Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain management

Abstract

Globalisation of supply chains makes their management and control more difficult. Blockchain technology, as a distributed digital ledger technology which ensures transparency, traceability, and security, is showing promise for easing some global supply chain management problems. In this paper, blockchain technology and smart contracts are critically examined with potential application to supply chain management. Local and global government, community, and consumer pressures to meet sustainability goals prompt us to further investigate how blockchain can address and aid supply chain sustainability. Part of this critical examination is how blockchains, a potentially disruptive technology that is early in its evolution, can overcome many potential barriers. Four blockchain technology adoption barriers categories are introduced; inter-organisational, intra-organisational, technical, and external barriers. True blockchain-led transformation of business and supply chain is still in progress and in its early stages; we propose future research propositions and directions that can provide insights into overcoming barriers and adoption of blockchain technology for supply chain management.

Keywords:

• blockchain technology
• supply chain management
• sustainability
• barriers
• research agenda

Acknowledgement

We wish to acknowledge the APICS Research, Innovation, & Strategy Committee for supporting our research on Blockchain Technology and Sustainable Supply Chains.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/kiambu-07-17/index.html

2. https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2015/o26-11-15/index.html

3. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/carbon-currency-blockchain-poseidon-ecosphere/

4. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.782537!/file/SCEnAT4.0forIndustry4.0.pdf

5. https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/energy-blockchain-labs-inc

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the APICS Research, Innovation, & Strategy Committee, grant number 227940.