Abstract
Potential blockchain applications in logistics and transport (LSCM) have gained increasing attention within both academia and industry. However, as a field in its infancy, blockchain research often lacks theoretical foundations, and it is not clear which and to what extent organizational theories are used to investigate blockchain technology in the field of LSCM. In response, based upon a systematic literature review, this paper: (a) identifies the most relevant organizational theories used in blockchain literature in the context of LSCM; and (b) examines the content of the identified organizational theories to formulate relevant research questions for investigating blockchain technology in LSCM. Our results show that blockchain literature in LSCM is based around six organizational theories, namely: agency theory, information theory, institutional theory, network theory, the resource-based view and transaction cost analysis. We also present how these theories can be used to examine specific blockchain problems by identifying blockchain-specific research questions that are worthy of investigation.
Highlights
The interest in blockchain applications for organizational and business purposes has been growing exponentially in recent years, both in academia and industry
Our results show that blockchain literature in logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) is based around six organizational theories, namely: agency theory, information theory, institutional theory, network theory, the resource-based view and transaction cost analysis
This holds for the field of logistics and supply chain management (LSCM), where are the practitioners devoted to this topic, and leading operations and supply chain management journals attest to this trend by issuing special calls for papers [1,2]
Summary
The interest in blockchain applications for organizational and business purposes has been growing exponentially in recent years, both in academia and industry. To blockchain research, organizational theories in the field of LSCM, while existing, are rarely used [6,7,8], because the field of LSCM is boundary-spanning by nature, and has to take into account that the nature of industries, organizational structures or cultures can vary significantly across businesses [9,10,11,12,13,14] These highly diverse contexts make it often hard for scholars to determine the right underlying theory to investigate a problem in LSCM. It facilitates the process of bringing together and linking events which seem to be randomized and without relationship into a meaningful relationship and order” [16] It is not clear which organizational theories are used to investigate the diverse contexts of blockchain in LSCM, nor to what extent these theories are applied in current literature. We conclude with a summary of the findings and highlight the limitations of the study
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