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      Blockchain: case studies in food supply chain visibility

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      Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
      Emerald

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          Abstract

          Purpose

          This paper aims to investigate how blockchain has moved beyond cryptocurrencies and is being deployed to enhance visibility and trust in supply chains, their limitations and potential impact.

          Design/methodology/approach

          Qualitative analysis are undertaken via case studies drawn from food companies using semi-structured interviews.

          Findings

          Blockchain is demonstrated as an enabler of visibility in supply chains. Applications at scale are most likely for products where the end consumer is prepared to pay the premium currently required to fund the technology, e.g. baby food. Challenges remain in four areas: trust of the technology, human error and fraud at the boundaries, governance, consumer data access and willingness to pay.

          Research limitations/implications

          The paper shows that blockchain can be utilised as part of a system generating visibility and trust in supply chains. Research directs academic attention to issues that remain to be addressed. The challenges pertaining to the technology itself we believe to be generalisable; those specific to the food industry may not hold elsewhere.

          Practical implications

          From live case studies, we provide empirical evidence that blockchain provides visibility of exchanges and reliable data in fully digitised supply chains. This provides provenance and guards against counterfeit goods. However, firms will need to work to gain consumer buy-in for the technology following repeated past claims of trustworthiness.

          Originality/value

          This paper provides primary evidence from blockchain use cases “in the wild”. The exploratory case studies examine application of blockchain for supply chain visibility.

          Related collections

          Most cited references74

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          Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain management

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            Understanding blockchain technology for future supply chains: a systematic literature review and research agenda

            This paper aims to investigate the way in which blockchain technology is likely to influence future supply chain practices and policies. A systematic review of both academic and practitioner literature was conducted. Multiple accounts of blockchain adoption within industry were also consulted to gain further insight. While blockchain technologies remain in their infancy, they are gaining momentum within supply chains, trust being the predominant factor driving their adoption. The value of such technologies for supply chain management lies in four areas: extended visibility and traceability, supply chain digitalisation and disintermediation, improved data security and smart contracts. Several challenges and gaps in understanding and opportunities for further research are identified by this research. How a blockchain-enabled supply chain should be configured has also been explored from a design perspective. This systematic review focuses on the diffusion of blockchain technology within supply chains, and great care was taken in selecting search terms. However, the authors acknowledge that their choice of terms may have excluded certain blockchain articles from this review. This paper offers valuable insight for supply chain practitioners into how blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt existing supply chain provisions as well as a number of challenges to its successful diffusion. The paper debates the poential social and economic impact brought by blockchain. This paper is one of the first studies to examine the current state of blockchain diffusion within supply chains. It lays a firm foundation for future research.
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              Mitigating supply chain risk through improved confidence

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
                SCM
                Emerald
                1359-8546
                1359-8546
                May 04 2020
                May 04 2020
                : ahead-of-print
                : ahead-of-print
                Article
                10.1108/SCM-08-2019-0300
                d9eb4c4d-5274-4698-bc9d-3f037dffa467
                © 2020

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