 69 . The agriculture industry is the companies that produce pesticides in Indonesia. Based on previous research on the pesticide supply chain in this industry, a risk analysis was carried out, which then obtained the results of one of the risk agents, namely raw materials not meeting specifications. The source of this risk is included in the high-risk classification, which is a priority to be addressed. For these risk mitigation alternatives, it is proposed to evaluate supplier performance, which will involve a lot of data, so efficient and effective data storage and access are needed. The supply chain of the Agriculture industry still processes data independently by each actor and shares data that is considered necessary when coordinating in traditional ways, so this has the potential for data manipulation due to low transparency. Data can be stolen due to weak security and requires a short time in the data exchange process.

Material requirement planning in the pesticide industry

The company produces pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides. The demand level is uncertain and not fixed per day, and the company is required to plan the production process sequences precisely to meet consumer needs. The company experienced problems such as high shipping and ordering costs, and raw material inventory was far less than inventory capacity 70 . The company must maintain raw materials availability, such as a 1 Liter insecticide packaging bottle, to expedite the production process. It was scheduling a 1L insecticide packaging bottle as its superior product needs to be done to determine the inventory amount in a certain period. The inventory can meet demand, knowing the safe amount of inventory to meet production needs optimally, and minimizing ordering costs by maximizing ordering capacity. The pesticide production system is described in Fig.  2 . The pesticide production system chart created is refined from the chart originally created by Elimam 71 . The additions elements provided include safety stock, lead time, lot size, forecasting, production time.

Pesticide production system.

Pesticide supply chain mechanism

The agriculture industry has suppliers that provide the main ingredients from abroad, namely 80% from China and 20% from Japan, Belgium, Korea, Germany, and Malaysia. As for the suppliers of supporting materials and packaging materials, they come from local/domestic. The Agriculture Industry has market coverage focusing on generic companies and retailers. The structure of the pesticide supply chain network in the Agriculture Industry can be seen in Fig.  3 .

Structure of the pesticide supply chain network.

Pesticide supply chain management

The pesticide supply chain transaction system is divided into the transaction system in the procurement of raw materials and the transaction system in the product sales process. A transaction system can be used to procure raw materials to evaluate supplier performance. The flow of transactions in the raw material procurement process can be seen in Fig.  4 .

Transaction flow of raw material procurement process.

The following is an explanatory description of the transaction flow in the raw material procurement process.

MRP and forecasting planning is carried out at the beginning of the raw material procurement process, and the planning is related to production planning and inventory control.

Import Plan is an import plan related to the company’s strategy and procedures for importing goods, including selecting suppliers.

Approved by the SC Manager or Vice President before implementing the plan. The SC Manager or Vice President must know it first and approve it.

Price Negotiation: Carrying out price negotiations means making a contractual agreement for a new supplier entering into a contract for the first time. Meanwhile, suppliers who have become subscribers use proforma invoices.

Import Purchase Order (PO): after an agreement has been reached with the supplier, a PO is made to order the required raw materials from overseas suppliers.

Delivery Schedule and Shipping Document: when the supplier has received the PO and the goods are ready to be sent, the delivery schedule will be known along with the documents, including invoice, packing list, CoA, and BoL. Invoices contain transaction details between sellers and buyers. The packing list includes detailed information about the goods sent. CoA (Certificate of Analysis) is a document that provides laboratory test results related to product specifications, such as content, composition and quality. BoL (Bill of Lading) is proof of a transportation contract, goods receipt, and ownership document in sea shipping.

Raw materials entering the factory, receipt of raw materials by the factory after the goods arrive at their destination.

Quality Control: raw materials will be checked first through quality control by QC before being stored in the warehouse.

GRN (Good Received Note) by the warehouse department, it is necessary to ensure that the goods received are in accordance with what was ordered. GRN functions as official proof of goods receipt and validating suppliers’ invoices.

Payment Note is a document that details the payment transactions carried out. Has a function as proof that the buyer has made payment.

Meanwhile, the transaction flow in the sales process for pesticide products can be seen in Fig.  5 :

Transaction flow in the pesticide product sales process.

The following is an explanatory description to understand better the transaction flow in selling pesticide products.

Logistic Care receives Purchase Order (PO). Incoming orders from buyers are accepted as a PO document. This document shows the agreed type, quantity and price of goods.

Sales Order (SO): After the company receives the PO, the document will be converted into an SO, indicating that the company has approved the buyer’s order to sell the product according to the PO received.

Check product availability in the warehouse. After the company agrees to fulfil the PO from the buyer, a stock check of the product ordered will be carried out.

Delivery Order (DO): if the quantity of the product ordered can be met, the company will issue a DO document to the warehouse to release the goods to the buyer.

Scheduling Delivery and packing: the goods to be sent need to be scheduled so that Delivery can be carried out regularly. Apart from scheduling, it is also necessary to pack goods to protect them from damage during shipping and make transportation easier.

Travel document: When the goods are ready to be sent, they will be accompanied by a travel document. It functions as proof of Delivery and contains information, such as details of the goods, sender and recipient.

For the Delivery of products to consumers, products are sent according to a schedule and require a specific time to REACH their destination, depending on the distance between the buyer and the seller.

Invoice (billing to consumers): after the goods are received by the buyer/consumer, payment will be made for the goods ordered in the form of an invoice.

Results and discussion

Simulation design.

Simulation design helps obtain data for use in simulations. The following is a simulation design consisting of stages: analysing system requirements, creating use case diagrams, compiling activity diagrams, determining subprocesses, and selecting information.

In carrying out a system requirements analysis, it is necessary to know in advance a system analysis of the needs for using blockchain technology. The study results can be seen in Table 1 .

Based on the results of Table 1 , the blockchain technology suitable for recording data on the pesticide supply chain is a blockchain with private permissions. After that, system requirements were analysed, as seen in Figure 6 .

Use case diagrams

System requirements analysis.

Four actors are involved in the system: suppliers, companies, distributors, and retailers. On the left side of the diagram is a group of sellers, while on the right is a group of consumers. The use case diagram of the pesticide supply chain with Blockchain can be seen in Figure 7 .

Activity diagrams

Use case pesticide supply chain diagram with blockchain.

In procuring raw materials, only two actors are involved (company and supplier). Still, to clarify the activity, a company warehouse is added to receive and inspect the raw materials obtained. The company includes the PPIC, purchasing, and finance sections. The activity diagram of the pesticide supply chain with Blockchain in the raw material procurement process can be seen in Figure 8 .

The activity of pesticide supply chain diagram with blockchain.

Determining sub-processes begins by looking at all the sub-processes that occur, defining sub-processes that contain a large amount of information and have significant impacts, and exchanging data with other actors in the pesticide supply chain. The subprocess selected for the simulation was determined by four sources with their respective roles and expertise through discussion. The okay ( ✓ ) criteria get a minimum of 50% scores from the expertise (a minimum of two people agree with the requirements of the subprocess). The sub-processes used in the simulation are price negotiation (contract/proforma invoice), PO (purchase order), delivery schedule & shipping document, and payment note. The following results from determining the subprocess which can be seen in Table 2 .

Information Selection

The selected information will focus on parts that are considered essential and can represent documents contained in specific sub-processes. The following is the information used.

Name and position of party 1 (one) and party 2 (two), then articles in the document such as general provisions, types of goods, scope, rights and obligations, and implementation.

Proforma Invoice:

Document number, seller data, buyer data, shipping method, payment method, type of goods, quantity, and total price.

Purchase Orders (POs):

PO number, document date, PO status, supplier data, buyer data, number of items, item code, total price, and time of payment.

Invoice number, billing and shipping address, delivery date, shipping method, item description, and total price.

Payment Notes:

Date, billing number, billing date, billed total, payment method, payment details, and payment amount.

Simulation results

The simulation uses third-party tools such as website-based Blockchain Demo software ( https://demoblockchain.org/ ). The simulation is carried out in two scenarios: data stored sequentially according to the supply chain process and in groups according to each category. A sequentially stored data scenario describes a situation when the transaction process is in progress and is stored sequentially according to the process that occurs. Meanwhile, storing data in groups explains a problem when a transaction has been completed and stored in groups with similar data, making it easier to track specific data.

In sequential scenarios, 4 (four) different documents are stored connected to each other in 4 separate blocks: proforma invoices in block 1, purchase orders in block 2, invoices in block 3, and the payment note in block 4. Block 1 has a previous hash value of “000000000000000000000000000000000000” because it is the initial block and managed to produce a hash value of “00009da4a7da76f8ace8f85ab3c9b45f4978b2”. Then the hash generated in block 1 becomes the previous hash in block 2 (two), as indicated by the arrow, and has succeeded in producing a hash value of “0000b74df2e3f8186be350a19092940aade329”. Sequential simulation results of blocks 1 (one) and 2 (two) can be seen in Fig.  9 .

Sequential simulation results in Block 1 and Block 2.

Likewise, block 3 (three) and block 4 (four) also make the hash of the previous block the previous hash of that block. Block 3 succeeded in producing a hash value of “000016c4ba2a946b80674af02fe5a55bbbc81e”. Block 4 succeeded in creating a hash value of “00003bfe96b5e53d38868da0522ebf1efd8187”. Sequential simulation results of block 3 (three) and block 4 (Four) can be seen in Fig.  10 .

Sequential simulation results in Block 3 and Block 4.

Furthermore, invoice documents will be used for group scenarios to represent other documents. Four supplier invoice documents are stored and connected to each other in 4 blocks, namely blocks 1, 2, 3, and 4. Block 1 has a previous hash value of “0000000000000000000000000000000000000” because it is the initial block and succeeded in producing a hash value of “000000b510b2eaf55a465279a182252afc850b”. Then the hash generated in block 1 becomes the previous hash in block 2 (two), as shown by the arrow, and has succeeded in producing a hash value of “0000bbf63e5adac65dddc292a214d32e972fc5”. The simulation results for blocks 1 (one) and 2 (two) can be seen in Fig.  11 .

Invoice simulation results in Block 1 and Block 2.

Likewise, block 3 (three) and block 4 (four) also make the hash of the previous block the previous hash of that block. Block 3 managed to produce a hash value of “00008bc38ba4b332056fa41386b4f42b0de19d”. Block 4 succeeded in creating a hash value of “0000a0ad439680fbc72a158acf851f611e14a2”. The simulation results for blocks 3 (three) and 4 (four) can be seen in Fig.  12 .

Invoice simulation results in Block 3 and Block 4.

Blockchain feasibility analysis as a means of supporting risk mitigation

The simulations that have been carried out show that the pesticide supply chain uses Blockchain for data storing running well. In both processes, procuring raw materials and selling products, the data contained therein can be reserved by generating the previous hash and hash of each block in the Blockchain. Supplier performance evaluation can only use the raw material procurement process related to contract documents, proforma invoices, purchase orders, invoices from suppliers, and payment notes to support risk mitigation. As a result of the feasibility of blockchain technology as a means of supporting general risk mitigation related to data, several aspects will be used as a reference to see it from various angles. The aspects used include security, trust, tracking, sustainability and cost 72 . The following is a description of each aspect used.

On the security side, pesticide supply chain data stored using Blockchain can be accessed by all supply chain actors, so it can also be called decentralised or distributed. This security side means that each actor has the same rights and authority in interacting with the system, and no one has higher or lower power than others. So, all actors have equal and fair power and can prevent attacks on the system because it cannot be attacked through just one point. Apart from that, the stored data is also distributed to all supply chain actors so that each actor has an exact copy of the data as each other. This stored data can prevent data corruption, resulting in data loss. Another thing that can be gained from the security side is the hash generated by each block. With this hash, any change to the data, no matter how small, will produce an invalid hash. In the end, data manipulation will be challenging to do. As a result of how this system works, data before and after the change occurs are shown in Fig.  13 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 . The change is a tiny entity, only differing by one number in quantity, and other data has no change. However, it can be easily seen that the resulting hash is immediately very different and is marked by the block’s colour changing to red where it was originally green. Even though data changes are only made to block 1, all subsequent blocks to the newest block will produce an invalid hash. So, when changes are made to the data in any block, no matter how small, the changes will result in a consecutive invalid hash up to the latest block. So, it will be effortless to see if data has been changed/manipulated.

The red colour shows the data manipulation in data submission.

Blockchain allows all supply chain actors to have the same power level so that trust becomes dependent on the system, not on specific people with a higher access level. Of course, suppose the actor’s trust is based on the system. In that case, there is no need to worry about data manipulation because the system mechanism is resistant to data manipulation. In addition, the level of transparency in the pesticide supply chain is high because all supply chain actors have a copy of the same data and update each other 58 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 . The transparency of data storage in the pesticide supply chain can be seen in Fig.  14 .

Data storage transparency between supply chain actors.

From Fig.  13 , the four actors are depicted as Peer A, Peer B, Peer C, and Peer D, and each actor has an exact copy of the data. This data copy is also indicated by the same hash value for each actor, namely “00001c33ec8c1f4171a00d7a6b4a24cb4da780”. So, the stored data will be transparent between supply chain actors so that the level of trust can increase.

Regarding data tracking, all data will be recorded sequentially and in categories. With a high level of transparency where data is distributed so that every actor in the pesticide supply chain has an identical copy of the data, inevitably, the stored data does not contain variations. This transparency can make data tracking easier when obtaining complete data because there is no need to re-coordinate between actors. In addition, data that has been stored is challenging to change, so all data has been well organised and stored, and its authenticity is guaranteed, so there is no need to verify data between actors. Of course, coordinating and verifying actors requires a lot of time and is quite a complicated process. That way, data tracking will be done in a shorter time. So, the data tracking carried out can be ensured to be accurate data tracking, and the time required is shorter. This makes data tracking more efficient and effective 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 .

Sustainability

In terms of sustainability, the stored data will last for an extended period of time. The data has been stored and well organised, and the authenticity of the data has been confirmed without verification because data changes are challenging to make, making it resistant to data manipulation. Then, trust in the system mechanism creates a high level of trust between pesticide supply chain actors, and there is no need to worry about unfair treatment or fraud in the system because it is not based on trust in someone. Then, data tracking that is more efficient in terms of time and effective in terms of data accuracy can contribute to improving the sustainability of the pesticide supply chain system. In addition, all actors have identical copies of the data, making the data resistant to corruption that, makes the data disappear and not be recovered. So, by using Blockchain, data can be stored continuously more efficiently and effectively without worrying about fraud between actors, data being lost, and data being manipulated 42 , 56 , 87 , 88 , 89 .

Blockchain technology is relatively new, requiring much money for design and development. Apart from that, costs are also needed to integrate this into the existing system in the pesticide supply chain. Don’t forget that when applying this technology to the system, there needs to be an adaptation from all actors in the pesticide supply chain to run the system correctly and obtain optimal results. In this adaptation, training is required for employees, so it requires training costs and a short amount of time to be able to fully adapt to this new system 82 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 .

Blockchain technology as a means of supporting risk mitigation in general related to data in the pesticide supply chain, several aspects will be used as a reference so that it can be seen from various sides. The aspects used include security, trust, traceability, sustainability, and cost. The analysis is carried out by comparing the use of Blockchain and without Blockchain, which is then obtained to determine whether there is an increase. The following is a comparison that can be seen in Table 3 .

Table 3 shows that Blockchain is appropriate to support risk mitigation related to data in the pesticide supply chain. Through the five aspects above, there are improvements in four aspects, namely security, trust, tracking, and sustainability. However, from a cost perspective, some challenges must be overcome through a large allocation of costs and time. However, considering that the agriculture industry is mature and has become a holding company, the challenges related to costs have a high probability of being overcome. This cost is also supported by the need for a pesticide supply chain, which is quite complex because it has a relatively large number of suppliers, most of which come from abroad. Likewise, the number of retailers is widely spread in various cities. The use of Blockchain as a means of supporting risk mitigation in the pesticide supply chain will provide good benefits.

Blockchain has shown its potential for transforming traditional industry with its key characteristics: decentralization, persistency, anonymity and auditability. Through the simulation design that has been designed, it is obtained that the pesticide supply chain requires the use of blockchain technology, and the use of Blockchain in the pesticide supply chain can be applied following system requirements analysis, use case diagrams, activity diagrams, subprocess determination, and information selection that has been carried out. The simulation results show that data can be stored, organised, and connected correctly, as evidenced by the hash successfully generated by each block, and the hash then becomes the previous hash contained in the next block. The feasibility of blockchain technology to be used as a means of supporting risk mitigation related to data in the pesticide supply chain is declared feasible according to the results of a comparative analysis between supply chains without Blockchain and with Blockchain, which is carried out based on five aspects, namely security, trust, traceability, sustainability, and cost. Even though the cost aspect is a challenge that needs to be faced, the agriculture industry, with a mature company and a holding company, certainly has a high possibility of overcoming this. It is different if the company is still new or in bad condition; further consideration is needed. So, blockchain technology can be used to support data-related risk mitigation. Still, it is necessary to pay attention to the needs of the company’s supply chain and its readiness because of its condition.

Future research

Many open issues still need to be researched and analysed to create more workable and practical industrial applications, healthcare, Real estate, consumer and civilian applications, government and military operations, and highly fast-moving products that can fully benefit from Blockchain technology and achieve the intended goals. About the legal action, different industries have different standards and security policies. The high operation cost of Blockchain is still the most challenging problem for blockchain applications. Besides high costs, some open issues include security, privacy, scalability, energy and mining issues, integration with other systems, and, more specifically, regulatory issues. It still needs quantitative analysis to review the performance and security of public, private and high-complexity companies. Most projects are in an early development phase, and research is still ongoing on key improvement areas that would allow desired scalability, decentralisation and security. Additional research initiatives, trials, projects and collaborations will show if the technology can reach its full potential, prove its commercial viability and finally be adopted in the mainstream.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

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Gozali, L., Kristina, H.J., Yosua, A. et al. The improvement of block chain technology simulation in supply chain management (case study: pesticide company). Sci Rep 14 , 3784 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53694-w

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The concept of blockchain technology, which has been around for over a decade, is gaining traction in academics and the commercial world. Blockchain technology, first created for virtual currency use, has recently found wider applications. Traditional blockchain applications in supply chain management focus on increasing safety, visibility, and auditability. A new movement is underway in which organizations are incorporating blockchain technology into their supply networks to reduce the environmental impact. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of scholarly studies examining the many applications of blockchain technology in the field of supply chain management. A comprehensive evaluation of blockchain applications in the supply chain domain, on the other hand, presents the current state of the art of blockchain in supply chain management. Thus, we use a systematic literature review based on bibliometric analysis to review 477 research articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 2017 and July 2022. This paper sheds light on the latest research trends in the field and guides readers through the many choices that must be made regarding blockchain implementation at various aspects of the supply chain by analyzing the most important and highly cited papers, authors' collaboration networks, keywords, countries, and institutions. Our analysis reveals six different themes related to supply chain traceability, resilience and collaboration, blockchain adoption challenges, supply chain performance, supply chain agility and adaptability, sustainability and carbon auditing, and supply chain finance. Our findings broaden the discussion by taking an integrated approach that embraces blockchain from different angles. Future research paths were pinpointed by systematically mapping and analyzing existing research trends, major research subjects, the evolution of publications over time, patterns of author and country collaboration, keyword co-occurrence, and more.

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Blockchain in supply chain management: a review, bibliometric, and network analysis

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Chakraborty, K., Ghosh, A. & Pratap, S. Adoption of blockchain technology in supply chain operations: a comprehensive literature study analysis. Oper Manag Res 16 , 1989–2007 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-023-00420-w

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Received : 06 March 2023

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-023-00420-w

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Unleashing the Power of Blockchain in Industry 4.0

At the forefront of the industry 4.0 revolution is blockchain technology, offering a decentralized, secure framework for data management and exchange, poised to redefine the manufacturing landscape., the vanguard of manufacturing evolution.

Blockchain’s influence in Industry 4.0 extends beyond mere technological novelty; it is becoming a linchpin in the future of manufacturing. The World Economic Forum projects that by 2027, blockchain technology will underpin 10% of the global GDP, highlighting its critical role in fostering scalability, security, and autonomy within industrial systems. Furthermore, the integration of blockchain with IoT devices catalyzes the development of robust, distributed applications across various sectors, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and transparency in industrial ecosystems.

The rapid growth of blockchain in the manufacturing market, expected to reach $1999.84 billion by 2028, underscores the pressing need for enhanced supply chain visibility, decentralized manufacturing networks, and compliance with regulatory requirements. This growth trajectory points towards a future where blockchain technology is not just an adjunct but a foundational component underpinning next-generation industrial systems.

Redefining Supply Chain Management

Blockchain technology has emerged as a game-changer in supply chain management within Industry 4.0. Its immutable ledger enables a transparent, unalterable record of transactions and movements of goods, from origin to end-user, fostering real-time verification and auditing . Such transparency enhances traceability and efficiency and mitigates risks associated with supply chain disruptions, providing a single source of truth that addresses informational asymmetries and reduces fraud risks.

Innovating with Blockchain in Manufacturing

The implementation of blockchain in manufacturing heralds significant advancements in quality assurance and compliance, real-time asset tracking, and the automation of transactions through smart contracts . These developments are instrumental in ensuring product safety and compliance, particularly in sectors like aerospace, automotive, and pharmaceuticals. Additionally, blockchain facilitates the creation of decentralized manufacturing networks, promoting collaboration and transparency among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing: A Blockchain Perspective

It is difficult to overstate the significance of blockchain technology in enhancing sustainability and ethical sourcing in manufacturing d. It enables manufacturers and consumers alike to trace the origin of raw materials, ensuring they are sourced responsibly. This level of transparency is crucial for companies aiming to improve their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, catering to the growing demand for sustainable and ethically produced goods.

Navigating Challenges and Embracing Future Prospects

Despite its promise, the integration of blockchain into existing manufacturing systems presents challenges, including technological complexity, regulatory compliance, and scalability issues. However, the future is bright, with innovations expected to emerge from the convergence of blockchain with other Industry 4.0 technologies, enhancing real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and data analytics.

As we explore the intersection of blockchain technology and manufacturing , the opportunities for innovation and efficiency are boundless. For those at the helm of manufacturing enterprises, considering blockchain technology is not just about keeping pace with industry trends; it’s about setting the course for future success. Through its decentralized, secure, and transparent nature, blockchain holds the key to unlocking new levels of collaboration, sustainability, and efficiency in the manufacturing sector.

Charting Your Course in the Blockchain Era

Embracing blockchain technology in manufacturing requires not just technological readiness, but a shift in mindset towards innovation and sustainability. For enterprises and innovators looking to contribute to this transformative era, tools and platforms like SIMBA Chain’s offer a streamlined pathway for deploying blockchain applications. SIMBA Chain’s capabilities in auto-generating APIs, enhancing developer tooling, and providing enterprise-ready solutions are pivotal in realizing the potential of blockchain in manufacturing and beyond.

The journey towards integrating blockchain into the manufacturing sector is complex, yet the rewards in terms of efficiency, transparency, and sustainability are immense. By fostering a culture of innovation and leveraging the right tools, manufacturers can navigate the challenges and harness the transformative power of blockchain technology.

In the spirit of advancement and innovation, we invite stakeholders in the manufacturing sector to explore the possibilities that blockchain technology offers. Together, we can redefine the boundaries of what is possible in Industry 4.0, paving the way for a more sustainable, efficient, and interconnected manufacturing future.

Dan Janes is an accomplished Blockchain Developer and Engineer with a robust background in software development and blockchain technology with skills in Solidity, JavaScript, Python, and a in-depth understanding of blockchain technology, smart contracts, and cybersecurity. His career encompasses roles where he's led teams to execute pivotal projects, developed secure smart contracts, and contributed to significant technological advancements.

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How blockchain technology improves sustainable supply chain processes: a practical guide

Rita maria difrancesco.

1 Eada Business School Barcelona, Carrer d´Aragó 204, 08011 Barcelona, Spain

Purushottam Meena

2 Department of Supply Chain and Information Management, School of Business, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424 USA

Gopal Kumar

3 Operations Management, Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Raipur, 493 661 India

Blockchain technology has rapidly grown in the last decade and supply chain management has started to emerge as one of its possible fields of application. Blockchain is estimated to have a transformative impact and potentially transform and disrupt supply chains. However, despite recognizing its enormous opportunity, there is still an incomplete, dispersed, and fragmented knowledge of blockchain applications beyond cryptocurrencies. Very few business people still deeply understand how blockchain works and how it can concretely benefit supply chains. This paper contributes to closing this gap, providing a holistic approach to analyzing blockchain technology's applications and benefits in supply chain management. This study aims to support academics and practitioners in adopting a holistic perspective and realizing the potential this technology can offer in different areas of the supply chain, its managerial impact, challenges, and limitations. A "closed-loop" value chain perspective is adopted to analyze the benefits at each core process of the supply chain, from sourcing to final customer and reverse logistics. This paper conducts qualitative research using case studies analysis based on secondary data. Further, it builds a theoretical framework for blockchain-enhanced supply chain performance based on the results of the qualitative research. Finally, the paper discusses the major drawbacks and barriers to blockchain implementation, which help managers evaluate its real net benefits.

Introduction

In June 2018, a salmonella outbreak affected pre-cut melons from several United States (US) retailers–including Costco, Kroger, Trader Joe's, Walmart, and Whole Foods. It took weeks for the US Food and Drug Administration to identify responsible suppliers and all the stores where the melon was sold. If blockchain technology had been used, they could have contained the outbreak and avoided destroying the entire inventory of a product for safety precautions (Selk 2018 ). It is just an illustrative example demonstrating blockchain technology's importance and potential in supply chain management. Blockchain technology is gaining increasing attention among researchers and practitioners, and more and more companies have recently started to develop studies to evaluate its possible benefits. The concept of blockchain technology was first introduced in 2008 in a whitepaper on bitcoin authored by Satoshi Nakamoto (who is still an unknown person-or people). Born initially with bitcoin and conceptualized to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions, only a few years later, experts realized that cryptocurrency was just one application of blockchain and started investigating other application areas.

More recently, supply chain management experts have begun to analyze the possible benefits of blockchain implementation in this complex area. Today's supply chains are more complex than ever due to their global nature (Difrancesco et al. 2021 ) and companies have to continuously evolve and rapidly adapt to the different customers' needs, which require fast, agile, and dynamic supply chains. All these factors make companies' survival even more challenging; therefore, efficiency, effectiveness, speed, and transparency in their supply chains are even more critical. Blockchain technology is becoming so attractive for supply chain management because it can achieve a high degree of trust, accuracy and transparency, and real-time tracking of products, data, owners, and actions taken at any stage. The key role of trust, traceability, and transparency in supply chains has been widely discussed in the literature (e.g., Heese 2007 ; Skilton and Robinson 2009 ; Buell et al. 2016 ), and it shows how these characteristics can significantly improve supply chain performance. However, in practice, there is still a significant lack of visibility and transparency in supply chains. For example, a recent survey conducted by Deloitte with over 400 Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) reveals that only 18% of CPOs have formal visibility of the risks in their tier-1 suppliers, and only 15% have visibility beyond that (Deloitte 2021 ). Moreover, such a lack of visibility increases as we move away from the manufacturer (O'Marah et al. 2014 ). Lastly, the explosion of globalization, and the growing attention to sustainability, have intensified even more the urgency to create greater transparency across supply chain networks (Awaysheh and Klassen 2010 ; Earley 2013 ; Di Vaio and Varriale 2020 ).

Blockchain development grew by more than 6,000% in 2018, and a recent survey by SAP found that 92% of business leaders view blockchain as an opportunity, with its major applications in several areas, including supply chains (Myerson 2018 ). Blockchain is estimated to have a transformative impact across supply chains and has the potential to transform and disrupt supply chains (Gartner 2018 ). Moreover, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, companies have started to accelerate their investment in technologies: a recent Gartner survey showed that nearly 70% of companies accelerated their digital transformation during the pandemic (Gartner 2021 ), emphasizing the increasing need for resilient and agile supply chains to prevent and deal with disruptions (Dutta et al. 2020 ). Forecasts highlight global blockchain technology revenue to grow significantly, reaching approximately $39 billion by 2025 (Statista 2020 ). However, despite recognizing its huge opportunity, very few business people still deeply understand how it works and how it can be implemented. A study conducted on European and US companies shows that a high percentage of the participants (43%, which rises to 65% if focusing exclusively on supply chain companies) does not look into blockchain yet or observed its development from a distance (Niels and Moritz 2017 ). Therefore, supply chain leaders must understand how to implement blockchain technology and explore its potential benefits. Most of the earlier studies and applications of blockchain technology were related to bitcoin and the financial area. However, other fields, like supply chain management, still lack knowledge and tests to support the evolution and possible implementation of blockchain technology in this area (Dutta et al. 2020 ; Cheung et al. 2021 ; Lim et al. 2021 ).

This study aims to support academics and supply chain practitioners in adopting a holistic perspective while getting familiar with the fundamentals of blockchain technology. While most of the literature on blockchain applications in supply chain mainly focuses on the food, pharmaceutical, and transportation sectors, this paper offers a more comprehensive view, including other industries such as automotive, fashion, electronics, cosmetics, and consumer goods. This supports and guides managers also in other supply chain sectors. This study offers a guide to realizing blockchain's potential in different areas of supply chains, the managerial impacts, and the limitations, to evaluate whether and how blockchain can add value to a business and undertake concrete initiatives in this direction. Specifically, the primary objective of this paper is to investigate which supply chain processes and which performance dimensions are mostly affected by blockchain technology adoption under the triple-bottom-line approach of sustainability.

First, some basic concepts, characteristics, and properties of blockchain are introduced and explained to address the above research objective. After that, the paper presents major applications of blockchain, focusing on supply chain management. Following a value chain approach, qualitative research is conducted using case studies analysis based on secondary data. The qualitative analysis is organized by clustering the different processes of the supply chain (i.e., sourcing and manufacturing, inventory management, distribution and delivery, retail, customer experience, product returns, and reverse logistics). We further investigate how blockchain technology can be implemented in each process and which supply chain performance dimensions are affected. Additionally, based on qualitative research results, a theoretical framework is developed for blockchain-enhanced supply chain performance. The paper also discusses the major drawbacks and barriers to implementing blockchain to help managers better evaluate blockchain technology and its net benefits.

This paper is structured as follows: Section  2 introduces the theoretical background and contribution of the article. Section  3 discusses the methodology and data collection. Section  4 presents the case studies along with a framework of blockchain applications in supply chain management. Section  5 discusses the results, findings, and limitations of the study. Finally, Section 6  presents the study's conclusion and offers future directions.

Literature review and contribution

This section reviews erstwhile literature and presents the theoretical background. First, an overview of the major technical aspects of blockchain technology is provided. Second, we discuss how blockchain technology can be used across the supply chain processes and its impact on sustainable supply chain performance. This paper complements the use of traditional indicators (such as cost and quality) with contemporary supply chain performance indicators, encompassing sourcing, manufacturing, inventory, distribution, retailing, customer experience, and product returns, to provide a holistic perspective (Bhagwat and Sharma 2007 ; Gunasekaran et al. 2004 ; Cho et al. 2012 ; Golrizgashti 2014 ; Carter and Rogers 2008 ; Koberg and Longoni 2019 ; Kumar et al. 2021 ). How blockchain technology can improve supply chain performance across these indicators is discussed in detail in Section 4 . Finally, the study's unique contributions are presented based on the critical review of the literature.

Fundamentals of blockchain technology

Blockchain is built as a distributed database that stores a ledger of transactions shared across participating parties. It uses its network to authenticate transactions, and once the record has been created and approved by the network, it is cryptographically secured and stored. Once this occurs, the element cannot be altered or deleted. In this way, it creates an immutable and verified database (Maxwell and Kashni 2018 ; Azzi et al. 2019 ). Two main characteristics of blockchains that contribute to their popularity and infinite possibilities of applications are: (i) "trust" and (ii) "decentralization" (Seebacher and Schüritz 2017 ; Verhoeven et al. 2018 ). A blockchain is made trustable through its transparency (i.e., shared and verified information provided without the need of a third-party regulator), integrity (because of the cryptography and peer verification of transactions), and immutability (i.e., once a transaction is approved and recorded, it cannot be altered).

Furthermore, a blockchain has a decentralized nature, which allows for a high level of privacy for its participants, high reliability (data are shared and stored throughout the network), and versatility (its participants can integrate their own programs) (Seebacher and Schüritz 2017 ). Although blockchain was initially created (and still mainly used) as a public system, it enlarged with the years also to private systems, so that today one can distinguish between "public" (permissionless) and "private" (permissioned) blockchains. The first allows all participants to add or validate new blocks; the second allows access only to some participants, which may be necessary when, for example, a business needs to limit access to the network (Jochumsen and Chaudhuri 2018 ). More recently, two-hybrid systems have been created: "semi-private" blockchains, run by a single company that grants access to any user who qualifies, and "consortium" or "federated blockchain", where a pre-selected set of nodes controls the consensus process.

Blockchain and supply chain management

So far, most blockchain interest has been strictly related to its financial implications. Applications of blockchain technology in supply chains are still at an early stage, which represents a limit to understanding its potential, applicability, and benefits (Dutta et al. 2020 ; Cheung et al. 2021 ; Lim et al. 2021 ). In the last decade, supply chains have become more digital than ever. This transformation has been amplified and fueled by globalization, natural disasters, unpredicted events, and the increasing request for sustainability (Kopyto et al. 2020 ). As a result, it is becoming strictly necessary for supply chains to increase visibility, integration, traceability, resilience, agility, and data security (Bumblauskas et al. 2020 ; Lim et al. 2021 ; Ada et al. 2021 ; Baharmand et al. 2021 ), besides more traditional characteristics such as efficiency, speed, and quality (Carlan et al. 2022 ; Zhou et al. 2022 ). Since blockchain technology allows the integration of all supply chain members into a single secure network while sharing data and information (Dutta et al. 2020 ), scholars and practitioners have recently started exploring blockchain applications in the supply chain field.

However, the attention posed to it and its understanding is still very limited (Dutta et al. 2020 ; Lim et al. 2021 ). On the one hand, there is clearly incomplete and fragmented knowledge of blockchain applications beyond finance and cryptocurrencies (Yli-Huumo et al. 2016 ; Risius and Spohrer 2017 ; Kopyto et al. 2020 ; Tandon et al. 2021 ). Conversely, an increasing need to expand blockchain applications in other related sectors as there is great unexplored potential (Tandon et al. 2021 ). Too many companies focus on proving the technology works rather than assessing the value blockchain can bring to them (Bailey 2018 ). Current literature on blockchain technology in the supply chain reveals a dispersed knowledge of the topic, and there is a need to adopt a holistic view (Chang et al. 2020 ; Tandon et al. 2020 ; van Hoek 2020 ; Paul et al. 2021 ). Researchers have only recently started investigating blockchain technology's possible applications, concrete benefits, and challenges in the supply chain, often following a case study approach. Table ​ Table1 1 reviews the major studies identified in the current literature.

Review of the major literature on applications of blockchain technology in supply chain

For each relevant study in the literature, Table ​ Table1 1 highlights the journal source, research objectives, the supply chain processes explored in the study, the industry sector, and the research methodology used. It can be observed that most of the studies address the upstream part of the supply chain (mainly sourcing and manufacturing) and distribution to improve transparency, the safety of the products, and traceability throughout the supply chain. So far, very little attention has been given to the role of inventory management and customers (Perboli et al. 2018 ; Ada et al. 2021 ). Nonetheless, inventory is central to guaranteeing a smooth and efficient supply chain, improving on-time delivery and customer satisfaction (Lee et al. 1997 ; Cachon and Fisher 2000 ). Similarly, evidence from the literature (e.g., Christopher and Ryals 2014 ; Ishfaq et al. 2016 ; Bumblauskas et al. 2020 ; Tönnissen and Teuteberg, 2020 ; van Hoek 2020 ) reveals how the role of customers in supply chains is becoming increasingly central. Therefore, a deeper analysis of the downstream part of the supply chain is required. Lastly, it is also found that only a few studies include reverse logistics and sustainability aspects. Given the increasing relevance of sustainability within supply chains (Di Vaio and Varriale 2020 ; Ada et al. 2021 ; Kumar et al. 2021 ; Difrancesco et al. 2022 ), it is evident that this represents a significant gap that urges to be addressed.

Concerning the industry focus, it is observed that the food industry is one of the most common (Bumblauskas et al. 2020 ; Kittipanya-ngam and Tan 2020 ; Kumar et al. 2020 ; Natanelov et al. 2022 ; Zhou et al. 2022 ), followed by the pharmaceutical and transportation sectors. The reason is that these kinds of sectors are usually connected to studies related to blockchain and product safety, trust, and traceability, which represent one of the major applications of blockchain technology to supply chains so far.

We can conclude that the current literature lacks a holistic framework: often, the papers present isolated case studies; other times mainly focus on the technical characteristic of blockchain implementation in supply chains. This evidences the need for a broader focus on blockchain technology applications that encompass the entire supply chain and highlights the link between blockchain, supply chain processes, and related performance. Based on these gaps in the literature, this paper makes one of the first attempts to develop a framework that connects the technical characteristics of blockchain on the one hand, and the supply chain processes and supply chain performance, on the contrary. Further, we explicitly match the blockchain characteristics—transparency, integrity, immutability, privacy, reliability, and versatility with the supply chain processes and performance. This study also highlights the need to identify the impact, benefits, and critical aspects of blockchain implementation for all the supply chain processes from a broader point of view.

Research gaps and contributions

Our analysis reveals the presence of emerging–yet insufficient–attention posed to blockchain applications in the supply chain. We identified several isolated case studies, focusing either on the technical aspects of blockchain implementation or on mere descriptive aspects of the case study. Only a few works leverage the benefits, the challenges, and the managerial consequences deriving from blockchain technology adoption. More specifically, no clear understanding of blockchain applicability, impact, and benefits has been analyzed in the supply chain context so far (Verhoeven et al. 2018 ; Lim et al. 2021 ). Researchers highlight the lack of a generalized view (Chang et al. 2020 ) and an unclear understanding of the coordination aspects, impact, and performance of blockchain’s application in supply chains (Tandon et al. 2020 , 2021 ). There are indeed limited studies on blockchain performance, given the topic's novelty and the difficulty of implementing it (Hong and Hales  2020 ). However, such topics are key for supply chain management (Lim et al. 2021 ), and all this represents an important disincentive for companies even to consider adopting blockchain technology.

This paper contributes to closing this gap, providing a holistic approach to analyzing blockchain technology's application and benefits in supply chain management. Our contribution is twofold. First, this paper provides an overview of the possible applications of blockchain technology in supply chain management—and a clear and structured analysis of its benefits, adopting a holistic view starting from the analysis of existing case studies and pilot projects. This study aims to help practitioners and decision-makers better understand and make strategic decisions on the design and implementation of blockchain in their supply chains. To address how blockchain can benefit supply chains, this paper adopts a value chain perspective (Porter 1985 ), analyzing the benefits at each core process of the supply chain, from sourcing to the final customer. Furthermore, to address sustainability concerns and implications, the paper takes one step further and adopts a closed-loop structure for the supply chain. Figure  1 presents the six core-processes approach followed in the analysis.

The closed-loop value chain framework (adapted from Porter 1985 )

Second, a theoretical framework is developed to identify (i) which processes of the supply chain are affected by which blockchain technical characteristics, (ii) which processes of the supply chain predominately enjoy which performance improvement due to blockchain implementation, and (iii) which blockchain technical characteristics impact which supply chain performance.

Methodology

This research aims to create a comprehensive understanding of blockchain technology in the supply chain. It also develops a theoretical framework for blockchain characteristics, applications, potential, and benefits for supply chains. In doing so, we adopted a practical perspective supported by a theoretical foundation that helps us identify the more relevant issues in this area. Our approach consists of three subsequent and complementary phases. First, a conceptual overview of the topic is developed to delineate a theoretical background and identify the relevant research and practical issues and the research gaps (as already presented in Section  2 ). Second, qualitative research is conducted using case studies analysis based on secondary data. Finally, a theoretical framework is built based on practice.

The case study approach is commonly used in literature for conducting qualitative research, especially exploring new phenomena (Tönnissen and Teuteberg, 2020 ), such as blockchain technology. One of the major advantages of the case study approach is that theory can be developed starting from practice (Yin 1994 ; Recker 2013 ; Kshetri 2018 ). We utilized multiple-case studies rather than a single-case study approach, representing a stronger base for theory building (Rowley 2002 ; Kshetri 2018 ). The literature suggests using around 6–10 case studies for theory building (Kshetri 2018 ; Tönnissen and Teuteberg 2020 ).

Figure  2 summarizes the major steps used in case study analysis. To select case studies, we base our analysis on the latest Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 companies list (Gartner 2021 ). Specifically, we analyzed 30 companies consisting of the top 25 of Gartner’s list, as well as the 5 "Masters", which refer to those companies recognized with "sustained supply chain excellence" (Gartner 2021 ). The 2021 Gartner list is provided in the Appendix Table ​ Table3. 3 . Gartner is considered a leading research and advisory company in supply chain management and technology; hence, we believe it can be accepted as a trusted, well-established, and well-recognized benchmark in academia and industry. It also assures the quality and the industry variety of the cases and that the case studies are of recent implementation.

Research methodology for the case study selection and analysis

The gartner supply chain top 25 for 2021

Source: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-05-19-gartner-announces-rankings-of-the-2021-supply-chain-top-25

The 5 "Masters" companies for the year 2021 are: Amazon, Apple, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's, and Unilever

To determine which of these 30 companies are implementing projects or pilot tests involving applications of blockchain technology in their supply chains, we manually searched the companies' websites, specialized magazines, newspapers, and practitioner journals (utilizing the ProQuest database and Google). Companies that are implementing blockchain projects not directly related to supply chains (e.g., PepsiCo using Zilliqa's blockchain platform to run an advertising campaign through smart contracts; Ma 2020 ) and those companies for which we could not find any information about blockchain implementation are excluded from the analysis. Based on this selection criteria, 20 out of the initial 30 companies qualified for further analysis. After selecting the companies, the resulting cases are coded as follows. Blockchain applications for each company are classified based on Porter’s value chain framework proposed in Section  2 , identifying which part of the supply chain is tackled in the project and the potential consequences, benefits, and performance improvements deriving from it. To ensure the rigor of the analysis and unbiased results, two authors performed the search, case selection, and coding independently. In case of any inconsistency, the third author contributed to the final decision.

The major limitation of the methodology used in this research is that it is very time-consuming, as authors have to search companies' websites, magazines, newspapers, and journals manually. Although the authors did an exhaustive manual search of news, still some cases might have been missed. However, this approach produces effective and unbiased data for the analyses. Another advantage and uniqueness of the methodology adopted here is the aggregation of literature review and news/case articles to build the theoretical framework. Hardly any study exists that adopts such an approach. The following sections present and discuss the results of the analysis. Finally, building on these results, a theoretical framework is proposed matching blockchain technical characteristics with the performance at each stage of the supply chain.

A blockchain-enhanced supply chain performance framework

Currently, most studies and applications of blockchain are related to financial aspects and cryptocurrency or its technical feasibility (Kopyto et al. 2020 ; Tandon et al. 2021 ). However, in the last few years, experts have identified blockchain technology's great potential based on bitcoin and are extending its possible applications to other fields. This section presents and analyzes the case studies collected from the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 companies (along with the 5 Masters) involving blockchain projects specifically addressing supply chain issues. These results are later used to develop the theoretical framework.

Benefits of blockchain technology across different processes of supply chains

This section provides an overview of the main applications of blockchain technology in supply chain management, underlying how it can help to deal with supply chain challenges, and discuss examples of its implementation. As explained in Section  2.2 , results analyses are organized following the value chain perspective.

Sourcing and manufacturing

Traceability throughout the supply chain has become extremely critical in the last decade. Knowing the source of all parts, having information about products' quality and quantities, and pinpointing a supplier in the case of a defective product all play a significant role in a company's daily business and in an entire supply chain (Zhou et al. 2022 ). However, tracking parts or products from their origin in a conventional way is a very difficult, costly, and time-consuming process. Blockchain technology offers the possibility to gain all this information and guarantee its truthfulness, assuring that nobody can tamper it. Everybody in the supply chain can access and track all the data concerning suppliers and products or components in real-time.

A recent experiment conducted by Walmart in collaboration with IBM shows that blockchain technology can help track a product from its origin in a matter of seconds. In December 2017, Frank Yiannas, Walmart's vice president of food safety and health, asked his employees to track a mango from its origin. It took six days, 18 h, and 26 min to get an answer. Then, they repeated the test, this time in collaboration with IBM. From the start of their journey at the farm, pallets of mangoes were tagged with numeric identifiers. Every time they crossed another checkpoint—from farm to broker to distributor to store—their status was signed and logged. With the use of blockchain technology, it took about two seconds to get the result (Hackett 2017 ). According to Frank Yiannas, after two years of preliminary tests, Walmart and its suppliers are now ready to use blockchain in the food business (Ruso 2018 ).

Similarly, McDonald's joined the China Animal Health and Food Safety Alliance (CAFA) in order to build a blockchain-based "farm-to-table" project to track its food supply chain in China (Sinclair 2020 ). Several scandals on food health safety, like baby milk containing lethal amounts of melamine or rice containing heavy metals (Staff 2016 ), have motivated China to increase the attention posed to food security, traceability, and animal health to avoid similar issues from happening again. A step forward in this direction was taken on May 2, 2018, when several car manufacturers accounting for over 70% of global vehicle production in terms of market share (including BMW, Ford, General Motors, and Renault), formed a consortium called MOBI—Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative. Its goal is to support the mobility industry in implementing blockchain solutions to improve transparency, trust, sustainability, reduced user costs, and the risk of fraud (Mobi 2021 ; Staff 2018 ).

Further, blockchain technology can help to curb forced labor, especially in manufacturing. An example comes from Coca-Cola, which is currently studying labor and land rights for its sugar supply chains to protect workers' rights at every step using blockchain technology (Gertrude 2018 ). In 2020, Nestle partnered for the first time with the Rainforest Alliance and, thanks to the IBM Food Trust blockchain technology, can trace the coffee back to the farmers (Nestle 2020 ). Customers will then be able to track all the information related to the coffee they buy, including the time of harvest and the roasting period. Nestle is also developing a project with OpenSC, a blockchain platform founded by WWF-Australia and the Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures to guarantee transparency on the sustainability of palm oil and milk (Nestle 2019 ). More specifically, Nestle will be able to make responsible decisions supporting farmers and producers who respect environmentally sound practices and human rights.

Similarly, Starbucks recently partnered with Microsoft to develop a blockchain solution to increase trust and visibility across its coffee supply chain (Almeida 2020 ). Besides the positive effect on supply chain traceability and customers (see Section  4.1.5 ), a major benefit also concerns farmers–including the smallest, geographically dispersed farmers since they are offered the possibility to access information on their final market easily and quickly, understanding where their beans end up and in which market their products are mostly sold and requested. Blockchain technology can also support suppliers and small manufacturers and protect them, especially from big firms: it is pretty common for suppliers to be paid with delays, which causes them to struggle to get enough financial resources to anticipate the capital and carry on their business until the payment occurs. Blockchain is estimated to have a huge potential, among other industries, in the food supply chain due to the increasing need for transparency, stricter legal and health requirements, and higher consumers' consciousness.

Blockchain can also help detect and prevent fraud in the upstream supply chain. Motivated by the new requirement imposed by the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), blockchain technology has entered the health industry to allow information sharing and drug serialization. Giant pharmaceutical companies like AbbVie joined the MediLedger Consortium on a blockchain project that provides tracking and transparency in the supply chain in a robust and completely secure environment. The major benefits for companies are verifying the authenticity of products, identifying and tracing back potential frauds, and improving quality and trust (Zhou et al. 2022 ). Pfizer has conducted a similar project (called "End-to-End In-Transit Visibility") in order to provide a single source of truth on its products to its stakeholders. A major problem in the pharmaceutical industry is the presence of counterfeit drugs, leading to thousands of deaths (according to the World Health Organization, 10% of drugs are counterfeit).

On the supply side, we can conclude that adopting blockchain technology can improve performance measures like costs, speed, social impacts (e.g., healthcare), risks (e.g., frauds), real-time coordination, and quality measures.

Inventory management

Inventory management has become increasingly complex due to the growth of stock-keeping units (SKU), multiple sourcing providers, uncertainty in delivery times, fluctuating consumer demand, delays and mistakes in the paperwork, and inaccurate or missing information. As a result, companies have seen their risk of stockout increasing and their service level downgrading, which is translated into an economic loss (e.g., emergency orders to backup suppliers, contract penalties, and potential loss of customers). To mitigate the consequences of these issues, companies tend to increase the number of units they keep in stock, with the risk of keeping excessive inventory (and therefore higher carrying costs) and, even worse, contributing to the bullwhip effect in the supply chain. Blockchain technology offers a radical, new way to approach inventory management based on the fact that no piece of inventory can exist in the same place twice. As soon as a product changes its ownership or status (e.g., from work in progress to finished goods), this information is immediately updated and made available for all the blockchain members. Similarly, all the information, purchase orders, receipts, documents, etc., are stored and shared in the same permanent ledger and shared among the participants.

Furthermore, with this technology, supply chain partners can enable the automatic execution of payments and orders. Once recorded, transactions cannot be deleted and can only be updated by those parties, verified by the system, who write valid transactions. This provides all the supply chain actors with an accurate and transparent end-to-end view of products' information, like their location, quantity, quality, and ownership. As a result, companies can improve their forecast and the traceability of parts, increase their operating efficiency, create new opportunities for just-in-time optimization, optimize inventory levels, provide higher service levels, lower warehousing costs, improve quality, and reduce errors (Zhou et al. 2022 ).

Nike piloted a blockchain project that helps its retailers track the vast amount of inventory stored at different places. The company developed a common language and streamlined communication on a common platform to instantaneously and accurately record any movement or change in product status (Das 2020 ). Another application example comes from the electronic industry, where original equipment manufacturers (OEM) find it very difficult to track products from their suppliers. While a traditional tracking system is bounded within a single organization, a blockchain system allows cross-company tracking from the supplier's production line to the OEM warehouse. This way, organizations can spot sudden disruptions or bottlenecks as they occur and detect anomalies or fraudulent activities (IBM 2017 ). For example, Lenovo is optimizing the inventory procurement process in its supply chain using blockchain. The process of managing orders and invoices was previously based on paper, generating errors and leading to data loss. With the help of blockchain, the entire process has been moved to a secure platform so that every authorized party can access accurate and trusted records. The results show a significant improvement in terms of visibility, transparency, efficiency, speed, and revenue growth while decreasing costs. Blockchain technology can help control and monitor all product requirements throughout the supply chain and revise expiration dates based on this information, making it possible to use resources that otherwise would go wasted.

Distribution and delivery

Today's consumers are increasing more and more their expectations, demanding the product they want "right here, right now". In the last decade, the situation has become even more critical due to the explosive growth of online commerce, adding the challenge of fast and cheap (if not free) deliveries, detailed and accurate real-time information about orders, a trusted environment for cross-border trade, and personalized services. One of the key challenges to a company's success is properly managing its distribution system. Transportation and shipping companies have recently shown an increasing interest in blockchain and its application to transportation because it can help track and monitor all kinds of shipments and transactions throughout the supply chain, speeding up the paperwork and guaranteeing trust.

Companies like Alibaba and Walmart are exploring how blockchain can benefit their logistics thanks to its high level of visibility, transparency, and safety of transactions. Alibaba has recently started collaborating with New Zealand Post and Fonterra to track customers' orders using blockchain. The aim is to increase transparency and consumer confidence in response to the significant fraud challenge. In the case of positive results, Alibaba will consider implementing the system in its online marketplace (Shaw 2018 ). Walmart is analyzing how blockchain can automate and speed up its deliveries using a drone with a blockchain identifier: as the drone approaches the delivery box, the box itself reads the identifier, and if the code is valid, it opens and accepts the package. It would trigger a notification to the consumer's mobile device. Furthermore, all information related to the delivery (like time, location, temperature, etc.) would be stored and verified throughout the supply chain (Staff 2018 ). Similarly, L'Oreal is currently testing two pilot projects using blockchain technology to increase transparency and streamline international shipments with all the necessary paperwork (Haywood Queen and Brune 2019 ).

Finally, blockchain can help identify and prevent fraud in logistics. In this context, the most critical processes are usually transportation and change of ownership because criminals can tamper or provide fake documentation to pick up goods or introduce counterfeit products. Intel has introduced the "Intel Connected Logistics Platform", which allows users to track their shipments and monitor the condition of their products, like temperature and stock information. This platform can be very useful for those companies shipping fragile products or products with particular temperature requirements. Since both parties can access real-time information about the shipped product, disputes between carriers and shippers can be drastically reduced (Aouad 2018 ).

As retailers struggle in a margin-squeezed environment to obtain more results with fewer resources, the potential for blockchain to reduce operating costs is very promising (Weldon et al. 2017 ). According to a recent survey conducted on 321 European and North-American retail organizations, blockchain adoption is expected to cut costs by more than 2.5% according to 82% of respondents, while 36% said they believe the savings will be greater than 5%; and much of these cost savings could result from automation (Weldon et al. 2017 ). Another critical issue for retailers is the ability to prove the authenticity of their products, which is especially true in the food industry, luxury brands, or artwork. We have largely discussed in Section  4.1.3 blockchain’s capability to track items' provenance throughout the supply chain, allowing retailers to access all the information concerning products. It helps them prove the authenticity of the items they sell or supports them in containing a food outbreak. Recall the example of Walmart discussed in Section  4.1.1 ; the retailer was able to provide accurate and real-time information to its customer about the mangos sold in its retail store. Another application of blockchain technology for retailers concerns payment methodology and acceptancy of crypto-currency payments. Global companies, including Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Starbucks, have recently introduced bitcoin payments in some of their markets, either directly or indirectly, through bitcoin-paid vouchers and gift cards (Tayeb 2021 ). It allows faster, cheaper, and safer payments (Deloitte 2021 ).

Ultimately, blockchain can also contribute to sustainability, offering retailers a way to contribute to environmental projects. This is the case of Ben & Jerry's, Unilever's subsidiary ice cream brand that introduced a retail platform based on blockchain technology in collaboration with Poseidon to allow customers to rebalance their purchases' carbon footprint (Smith 2018 ; Poseidon Foundation 2021 ). Poseidon's solution was tested in the Ben & Jerry's Scoop Store in London's Soho district and was based on the energy-efficient Stellar blockchain. Traditionally, environmentally responsible companies buy carbon credits to offset the greenhouse gasses deriving from their operations. The outcome is employed in developing environmental projects, like planting new forests or building new wind farms. However, this can be possible only on a big scale, it has a high barrier to entry, and the whole process is not at all transparent for customers. As a result, Poseidon's platform is based on decomposing carbon credits into micro-transactions that can be associated with every scoop of ice cream. In this way, the whole process is visible and transparent, and people can see the direct impact of their action, both environmental and economic ("on a $3 cup of coffee the carbon offset would cost less than two cents"; Smith 2018 ). Although it appears pretty clear that blockchain technology will transform the retail industry, many retailers are still reluctant to engage in this activity. They prefer to wait for the technology to be consolidated and fully ready to be implemented. Instead, retailers should take action today to ensure they are not left behind by competitors, keeping in mind that early adopters will also influence the development of networks and their rules (Weldon et al. 2017 ).

Customers' experience

The implications of blockchain technology for customers are numerous. Because of traceability, customers can get all the information about the item they buy, whether their mobile phone involves child labor or conflict-free resources, verify if the organic food they are buying is really respecting all the necessary requirements, and so on. This results in increased trust towards retailers and suppliers and increases customers' perceived value. In recent years, some studies (e.g., Sodhi and Tang 2019 ) showed how the customer's perceived value for a product or a service and customer's willingness to pay increase when firms disclose information, for example, on the production process or the employees' working conditions. This enhances the need for supply chain traceability and transparency, especially in some kinds of industries that are more affected by social and environmental scandals.

For example, 3 M Company recently developed a new solution with blockchain on Microsoft Azure to improve customers' accountability and visibility across its supply chain, enhancing brand loyalty and increasing customer safety (Microsoft 2018 ). This solution also increases trust and real-time visibility among all supply chain members. It helps identify and prevent fraudulent products from entering the supply chains, which is a big concern, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, regarding high cost (to identify and replace counterfeit products) and customer safety. Furthermore, since blockchain technology can be used to track shipments throughout the supply chain, it allows customers to access in real-time all the information related to their order status as it moves from one stage to the following one, enhancing customers' experience.

Starbucks also launched a pilot project with Microsoft to share with customers information about the coffee they buy, including data about the farm their coffee comes from, intending to increase trust and especially attract the younger generations who are particularly sensitive to environmental and social aspects (Almeida 2020 ). Blockchain affects all kinds of transactions between a business and a customer, like payments and refunds, which, in this way, become faster, safer, and cheaper (Deloitte 2021 ). Blockchain can also help enhance customer loyalty and rewards programs that encourage repeat purchases and provide companies with invaluable insights into their customers' buying behaviors. On the other hand, it protects retailers from the risk of coupon fraud. An example comes from the Coupon Bureau, a non-profit organization connecting all stakeholders to the digital coupon offer file whose advisory committee also includes members of General Mills (Coupon Bureau 2021 ). Over the last decade, one of the biggest challenges for the coupon system has been the lack of security and trust and the absence of a unified centralized solution to validate offers. The solution is developing a common blockchain-based platform that provides a real-time secure log for all coupons. All stakeholders can then validate when coupons are redeemed securely (Pollock 2020 ). It can be concluded that blockchain technology would benefit the entire relationship with customer-business, improving the accessibility and accuracy of the information, increasing the speed and trust of transactions, and reducing costs while simultaneously guaranteeing a higher level of privacy protection.

Product returns and reverse logistics

Similar to what happens in the forward network, blockchain technology can be used to manage the reverse supply chain through tracking, visibility, and accuracy of information. Since blockchain creates a trusted environment through the integrity and immutability of its data, it can be applied to the resale marketplace, demonstrating the authenticity of products sold on second-hand markets and increasing trust among buyers. Walmart has just released a new patent that details a blockchain ledger to track items sold to customers. The system would allow a customer to register the purchase of an item and then choose a resale price, with the system acting as a digital marketplace (Pymnts 2018 ).

Blockchain can help deal with defective goods and product returns. An interesting example comes from the automotive industry— when a part is found to be defective, car manufacturers need to recall all the vehicles of a specific model and year because they cannot identify every part in every vehicle sold. It is usually very costly and harmful for the company, especially considering that the defective part can actually be fitted in just several hundred vehicles (for example, consider BMW's global recall of 1.6 million vehicles in 2018; Behrmann 2018 ). A blockchain-based system would allow the manufacturer to identify every single part of a vehicle and, in case of a recall, drastically save cost and time by recalling and repairing just the defective ones (Jones 2017 ). Blockchain can also mitigate the risk of fraud in product returns; in 2017, a woman cheated Amazon India for almost 900,000€. She was purchasing expensive electronic products from the company; simultaneously, she bought a cheap duplicate of the same product and then claimed refunds for Amazon's delivered products after returning the inexpensive duplicate (Petlee 2017 ). Implementing a blockchain system would prevent the possibility of returning a product different than the one originally purchased. Finally, blockchain can help track recycled material's origin and composition and prove its authenticity. Dell Technologies collaborates with software company VMware to track and trace the recycled components in its supply chain. Dell's supply chain has a strong presence in Southeast Asia, which is also responsible for 60% of ocean plastic (Insights 2019 ). In this way, Dell can create a circular economy by directly controlling and measuring the content of plastic entering the oceans.

On the other hand, customers can have information on the recycled material their laptop is made from and its origin. As already presented in Section  4.1.1 , AbbVie has recently joined the MediLedger consortium in a blockchain project that enables participants to track and verify product authenticity. Another application of this project is to address the critical issue of saleable returns in the pharmaceutical industry— with a closed blockchain system, only manufacturers can attach unique identifiers to the products. At the same time, companies can verify anytime who touched what drug and at what time. As a result, returned items in the appropriate conditions may still be resold in total security.

Table ​ Table2 2 provides a visual summary of the key benefits and performance improvements deriving from the blockchain technology implementation at different stages of the supply chain. We reference the comparative case study for each supply chain process-measure combination.

Blockchain-driven supply chain performance improvements

The theoretical framework for blockchain implementation in supply chains

We next employ the findings from the qualitative research to develop a theoretical framework for blockchain-based supply chains. In particular, we match the blockchain technical characteristics (as described in Section  2.1 ) with the supply chain performance implications (identified from the case studies analysis in Section  4.1 ), following the value chain approach defined in Section  2.2 . We report in Fig.  3 the theoretical framework proposed.

Theoretical framework for blockchain implementation in supply chains

The top part of Fig.  3 is built based on the literature review and covers the characteristics of blockchain technology. Next, we match these characteristics across the supply chain processes (in the central part of Fig.  3 ) with the case studies. Specifically, we identify how case companies have used blockchain technology in their supply chains and its impact on their supply chain processes' performance. For example, we looked for the immutability characteristic of blockchain in all collected case studies and analyzed how and which supply chain processes it affects. A similar approach is used for the other characteristics. Finally, the bottom part of Fig.  3 presents the performance implications of blockchain technology implementation across the supply chain processes. These performance implications are derived primarily from case studies' analyses and supported by the literature (e.g., Di Vaio and Varriale 2020 ; Kumar et al. 2021 ; Difrancesco et al. 2022 ).

The analysis reveals that transparency, integrity, and reliability affect each stage of the supply chain and hence are the most relevant blockchain characteristics for supply chains. The results show that privacy is important for downstream supply chain members, such as distributors, retailers, and customers. The decentralized nature of blockchain offers privacy to supply chain members. The immutability of data mainly involves information related to the status and ownership of a product throughout the supply chain. Hence, it affects both the upstream (e.g., sourcing and manufacturing) and downstream (e.g., warehousing, distribution, and reverse logistics) supply chain processes. The versatility characteristic affects inventory and reverse logistics processes and allows supply chain members to integrate their own programs to improve their responsiveness to customers’ needs (Seebacher and Schüritz 2017 ; Fernández-Caramés et al. 2019 ).

Concerning performance, it is found that blockchain technology can significantly improve supply chain performance. In particular, some of the most common benefits of blockchain implementation are the increase in trust, visibility, transparency, and speed, which affect all processes from the upstream to the downstream supply chain. Also, we note an important improvement in cost and quality at almost any stage of the supply chain. This finding is consistent with the literature (Zhou et al. 2022 ).

Moreover, blockchain technology can improve supply chain sustainability performance both upstream (in the sourcing phase) and downstream (involving the actors related to the reverse logistics process and sustainability awareness). The performance improvement is grounded in blockchain technical characteristics, especially the transparency, integrity, and reliability. Furthermore, it is observed that visibility, representing a major criticality in supply chains (Heese 2007 ; O’Marah et al. 2014 ; Buell et al. 2016 ; Deloitte 2021 ), can be restored thanks to blockchain.

Discussion and managerial implications

This section discusses the managerial implications of the results. It also presents the significant barriers and limitations in blockchain adoption. Our analysis reveals that blockchain implementation can largely benefit supply chains.

According to the theoretical framework and consistent with the literature (Baharmand et al. 2021 ; Liu et al. 2021 ), transparency, integrity, and reliability significantly affect all parties and related processes across the supply chain. These three characteristics of blockchain are vital for successful supply chains. The immutability characteristic of blockchain affects both upstream and downstream supply chain processes. Surprisingly, we did not find evidence of this affecting the retailing process. Privacy is a major concern, mainly for the downstream members of supply chains. It is a characteristic that primarily involves customers and those actors that–directly or indirectly–interface with customers (like retailers and distributors). Customers are indeed posing increasing attention to privacy issues and expect retailers to guarantee a high level of data protection. The versatility characteristic is important for parties who deal with inventory and reverse logistics processes. Supply chain members involved with these processes need more flexibility to adapt and respond to the dynamic demands of customers. With blockchain implementation, participants can integrate their own programs to quickly improve their responsiveness to customers’ needs.

There are different indicators that affect the supply chain performance. As identified in the proposed theoretical framework (see Fig.  3 ), cost, speed, trust, visibility, and transparency are the most important performance indicators affecting most supply chain members. Similar to previous studies (Bumblauskas et al. 2020 ; Ada et al. 2021 ; Baharmand et al. 2021 ; Liu et al. 2021 ; Carlan et al. 2022 ), we find that blockchain helps decrease the cost and the time of sharing information and data among parties, making product visibility and tracking cheaper and easier. Further, as evident from the theoretical framework, inventory and warehousing costs can be reduced thanks to a truthful blockchain-based inventory system, which allows any parties in the supply chain to access the accurate inventory data and, therefore, optimize inventory policies while reducing stockout risks. Similarly, with blockchain implementation, cost and time related to the delivery process can be decreased since real-time trustable transactions can easily replace the associated paperwork. This aspect is becoming more and more relevant due to the globalization of supply chains and the frequent transshipment of cargo among different transportation modes and countries (Carlan et al. 2022 ). As a reference example, a single container shipped from East Africa to Europe may require up to 30 people to deal with the stamps and approvals (Popper and Lohr 2017 ). Knowing that about 90% of goods in global trade are carried by the ocean shipping industry each year (Mearian 2018 ), we can easily get a rough idea of how costly, time-consuming, and risky (e.g., documents lost or fraud) this can become. Additionally, a container can be stacked at port for days because of a missing paper, although the container can be loaded on a ship in a matter of minutes. Moreover, blockchain technology allows instantaneous, truthful, and cheaper payment transactions among supply chain parties (e.g., payment from customers or suppliers).

Furthermore, it is observed that visibility (especially as one moves far from the manufacturer) has been identified as one of the major issues in supply chains (Heese 2007 ; O’Marah et al. 2014 ; Buell et al. 2016 ; Deloitte 2021 ). Blockchain implementation can restore visibility, even while moving far from the manufacturer (retailer and customers). Also, blockchain enhances trust among supply chain parties, which is particularly significant if one considers the critical role of supply chain collaboration and trust among parties (e.g., Iyer and Ye 2000 ; Cachon 2004 ; Beske et al. 2014 ; Kumar et al. 2021 ).

Further, it is found that product quality and perceived customers’ value are important in upstream and downstream supply chain processes. Blockchain technology offers the ability to prove that products comply with legal standards and requirements. Sharing accurate real-time information allows for fraud detection and prevention, decreasing the burden deriving from frauds in the supply chain, and early detection of bottlenecks, disruptions, quality issues, or mistakes at any stage of the supply chain. Since blockchain is characterized by the integrity and immutability of real-time data (see Fig.  3 ), it allows supply chain members to share real-time trustable information about products, ownership, and transactions at any time across the supply chain stages. With more visibility and transparency across the supply chain, members can also trace back to each component source to detect any required information or anomalies in a matter of seconds. Moreover, blockchain technology can improve customers' experience and perceived service level due to the accurate information that manufacturers, distributors, or retailers can provide to customers, e.g., on their order status or the available in-stock inventory. Also, with the help of blockchain, customers can be guaranteed the authenticity and the safety of the product they buy and securely reward programs. Improving the perceived quality of customers' experience is a key differentiator in today's global and competitive environment (Zhou et al. 2022 ), where customers continuously increase their expectations and demand for a fast, convenient, and fully integrated experience (Kopyto et al. 2020 ).

As inferred from our theoretical framework, when we enlarge the analysis encompassing more comprehensive performance measurements, blockchain can positively affect new indicators (i.e., sustainability). Results show that blockchain technology also improves sustainability by enhancing the traceability of products, improving quality, and detecting fraud. This finding is consistent with the literature (Di Vaio and Varriale 2020 ). Like in the forward supply chain, blockchain allows collecting any information concerning the reverse flow of materials, including the quality status and composition of returned products for resales/reuse and fraudulent behavior. It increases trust from reverse flow users and enhances the creation of a circular economy. At the same time, blockchain fosters sustainable initiatives for supply chains and customers' sensitivity to sustainability, providing the means to track every single product throughout the supply chain and verify its actual footprint. Social aspects such as forced and child labor detection, workers' rights protection, and customers' health and safety can be verified along with environmental issues. It can be concluded that blockchain technology has the potential to improve sustainable supply chain performance under a more holistic and triple-bottom-line point of view, moving from traditional performance indicators such as cost and speed to a more comprehensive performance measurement framework that includes trust, visibility, transparency, customers' experience, and sustainability.

Despite the great benefits of blockchain technology discussed so far, blockchain also comes with several drawbacks and entails risks and limitations. One intrinsic limit of blockchain derives from its young age. Since it is a relatively new technology, managers are often skeptical, especially when they have to invest a significant amount of money. As revealed by a recent survey conducted by Ernst and Young ( 2018 ), complex regulation is the most significant barrier to widespread blockchain adoption. Another important aspect required for the adoption of blockchain is that all parties should be involved in its adoption. For example, it would not be helpful if only one supplier implements blockchain technology while the other supply chain partners do not. Furthermore, another important issue is related to data protection and privacy concerns. For example, some countries' current privacy legislation (e.g., the European Union's new General Data Protection Regulation; GDPR 2018 ) requires that users have the right to request the erasure of personal data related to them (the "right of erasure", previously called the "right to be forgotten"). However, one of the main characteristics of blockchain is its data's permanency, which makes it impossible, at least in public systems, to follow this directive. Additionally, blockchain technology significantly impacts energy consumption and sustainability because of the high computing power required for its implementation and running. Furthermore, especially in global supply chain environments where suppliers are often located in developing countries, access to the required technology and energy supply can be prohibitive.

Conclusions and directions for future research

Most previous studies on blockchain applications in supply chains involve the upstream part of the supply chain (sourcing and manufacturing) and distribution. This paper complements the literature by addressing all supply chain processes, from sourcing to reverse logistics. Among these, we highlight the involvement of the central role of customers in supply chains, which has been identified as one of the major drivers in today’s supply chains (Christopher and Ryals 2014 ; Ishfaq et al. 2016 ). Also, our focus on reverse logistics and sustainability answers the call for increasing attention to sustainability issues in global supply chains (Kumar et al. 2021 ; Difrancesco et al. 2022 ). Further, as opposed to isolated case studies, often focusing on the technical characteristics of blockchain, this study offers a holistic framework incorporating and matching the blockchain technical characteristics, its applications in the supply chain processes, and performance improvements.

This paper aims to help academics and practitioners understand and make strategic decisions on the design, implementation, and benefits evaluation of blockchain technology in different supply chain sectors. We conducted qualitative research by analyzing case studies related to the Gartner Top 25 list of companies. Each case study was analyzed following the Porter value chain approach. In particular, six core functions related to supply chain processes for blockchain applications were identified: sourcing and manufacturing, inventory management, distribution and delivery, retail, customers' experience, and product returns and reverse logistics. We then discussed the supply chain performance improvements deriving from adopting blockchain technology for each supply chain process. Next, a theoretical framework was built for blockchain-enhanced supply chain performance based on qualitative research results. Finally, the major drawbacks deriving from blockchain adoption were discussed.

This paper contributes to the emerging literature on blockchain technology applications in the supply chain area by providing structured qualitative research based on 20 case studies collected from different industries. We highlighted the implications, benefits, and challenges deriving from blockchain implementation and how blockchain technical characteristics tackle each supply chain process. This study’s results show managers how blockchain can be implemented at any stage of the supply chain and unveils the relevant potential benefits of the supply chain performance metrics. In particular, blockchain implementation can help managers structure and improve their network of relationships among the supply chain partners, improve collaboration, and provide efficient, real-time, and trustable resource and information sharing. This research supports managers in making long-term, well-informed strategic decisions based on reliable data, investing in collaborative activities with other supply chain partners, and providing a better customer experience.

Moreover, due to its property of visibility, data integrity, and traceability, blockchain enhances the development of sustainable supply chains, particularly the environmental and social dimensions that represent a critical issue, especially in global and geographically dispersed networks. Managers should also be aware of the limitations and drawbacks of blockchain technology to evaluate the net benefit derived from its implementation. Similar to any other study, this paper also has some limitations. First, although based on well-recognized and solid supply chains, this study can be extended to encompass a larger number of companies. Second, although the identified case studies mainly focus on global companies, analyzing how our findings change when including local and small-medium enterprises would be interesting. Finally, due to the topic's novelty and the field's extremely dynamic nature, most companies are still at the very early stage of blockchain implementation or driving pilot projects. Therefore, we stress the need to continue working in this direction and monitor the projects' advancement over time to derive a deeper analysis and more robust results. More studies and research are expected on blockchain technology in the supply chain management field in the coming years. It is clear indeed that, despite the novelty of the topic and "regardless of the price of bitcoin, blockchain technology is here to stay" (Di Gregorio  2018 ).

Declarations

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Publisher's note

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Contributor Information

Rita Maria Difrancesco, Email: ude.adae@ocsecnarfidr .

Purushottam Meena, Email: ude.cfoc@paneem .

Gopal Kumar, Email: ni.ca.rupiarmii@ramuklapog .

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Blockchain in the food supply chain - What does the future look like?

Archana Sristy

Sr. Director - U.S. Omni Tech

Nov. 30, 2021

More often than not, when people hear the word "Blockchain" they relate it to Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) . On the contrary, the new-age tech goes far beyond and finds more complex applications. In supply chain, there are several instances of Blockchain technology being used.

• The De Beers Group tracked 100 high-value diamonds along its supply chain from mine to retail, creating unprecedented asset-traceability assurance and solving two major issues in the diamond industry – avoiding the trade of conflict diamonds and offering trust in provenance (assuring the origin) of valuable and polished diamonds
• Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the UAE's state-owned oil company, launched a Blockchain supply chain system pilot program in collaboration with IBM to track oil from the well to the customers and automate the transactions that take place along the way
• Circa 2017, global shipping giant Maersk completed the first test of its Blockchain tech to manage cargo. The company developed the TradeLens supply chain platform with IBM to help track cargo ships and containers
• FedEx is a part of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance ( BiTA ) and launched a Blockchain-powered pilot program to clarify the data stored on the Blockchain to best resolve customer disputes by helping them receive information in a more streamlined manner
• Fish supplying firm John West started including codes on the tuna cans that allowed customers to trace the product back to the fishermen 
• In late Jan 2020, Ford Motor Company announced that it would use Blockchain tech to trace cobalt supplies used in electric car batteries to ensure that they get an authentic product to maintain the quality

And the list goes on.

So, why are companies adopting Blockchain technology in the supply chain? 

A Blockchain is a ledger on which new transactions are recorded in blocks, and a cryptographic hash of data identifies each block. It is impossible to recreate the data from this hash. Even if a tiny detail of the transaction data is changed, it creates a different hash, with each hash of the block included as a data point in the next block, making tampering extremely difficult (almost NIL).

It comes as no surprise that the Economist called Blockchain technology The Trust Machine in 2015.

Coincidentally, in the same year, China experienced a massive food safety issue, with the government seizure of 100,000 tons of smuggled pork, beef, and chicken , some of which dated back to the 1970s.

These situations raised two vital concerns for the food supply chain industry – food fraud and food traceability. 

Walmart came up with solutions rooted in Blockchain technology for the issue.

Playing a part in food traceability

When it comes to food traceability, it is vital to show where the food was sourced from and where it has been.

Within Walmart, it began in 2016, when the Vice President of Food Safety in the company, asked his team to trace a package of sliced mangoes to the source. 

It took his team 6 days, 18 hours, and 26 minutes. While all the data was there in the system, arriving at the information took a long time. 

After partnering with IBM to create a food traceability system based on the Hyperledger Fabric (a project hosted by the Linux Foundation), Walmart could trace the mangoes stored in its US stores within 2.2 seconds , literally, the speed of thought!

The same tech was used to trace the pork in China by uploading the certificates of authenticity to the Blockchain leading to more transparency and trust. 

One of the most notable contributions of Walmart as a global food safety initiative leader is – the Walmart Food Safety and Collaboration Center . It led to investing in food safety research via internal supplier networks as well as leveraging JD’s expertise in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. 

Walmart, along with JD, IBM, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, built a Blockchain ledger to track the movement of pork for its Chinese supply chain in 2016, which was a part of the new consortium to enhance food safety. IBM offered its Blockchain Platform and expertise, while Tsinghua University acted as the technical advisor of the key technologies for the process. 

Together, the companies collaborated with the food supply chain providers and regulators to develop the necessary standards, solutions, and partnerships to enable a safe food ecosystem in the country. The new system connected and verified various pork suppliers, shippers, and buyers, along with others who were involved in moving the product around China. 

These exercises were the biggest proof of concept within the industry and formed the stepping stone to better food traceability. 

Walmart – a pioneer in food traceability 

In August 2017 – Walmart announced a Blockchain partnership with big names in the supply chain industry such as Dole, Kroger, McCormick, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, and Unilever to collaborate and find new applications that could help increase food traceability. 

By September 2018, it was possible for the company to trace over 25 products from as many as five different suppliers-  including mangoes, leafy greens, strawberries, dairy products, meat and poultry, packaged salads, and even baby food. The system was so efficient that one could take a jar of a product or a salad box and trace the ingredients back to the farms from where they were harvested.

In the same year, the retail giant announced: “a new, Blockchain-enabled Walmart Food Traceability Initiative to increase transparency in the food system and create shared value for the entire leafy green farm to table continuum.”

As a part of the initiative, all fresh leafy greens suppliers were expected to trace their products back to the farms within seconds as opposed to days. To do so, the suppliers were required to capture the data using the IBM Food Trust network using GS1 standard communication protocols like EPCIS. The traceability data that needed capturing and sent to the Blockchain included - product ID (GTIN-14), lot/batch codes, purchase orders, and date/time codes (harvesting, processing, shipping, and receiving).

By 2019, Walmart was already a pioneer in the food safety business. 

One of the most significant piece of news arrived that year from the Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform  It introduced the first batch of 23 product lines tested and launched on the platform, enabled by VeChain’s Blockchain technology.

The same year, the company piloted a Blockchain technology for the end-to-end traceability of shrimp sourced in Andhra Pradesh, India, and shipped to select Sam's Club locations in the USA. This was the first-ever known use of Blockchain supply chain technology to track shrimp exports from farms to overseas retailers. 

What does the future hold for Blockchain technology in the Food Industry?

Creating accountability and ensuring transparency across the food supply chain is a necessity rather than an afterthought, especially with food contamination being rampant across the globe . Blockchain tech can effectively help trace the contaminated product (even if it is just an ingredient) back to its source and curb the further spread of foodborne illnesses. 

Apart from the rapid containment of the illnesses with decreased response times, Blockchain also reduces food waste due to selective recalls leading to better recall management. To put things in perspective, about 17% of global food production may go wasted, according to the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP)  Food Waste Index Report 2021 , with 13% of this waste coming from retail.

Also, granular information about food items derived from Blockchain supply chain solutions removes the guesswork and helps merchants make decisions on how they handle the goods such as getting the accurate shelf-life data of fruits to halt discarding food that is still fresh. 

At Walmart, we give precedence to quality products at every level. 

Implementing innovative Blockchain solutions helps us get detailed insights into every single event and take informed actions. This enhanced visibility enables us to manage suppliers better, conduct more efficient quality checks, and drastically reduce time and costs at various levels of the supply chain.   

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7 Blockchain Case Studies from Different Industries in 2024

Global investment in blockchain technology is skyrocketing (see Figure 1) because blockchain can enhance data exchange in multi-party processes thanks to:

• Enhanced transparency
• Increased speed
• Reduced transfer costs. 

Blockchain pioneers have a chance to acquire a competitive edge . However, executives have many investment alternatives and maturity of some blockchain based solutions is low. Therefore, executives need to make smart decisions to invest in an optimal manner in blockchain based solutions.

In this article, we present 7 blockchain case studies. Real-world examples can help executives identify solution areas that are mature enough for investment.

Figure 1: Blockchain market size in billion US dollars

Procurement

1. blockchain ease supplier master data management: trust your supplier.

Business challenge:

Trust Your Supplier saw an opportunity to reduce costs and effort when it came to finding and onboarding a reputable supplier. Supply chain interruptions and quality expectations to comply with regulations or stakeholders’ environmental and social concerns , are two important risk aspects that firms must deal with. Finding a suitable supplier is a time-consuming and expensive process for businesses because verifying and obtaining data from providers is difficult since companies do not want to share their data openly.

Initiative:

Trust Your Supplier  collaborated with IBM to create an open source blockchain platform that allows businesses to securely and effectively share data with permissioned partners. Platform allows businesses to have their data confirmed by third-party verifiers such as:

• Dun & Bradstreet (business data).
• Eco Vadis (ESG data).
• Rapid Ratings (finance data).

Once your company’s data is confirmed, a blockchain-based corporate digital passport is created, allowing:

• Enhanced compliance.
• Enhanced risk management.
• Reduced onboarding duration of suppliers.
• Reduce supplier onboarding duration more than 70%.
• Lessen the cost for data verification to work with a suitable supplier 50%.
• Improve compliance by almost instantaneously checking international quality certificates of other parties like GRI, ISO, SASB etc.

2. Blockchain eases trade finance: Marco Polo Network

For both exporters and importers, international trading can be risky. When an importer pays in advance for goods, the exporter may collect the cash without sending the goods. However, if the exporter agrees to receive payment after delivery, the importer may refuse to pay after receiving the products. To overcome this problem, traders collaborate with third parties such as banks that employ instruments like letters of credit , which guarantee payment once goods are delivered to the importer.

Marco Polo Network utilizes blockchain technology to provide a platform for exporters and importers to transparently share delivery data by integrating with supply chain ERP systems and creating an irrevocable contract for parties that guarantees the exchange of money and goods under specified conditions (e.g. money transferred when goods receives the importer).

Initiative potentially eliminates the need for third party existence that solves “trust issue”. However, third parties also involve and benefit while they are using Marco Polo Network’ solution since the platform increases transparency.   

• Enhances working capital cycle for both buyer and seller.
• Automates transaction settlement process.
• Reduced complexity by digitizing documents.

Supply chain

3. blockchain improves compliance: renault .

The automotive sector is highly regulated . Renault, for example, deals with 6,000 regulatory and quality characteristics relating to:

• Safety regulations
• Geometric features
• Material quality
• Environmental concerns

A vehicle must meet certain internal and external compliance criteria in order to be offered on the market. A change in regulations needs to be communicated downstream to suppliers and suppliers of suppliers to ensure that they all build according to the new specifications. Therefore,  Renault needed a platform throughout the ecosystem in a transparent manner to ensure compliance. 

Renault and IBM collaborated to create the automotive industry’s first extended compliance end-to-end distributed blockchain platform for the traceability of components internal and external regulatory compliance. 

• Reduces expense of non-compliance by half. 
• The initiative reduces the cost of managing non-quality/non-compliance by 10%. 
• Renault wants to invest more in blockchain technology for the visibility of product carbon footprints and recycling operations as a result of the initiative’s success, aligning with the company’s ESG and circular economy ambitions.

4. Blockchain authenticates infant products quality: Nestle

After 300,000 newborns were sickened with melamine from powdered milk products in 2008, Chinese parents ‘ trust in infant nourishment products was damaged. Nestle was looking for ways to reassure Chinese parents about the quality of their newborn nourishment product NAN A2 to penetrate the market effectively.

Nestle teamed up with Techrock , a Chinese technology firm, to create a public blockchain platform that integrates with a mobile app . As a result, parents can verify the NAN A2’s following characteristics using their phone:

• Ingredients 
• Place the ingredients sourced from
• Origin of production
• Packaging details including the photos.
• Due to the transparency provided by blockchain, Nestle held the largest market share in China’s infant nourishment sector.

5. Blockchain ensures instant claims processing: Etherisc

Etherisc is an insurtech startup that was looking for ways to speed up the claims processing. Traditional claims processing comprises five processes, as shown in Figure 2. Though the time it takes to settle a claim varies by insurance company and type, it usually takes weeks. However, according to EY , nearly 90% of insureds choose an insurer based on the quality and speed of claims processing.

Figure 2: Steps of Claims Processing

To automate claims processing Etherisc uses blockchain technology which enables smart contracts that enforce the agreement when the certain conditions specified on the contract are met. 

Etherisc employed third-party data providers to determine if the payment arrangement’s terms were met or not (see Figure 3). Therefore, after alerting the insurance provider, Etherisc evaluates the initial claim investigation and policy check processes in real time, increasing its claims processing efficiency.

Figure 3: Claims processing with blockchain

• Reduces the time needed for claims settlement.
• Automatically investigates probable fraud using data from third parties ( IoT devices or reputable databases).

6. Blockchain optimizes the power grid: Tennet

TenneT , situated in the Netherlands and Germany, is an energy transmission operator. Because energy demand and supply are not always in balance, electricity distribution is difficult. Energy productivity of sustainable energy supplies varies instantly depending on the state of the weather. Wind turbine electricity generation, for example, differs depending on the wind conditions of the day. Similarly electricity demand varies within the day. Thus, optimizing electricity distribution becomes a challenging issue.

To optimize the power grid Tennet cooperated with IBM and Sonnen. IBM deployed blockchain Sonnen, producer of home energy storage systems provides an opportunity for interaction with minor energy producers and consumers. 

Energy storage systems linked to the TenneT’s power grid database via blockchain. Thanks to blockchain’s distributed ledger, inaccuracies in the demand and supply of electricity are transparently shared with a variety of stakeholders. Initiative enables the connected energy storage units to collect or release additional electricity as needed in a couple of moments, reducing grid transmission inefficiencies.

• Elevated curtailment and re-routing operations became unnecessary so the initiative saves millions of dollars.
• A significant step toward the transformation towards renewable energy sources has been taken. Because initiative provides a way of management for the significant supply volatility of renewable energy sources.
• Support local energy producers like home owners or farmers who deploy solar plants or wind turbines and lower their electricity expenses as well carbon footprint’s .

7. Blockchain assists the tracking of intellectual property (IP): IPwe

Many businesses do not have the opportunity to present the true value of their assets to potential investors so some companies are undervalued. IPwe   intended to transform the inefficient old IP system, in which patent holders, lawyers, corporations, intermediaries, and global patent offices lack communication for a variety of reasons, including the inability to transfer information from one source to another transparently.

IPwe teamed up with IBM to create a blockchain that allows IP to be tokenized and stored in the cloud. As a result, traders have easy access to IP and can invest in it based on clear data. IPwe also provides a place for businesses to fairly advertise their intellectual property.

• IPwe’s blockchain database has 80% of global patents.

If you think blockchain could help your company, use our data-driven lists to compare the best blockchain platforms and services .

If you have further questions regarding blockchain you can contact us:

This article was drafted by former AIMultiple industry analyst Görkem Gençer.

Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 60% of Fortune 500 every month. Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider , Forbes, Washington Post , global firms like Deloitte , HPE, NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission . You can see more reputable companies and media that referenced AIMultiple. Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised businesses on their enterprise software, automation, cloud, AI / ML and other technology related decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization. He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider . Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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The huge strides TMT companies have made in digitizing their products and services have produced a seamless value chain for digital content that runs all the way from artists and creators, producers and directors, to distributors and — ultimately — the end customer, creating growing appreciation and loyalty.

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Watch: Supply Chain Ecosystem Integration: Tearing Down the Silos

Tying all planning and execution systems together tears down silos and enhances operations, says Mahesh Rajasekharan, CEO of Cleo .

The list of risks and disruptions that bedevil the supply chain today is long and, unfortunately, well-known. In Rajasekharan’s opinion, only companies nimble enough to make immediate operations changes will take leadership and grab market share. The years-long shift of systems, applications and workloads to the cloud has accelerated due to the uncertainties all supply chains face today.

“They’re shifting ERP [enterprise resource planning] and e-commerce systems, and primarily it's because they want to get closer to the customer,” he says. “They want the agility and nimbleness to make sure they are transparent and have control over the supply chain.”

Rajasekharan emphasizes that data analytics is extremely important to decision making. “To me, it's all about closing the loop. Whenever there is any leading indicator flashing yellow or red, how do you make course corrections, and how do you make the information available to the various decision-makers and stakeholders so you can get back to the plan?” 

Business processes must be fluid and transparent in order to have control over the supply chain, he says, and silos often defeat that. “People are focused on the demand, supply, fulfillment and inventory side. What's important is to have the customer first, and look through the entire supply chain from the view of the customer. There must be convergence across the various functions, like inbound logistics, outbound logistics, manufacturing.

“The leading companies are taking a supply chain-convergent view to look across the silos,” Rajasekharan says. “That's where the biggest lift is going to happen. And to do that, you need to move applications to the cloud, look at the right data, and be able to orchestrate the systems so you can quickly make data-driven decisions.”

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Importance of Learning About Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is more than just the backbone of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is a decentralized and distributed ledger system that has the potential to revolutionize industries such as finance, supply chain, gaming, healthcare, and more. 

As more organizations adopt blockchain, the demand for skilled professionals with a deep understanding of its principles and applications increases. Gaining knowledge about blockchain is essential for anyone looking to participate in this technology-driven transformation and secure lucrative career opportunities.

Why Should Beginners Read Blockchain Books?

Reading blockchain books is a great way for beginners to learn about the technology’s core concepts, potential applications, and real-world implications. Beginner books provide a comprehensive overview and enable readers to build a solid foundation before learning advanced topics. Blockchain books can also offer insights from industry experts and inspiration to new learners.

How to Choose the Best Blockchain Books?

Not all blockchain books are of high quality. Some books are simply not suitable for beginners who have no clue about Blockchain. You need to think about various factors like your past knowledge, authors, reviews, difficulty level, relevance, and more. 

When selecting the best blockchain books, beginners should consider these factors:

• Relevance : Choose books that cover the most recent developments and trends in blockchain technology. As technology is rapidly evolving, it is essential to stay updated with the latest advancements and to maintain a competitive edge.
• Level of Difficulty : Look for books that cater to beginners and provide non-technical explanations to help build a strong understanding. These books should simplify complex concepts and use relatable examples to make learning more accessible.
• Author’s Expertise : Opt for books written by experienced authors with a proven track record in the field of blockchain. This ensures that the information provided is accurate, reliable, and insightful. Consider authors who have worked in the industry, developed blockchain projects, or have extensive research experience.
• Reviews and Recommendations : Seek recommendations from peers and read reviews to gauge the quality and usefulness of a book. Online platforms like Amazon and Goodreads can provide a wealth of reviews, making it easier to identify well-received and valuable books.
• Scope and Focus : Consider the scope and focus of the book. Some books provide a broad overview of blockchain technology, while others focus on specific aspects like cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, or blockchain development. Choose books that align with your learning goals and interests.
• Writing Style : Pick books with engaging writing styles that maintain your interest and make learning enjoyable. A well-written book can make complex topics easier to understand and help readers retain information more effectively.
• Complementary Resources : Buy books that include additional learning resources such as practical exercises, case studies, or online materials. These supplementary resources can enhance the learning experience and help readers apply the knowledge gained from the book.

Top 10 Blockchain Books for Beginners

The basics of bitcoins and blockchains by antony lewis.

This book offers a clear and concise introduction to the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Antony Lewis breaks down complex concepts into easily understandable language, making it an excellent starting point for beginners. It covers topics such as how Bitcoin transactions work, the role of miners, and the security features of blockchain technology.

Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps by Daniel Dresher

Daniel Dresher’s non-technical guide presents blockchain technology in a simple and accessible manner. The book uses a step-by-step approach to explain key concepts and applications, helping beginners grasp the fundamentals of blockchain technology. Topics covered include consensus algorithms, smart contracts, and real-world use cases for blockchain technology.

Cryptoassets by Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar

Cryptoassets delves into the world of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and other digital assets that are built on blockchain technology. The authors offer insights into evaluating and investing in these new asset classes, making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in digital currencies and blockchain-based assets. The book also discusses the risks and rewards associated with investing in cryptocurrencies and provides practical advice on portfolio management.

Blockchain Revolution by Don and Alex Tapscott

This popular book by a father-and-son duo explores the profound impact of blockchain technology on various industries. It offers an analysis of the technology’s potential to revolutionize business, governance, and society at large. The authors present compelling case studies and expert opinions to illustrate how blockchain can be utilized across different sectors, including finance, healthcare, and education.

Bitcoin Money: A Tale of Bitville Discovering Good Money by Michael Caras

Aimed at a younger audience, this illustrated book uses a fictional story to introduce the concepts of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. It is an engaging and educational read for both children and adults looking to learn about digital currencies in a fun and relatable manner. The story covers topics such as the history of money, the principles of sound money, and the advantages of Bitcoin over traditional fiat currencies.

The Book of Satoshi by Phil Champagne

This compilation of writings and speeches by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto offers a unique insight into the origins and philosophy of the world’s first cryptocurrency. It provides readers with a better understanding of the motivations behind the development of Bitcoin and the potential implications of decentralized digital currencies. The book also includes a comprehensive glossary and a timeline of key events in the early history of Bitcoin.

Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper

Nathaniel Popper’s Digital Gold chronicles the fascinating history of Bitcoin, from its inception to its rise as a global phenomenon. The book features interviews with key figures in the cryptocurrency space, providing readers with an inside look into the minds of the pioneers who shaped the development of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Digital Gold is a captivating read for those interested in the story behind the world’s most famous cryptocurrency.

The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey

This book explores the potential of blockchain technology to transform various aspects of our lives. The authors delve into a wide range of applications, from finance and supply chains to governance and digital identity. The Truth Machine also discusses the challenges and obstacles that must be overcome for the technology to reach its full potential, making it a balanced and informative read.

Ethereum: The Beginner’s Guide to Mining and Investing in Ethereum, including smart contracts and Blockchain Technology

This beginner’s guide focuses on Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and a platform for creating decentralized applications using smart contracts. The book summarizes Ethereum’s history, its underlying technology, and the various ways to invest in and mine Ether, the platform’s native cryptocurrency. It also covers the basics of smart contracts and their potential applications in various industries.

The Blockchain Developer: A Practical Guide for Designing, Implementing, Publishing, Testing, and Securing Distributed Blockchain-based Projects by Elad Elrom

This practical guide is tailored for aspiring blockchain developers who want to build their own decentralized applications. The book covers essential development tools, programming languages, and frameworks used in blockchain development. It also touches on the best practices for designing, testing, and securing blockchain-based projects. The author also provides hands-on examples and tutorials to help readers gain practical experience.

Other Ways to Learn About Blockchain

Apart from reading books, beginners can also explore other resources to deepen their understanding of blockchain technology:

• Udemy courses : Online platforms like Udemy offer a variety of courses on blockchain development, cryptocurrencies, and related topics. These courses often provide video lectures, quizzes, and practical exercises to help learners master the subject matter.
• YouTube tutorials : YouTube is a treasure trove of free educational content on blockchain technology. Many experts and enthusiasts share their knowledge through video tutorials, making it an accessible and convenient way to learn about the subject.
• Official documentations : Most blockchain platforms provide official documentation and developer guides to help users get started with their technology. These resources can be invaluable for understanding the inner workings of specific blockchain systems.
• Internet forums : Online forums and discussion boards, such as Reddit and Stack Overflow, can be excellent sources of information, support, and inspiration for blockchain enthusiasts. By engaging with others in the community, beginners can learn from their peers and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments.

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries, making it an essential area of study for professionals and enthusiasts alike. To get started on this exciting journey, beginners should invest time in reading the top 10 blockchain books outlined in this article. These books provide a solid foundation in understanding the core concepts, applications, and real-world implications of blockchain technology.

Beginners can also take advantage of other learning resources such as Udemy courses, YouTube tutorials, official documentation, and internet forums. By engaging with these resources and immersing themselves in the world of blockchain, beginners keep their knowledge up-to-date. This will help them pave the way for a successful career in this field.