Data-driven review of blockchain applications in supply chain management: key research themes and future directions

Abstract

Blockchain (BC) applications in supply chain management (SCM) have recently received extensive attention. It is important to synthesise the extant literature on the field to identify key research themes and navigate potential future directions. This study thus develops an efficient, scalable data-driven review approach that uses text mining and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)-based topic modelling for automatic content analysis of full-text documents. Our method overcomes the drawbacks of traditional systematic literature reviews using either manual coding or bibliographic analysis for article classifications, which are highly time-consuming and biased when dealing with large amounts of text. 108 papers published between 2017 and 2022 were analysed which identified 10 key research themes, including revenue management, sustainability, traceability, manufacturing system, scheduling in cloud manufacturing, healthcare SCM, anti-counterfeit system, logistics and transportation, system architecture development, and food & agriculture SC. Five future directions are then suggested, including (1) integration of BC and other emerging technologies for global and scalable SCM, (2) crypto-X applications in SCM, (3) BC-enabled closed-loop SCM, (4) the environmental and social impacts of BC-based SCM and (5) decentralised autonomous organisations in SCM.

Keywords:

• Supply chain
• blockchain
• text mining
• data driven review
• topic modelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Hiep Cong Pham, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Truong Van Nguyen

Truong Van Nguyen is a senior lecturer in Operations and Information System Management in Business School, Brunel University London, UK. He earned his PhD in System Management and Strategy from Business School, University of Greenwich, UK. His research interests focus on exploring new applications of Big Data Analytics and Machine Learnings in sustainable circular supply chain management and digital marketing. In 2022, he received the best paper award in Theory and Methodology by The Association of European Operational Research Societies. His works have been published in several internationally recognised and high-impact journals in Operational Research area.

Hiep Cong Pham

Hiep Cong Pham is the head of Bachelor of Business program in the Business School, RMIT Vietnam and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His research areas include cyber security behaviour, supply chain management and educational technologies. He has published in quality journals including Aquaculture, Aquaculture Economics & Management, The Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics, Journal of Information & Computer Security and Australasian Journal of Information System. He is the editorial board member of the Journal of Information and Computer Security.

Minh Nhat Nguyen

Minh Nhat Nguyen is a PhD candidate in the Business School, RMIT University Vietnam. He has Master of Business Administration degree from RMIT University. His research interests focus on business management, entrepreneurship and human behaviours information security.

Li Zhou

Li Zhou is an expert on closed-loop supply chain management. She has acted in several different leadership roles during her international career. Her current research interest lies on cutting-edge technology applications and data-driven decision-making in product returns and reverse logistics. Her main methodology is system modelling and simulation.

Mohammadreza Akbari

Mohammadreza Akbari is an MBA Academic Director (Singapore) and senior lecturer (Logistics & Supply Chain Management) at James Cook University, College of Business, Law, Governance. His research interest includes a broad range of disciplines including logistics and supply chain management, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility (CSR), emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, operations management, strategic outsourcing, business process reengineering (BPR), pollution reduction, anywhere working and smart cities.