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

BlockchainTraceabilitySupply chainSupply chain managementBusinessTransparency (behavior)GlobalizationProcess managementSustainabilitySupply chain risk managementIndustrial organizationRisk analysis (engineering)Service managementComputer scienceMarketingComputer securityEconomics

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Publication Info

Year
2018
Type
article
Volume
57
Issue
7
Pages
2117-2135
Citations
3379
Access
Closed

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3379
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Cite This

Sara Saberi, Mahtab Kouhizadeh, Joseph Sarkis et al. (2018). Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain management. International Journal of Production Research , 57 (7) , 2117-2135. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2018.1533261

Identifiers

DOI
10.1080/00207543.2018.1533261