Assessing the feasibility of blockchain technology in industries: evidence from Turkey

Blockchain technology diffusion in tourism: Evidence from early enterprise adopters and innovators

The use cases of blockchain as an innovative technology have increasingly captured the attention of tourism enterprises. To date, the literature tends to discuss blockchain's advantages rather than how early enterprise adopters and innovators experience and perceive the technology. As such, the extent of technology diffusion is not well understood. This study critically explores the factors influencing blockchain diffusion in tourism and how blockchain innovation is diffused in tourism. We conducted semistructured interviews with founders and senior executives of tourism enterprises in the United States and Europe who are early adopters and innovators of blockchain in tourism. From the thematic analysis, our empirical findings indicate that blockchain has much to offer despite the nascent link between blockchain's business value to an enterprise's strategic plans and the limited success of use cases in tourism. We summarize the findings in a conceptual framework and offer propositions based on the antecedents (motivators and drivers and challenges and barriers) of blockchain diffusion of innovation for enterprises to achieve competitive advantage. The propositions provide a research agenda to guide the strategic implementation of blockchain.

How can blockchain technology promote food safety in agricultural market?-an evolutionary game analysis

The governance of agricultural food safety issues is closely linked to social interests. To promote food safety supervision in the Chinese agricultural markets under the background of blockchain application, this paper develops a partnership comprising vendors, consumers, and the government. Using the theory of evolutionary game combined with the actual situation of China, the evolutionary process simulations of three participants prove that the tripartite subjects can realize a stable state under the specific relationship. Impact investigation results of typical influential factors indicate the following: (1) The behavior of vendors depends on the government's supervision and consumers' reporting attitude. Limiting the penalty amount for vendors to 66.7% of speculative gains can shorten the processing time for vendors to comply with the law. (2) Consumers play a vital role in food safety supervision of the agricultural market. The penalty for consumers should be limited to 1/3 of the reward amount. (3) The government's incentive-oriented and punishment-inhibited policies can promote blockchain technology in supervision. Punishment-inhibited and key influencing parameters can cooperate in obtaining the maximum regulatory benefits. The results of this study have certain reference values for promoting policy formulation and implementing blockchain technology in agricultural food safety supervision.

Critical success factor analysis of blockchain technology in agri-food supply chain management: A circular economy perspective

In the sustainability system, which gives importance to the availability of resources, recycling, renewal, and reproduction strategies can be handled under the name of the circular economy. While there are many stages to be followed from food production to consumption and even recycling, one of the technologies that will contribute to the circular economy that can take an active role in these stages is blockchain technology. In this study, which is about the circular economy in sustainable supply chain management, the contribution of blockchain technology to agri-food supply chain management is discussed. The aim of the study is to research, analyze and prioritize the critical success factors of the use of blockchain technology for the agri-food sector on the way to the circular economy. As a first step, with the help of PESTEL analysis approach, 12 critical success factors for agri-food supply chain management under the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal dimensions of blockchain technology within the scope of circular economy are determined. Analytic Network Process (ANP) and MultiAtributive Ideal-Real Comparative Analysis (MAIRCA) methods are used in an integrated way to consider the degree of influence between the factors and to determine the ideal optimal factor. In the results, it is determined that the political and technological sub-criteria of blockchain technology is determined, and it is observed that the criteria handled in line with the sustainability system are compatible with the perspective of reducing the waste of resources of the circular economy. If blockchain technology is used in the agri-food sector, it has been determined that it will contribute to the circular economy with the success factors in this study. "Ability to prevent food waste"; "Increased food security"; "Product lifecycle tracking" factors take priority in their ranking.

Blockchain technology for sustainable development: a systematic literature review

Purpose

Blockchain technology (BCT) is one of the latest disruptive innovations, brought along with-it immense scope of diverse applications contributing towards sustainable development (SD). The consistent increase in the publications reveal that the application of BCT for SD has become popular among researchers and practitioners in past few years, in turn, urged for a systematic literature review (SLR) to get an insight into the research journey travelled so far and setting directions for future research in this area. Therefore, this study aims to identify, map and synthesize the available literature on application of BCT for SD.

Design/methodology/approach

The automatic and manual search resulted into 1,277 studies from Scopus and Web of Science database. Further applying inclusion and exclusion criterion resulted in bringing out total of 157 studies, which were termed as primary studies. Based on the results of descriptive analysis, conducted through Bibliometric and VOSviewer software, the characteristics of BCT and its key capabilities, contributing towards shaping the recent SD literature, were critically examined. Identified research themes for clustering primary studies were aligned with United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (UNSDG). A mind-map was also prepared on the basis of thematic classification of primary studies.

Findings

The research themes “business practice and economic sustainability”, “agriculture and food security” and “business practice and environment sustainability” were found to be the focal points of scholarly attention. Synthesis and analysis of primary studies resulted into classification of research gaps under four categories – theoretical foundation, methodological limitation, research themes and technology implementation challenges. The study was concluded by sensitizing and sanitizing the concrete research questions for future research.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings shall be a roadmap for research scholars, academicians and practitioners to comprehend the present state of knowledge in the domain of “BCT application for SD” and decide upon adopting the future course of action to attain the UNSDGs by the year 2030.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first attempt in its own sense to analyse and synthesize the available literature on “attaining SD through BCT” using SLR approach.

A methodological tool for sustainability and feasibility assessment of indoor vertical farming with artificial lighting in Africa

African agriculture is bound to face challenges for its future food systems development and economic transformation. Indoor vertical farms with artificial lighting represent an opportunity that has been gaining relevance worldwide, thanks to their potential to enable high productivity rates, food quality and safety, year-round production, and more sustainable use of water and mineral nutrients. The present study assesses the potential for vertical farming technology integration within the African continent, targeting the countries where a more sustainable approach could be achieved. A deep analysis of each territory's major opportunities and challenges was built through an updated database of 147 development indicators from 54 African states. Countries such as South Africa, Seychelles, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Cape Verde, and Nigeria showed the best prospective for indoor vertical farming implementation. Moreover, Seychelles, South Africa, and Egypt resulted to be the countries where vertical indoor farming could be more sustainable.

Blockchain technology in supply chain management: an organizational theoretic overview and research agenda

Blockchain technology is touted as a game-changer. Many experts consider blockchain technology as one of the disruptive innovations. Following significant success in the banking and finance sector, blockchain technology has found significant success in all fields, including health, manufacturing, transportation, disaster relief operations, and many others. Recently, the academician has contributed significantly towards understanding blockchain technology and its application in the management field. To understand how the literature on blockchain technology in the supply chain has progressed, we undertook an extensive review of the literature published in peer-reviewed journals using databases such as SCOPUS. We have further classified our literature into four stages (pre-adoption, adoption, implementation, and application). Finally, we synthesized the findings of the study and proposed a research framework to explain how an organization can build supply chain resilience and enhance supply chain performance with the help of blockchain technology. Finally, we have noted the limitations of the study and future research directions.

Blockchain and supply chain finance: a critical literature review at the intersection of operations, finance and law

In the current environment, where the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities of the incumbent paper-based trade and supply chain finance systems, digital transformation pledges to alleviate the friction on international trade. Here, we provide a timely review of state-of-the-art industry applications and theoretical perspectives on the use of blockchain as the medium toward digitalisation for supply chain finance systems. We argue that blockchain technology has an innovation promoting role in supply chain finance solutions through reducing inefficiencies and increasing visibility between different parties, which have hitherto constituted the main challenges in this sphere. Based on a review of the academic literature as well as an analysis of the industrial solutions that have emerged, we identify and discuss the financial, operational and legal challenges encountered in supply chain financing and the promise of blockchain to address these limitations. We discuss the bottlenecks as well as the benefits of blockchain and identify some necessary conditions required for the emergence of blockchain-enabled trade and supply chain financing, such as the establishment of co-opetition among supply chain actors, integration with IoT systems for data quality, and reform of regulatory and legal frameworks. We conclude by identifying promising research directions about the implementation process, inviting further research into the transformation of business models toward a more collaborative nature.

Blockchain technology for agricultural supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic: Benefits and cleaner solutions

This study aims to investigate blockchain technology for agricultural supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic. Benefits and solutions are identified for the smooth conduction of agricultural supply chains during COVID-19 using blockchain. This study uses interviews with agricultural companies operating in Pakistan. The findings discover the seven most commonly shared benefits of applying blockchain technology, four major challenges, and promising solutions. About 100% of the respondents mentioned blockchain as a solution for tracking the shipment during COVID-19, data retrieval and data management, product and transaction frauds, and an Inflexible international supply chain. Roughly 75% of the respondents mentioned the challenge of lack of data retrieval and data management and the Inflexible international supply chain in COVID-19 besides their solutions. This study can expand existing knowledge related to agricultural supply chains. The experiences shared in this study can serve as lessons for practitioners to adopt the blockchain technology for performing agricultural supply chain during pandemic situations such as COVID-19.

Adopting distributed ledger technology for the sustainable construction industry: evaluating the barriers using Ordinal Priority Approach

Construction 4.0 has become a buzzword since the penetration of building information modeling (BIM), cyber-physical systems, and digital and computing technologies into the construction industry. Among emerging technologies, distributed ledger technology (DLT), or blockchain, is a powerful business enhancer whose potential can disrupt projects, AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) firms, and construction supply chain, and in a broader sense, the whole construction industry. This technology has not reached the plateau of productivity due to several barriers and challenges. Previous studies have started to investigate the barriers to implementing DLT in various sectors and segmentations. However, we still need further surveys in the construction industry. This study evaluates the applicability of identified challenges and barriers based on a sustainability perspective. Precisely, we will answer which challenges need to be addressed for the sustainability of the construction industry. To meet the research objective, the ordinal priority approach (OPA) in multiple attributes decision-making (MADM) was utilized. This novel method determines the weight of sustainability attributes and barriers simultaneously. The results show that DLT implementation needs (i) infrastructure for data management, (ii) advanced applications and archetypes, and (iii) customers' demand, interest, and tendency, and (iv) taxation and reporting. Solving high-ranked challenges is the key to social sustainability from the aspects of "supply chain management and procurement"; "transparency, anti-corruption, and anti-counterfeiting"; and "fair operation and honest competition."

Blockchain and the Evolving Financial Market: A Literature Review

Blockchain technology has gained widespread utility, particularly in the field of finance due to the popularity of bitcoin. There are other areas such as energy trade and securities market, which have evolved due to blockchain. These fields are new and building regulations and architecture to enhance their functionality. There are studies on blockchain finance and this paper aims to summarize a few of the pathbreaking studies and guide future research in this field. This paper reviews 77 journal publications related to blockchain from 2018 to 2021 available in the Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database. The selected papers have been grouped into 10 categories. This overview indicates that research in blockchain finance needs to focus on developing better privacy and security mechanism as well as better regulations regarding financial transactions not only to benefit from “Initial Coin Offerings”, but also to diversify investor’s risk.

Exploring the Next Wave of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology: The Overlooked Potential of Scenario Analysis

Blockchain is predicted to disrupt industries, economies, and societies. The properties of distributed ledgers allow the creation of immutable data structures that facilitate shared access in real time and enable a plethora of innovative applications. However, blockchain is not a uniform technology but rather a bundle of evolving components whose implications are notoriously hard to predict. At present, it is not clear how current trends will evolve, with technical evolution, legislation, and public policy being three contingency factors that make ongoing disruptive transformations particularly hard to predict. In light of blockchain’s potential disruptive impact, it is surprising that scenario analysis has hitherto been largely ignored in academic research. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the technique, clarify several misconceptions, and provide examples illustrating how this method can help to overcome the limitations of existing technology impact research. We conclude that if applied correctly, scenario analysis represents the ideal tool to rigorously explore uncertain future developments and to create a comprehensive foundation for future research.

The Role of Blockchain Technology in Augmenting Supply Chain Resilience to Cybercrime

Using a systematic review of literature, this study identifies the potential impact of blockchain solutions for augmenting supply chain resilience (SCR) to cybercrime. This rich literature synthesis forms the basis of a novel theoretical framework that provides guidance and insight for blockchain adopters and vendors as well as delineate palpable benefits of this novel technology. An interpretivist philosophical design and inductive reasoning are adopted to conduct the systematic review of literature. A total of 867 papers were retrieved from Scopus database between the years of 2016 and 2020 and subsequently analysed via abductive reasoning, grounded theory and a thematic meta-analysis; where the latter was achieved using a scientometric approach and software tools such as VOS viewer and NVivo. Scientometric analysis revealed the most prolific countries, sources, publications and authors who reside at the vanguard of blockchain developments and adoption. Subsequent grounded theory analysis identified six main clusters of research endeavour viz: “case study”, “challenges and opportunity”, “traceability”, “smart contract” “blockchain and IoT” and “data security”. From 28 SCR metrics identified within literature, five were found to have been positively impacted by blockchain technology solutions, namely: “visibility”, “collaboration”, “integration”, “risk management” and “information sharing.” Prominent applications of blockchain technology in practice were “traceability systems” and “smart contracts” which are often implemented separately or in combination and primarily in food supply chains. This research constitutes the first study to critically synthesise extant literature for evaluation of blockchain solutions’ implication on SCR metrics. New perspectives obtained provided a basis for the novel theoretical framework for implementation that will be valued by software developers and adopting organizations, whilst creating new direction for researchers interested in blockchain technology.

Drivers of implementing Big Data Analytics in food supply chains for transition to a circular economy and sustainable operations management

Purpose

The aim of this study is to evaluate Big Data Analytics (BDA) drivers in the context of food supply chains (FSC) for transition to a Circular Economy (CE) and Sustainable Operations Management (SOM).

Design/methodology/approach

Ten different BDA drivers in FSC are examined for transition to CE; these are Supply Chains (SC) Visibility, Operations Efficiency, Information Management and Technology, Collaborations between SC partners, Data-driven innovation, Demand management and Production Planning, Talent Management, Organizational Commitment, Management Team Capability and Governmental Incentive. An interpretive structural modelling (ISM) methodology is used to indicate the relationships between identified drivers to stimulate transition to CE and SOM. Drivers and pair-wise interactions between these drivers are developed by semi-structured interviews with a number of experts from industry and academia.

Findings

The results show that Information Management and Technology, Governmental Incentive and Management Team Capability drivers are classified as independent factors; Organizational Commitment and Operations Efficiency are categorized as dependent factors. SC Visibility, Data-driven innovation, Demand management and Production Planning, Talent Management and Collaborations between SC partners can be classified as linkage factors. It can be concluded that Governmental Incentive is the most fundamental driver to achieve BDA applications in FSC transition from linearity to CE and SOM. In addition, Operations Efficiency, Collaborations between SC partners and Organizational Commitment are key BDA drivers in FSC for transition to CE and SOM.

Research limitations/implications

The interactions between these drivers will provide benefits to both industry and academia in prioritizing and understanding these drivers more thoroughly when implementing BDA based on a range of factors. This study will provide valuable insights. The results from this study will help in drawing up regulations to prevent food fraud, implementing laws concerning government incentives, reducing food loss and waste, increasing tracing and traceability, providing training activities to improve knowledge about BDA and focusing more on data analytics.

Originality/value

The main contribution of the study is to analyze BDA drivers in the context of FSC for transition to CE and SOM. This study is unique in examining these BDA drivers based on FSC. We hope to find sustainable solutions to minimize losses or other negative impacts on these SC.

An ISM Modeling of Barriers for Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology Adoption in Supply Chains towards Cybersecurity

Over the last few years, the increasing level of cyber risks derived from the growing connectedness of Industry 4.0 has led to the emergence of blockchain technology as a major innovation in supply chain cybersecurity. The main purpose of this study is to identify and rank the significant barriers affecting the implementation of blockchain technology as a key component of cyber supply chain risk management (CSCRM). This research relied on the “interpretive structural modeling (ISM)” technique in the structure of a hierarchical model to investigate the contextual relationships of identified challenges for blockchain adoption in CSCRM; it also classifies the influential challenges based on their driving and dependence powers. The results highlight that “cryptocurrency volatility” is the challenge at the top level of the hierarchy, implying weak driving power but it is strongly dependent on the other challenges. “Poor regulatory provisions”, “technology immaturity”, “dependent on input information from external oracles”, “scalability and bandwidth issues”, and “smart contract issues” are significant challenges for the adoption of blockchain in cyber supply chain risk management and are located at the bottom level of the hierarchy with higher driving power. The implications for theory and practice of the research are also highlighted.

Exploring the intellectual cores of the blockchain–Internet of Things (BIoT)

Purpose

Due to the rapid growth of blockchain technology in recent years, the fusion of blockchain and the Internet of Things (BIoT) has drawn considerable attention from researchers and industrial practitioners and is regarded as a future trend in technological development. Although several authors have conducted literature reviews on the topic, none have examined the development of the knowledge structure of BIoT, resulting in scattered research and development (R&D) efforts.

Design/methodology/approach

This study investigates the intellectual core of BIoT through a co-citation proximity analysis–based systematic review (CPASR) of the correlations between 44 highly influential articles out of 473 relevant research studies. Subsequently, we apply a series of statistical analyses, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), k-means clustering (KMC) and multidimensional scaling (MDS) to establish the intellectual core.

Findings

Our findings indicate that there are nine categories in the intellectual core of BIoT: (1) data privacy and security for BIoT systems, (2) models and applications of BIoT, (3) system security theories for BIoT, (4) frameworks for BIoT deployment, (5) the fusion of BIoT with emerging methods and technologies, (6) applied security strategies for using blockchain with the IoT, (7) the design and development of industrial BIoT, (8) establishing trust through BIoT and (9) the BIoT ecosystem.

Originality/value

We use the CPASR method to examine the intellectual core of BIoT, which is an under-researched and topical area. The paper also provides a structural framework for investigating BIoT research that may be applicable to other knowledge domains.

The role of blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to humanitarian supply chain management

Purpose

The objective of this study is to investigate the role of blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) using a list of blockchain benefits.

Design/methodology/approach

A decision aid was used to explore the suitability of blockchain in humanitarian supply chains. To achieve that, first, a list of barriers to HSCM was identified. Then, the intuitionistic fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (IF–DEMATEL) method was utilized to determine the relationships and the level of interdependencies among the criteria. Finally, the intuitionistic fuzzyanalytic network process (IF–ANP) technique was employed, as it successfully handles dependencies among the criteria.

Findings

The findings of this study suggest that interorganizational barriers are the most suitable ones, the impacts of which blockchain may alleviate. This study further suggests that trust turned out to be the most significant benefit criterion for the analysis.

Research limitations/implications

The readers should construe the findings of this study with caution since it was carried out using the data collected from the experts of a particular country. Moreover, the proposed decision aid contemplates a limited set of criteria to assess a possible role of blockchain in overcoming the barriers to HSCM.

Practical implications

The findings of this study can assist humanitarian supply chain managers to make more judicious assessments on whether they implement the blockchain in humanitarian supply chain operations. Specifically, this research may help decision makers to identify the certain barriers, the impact of which may be reduced by using the blockchain. The findings of this research will also help various decision makers make more rational decisions and allocate their resources more effectively.

Originality/value

To the best of authors’ knowledge, no single study exists to investigate the role of blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to HSCM using an intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach.