Abstract
Improving current supply chains by using distributed ledger technology (DLT) has been a highly researched topic during the last years. Currently, there are numerous articles elaborating on how such technologies can theoretically improve supply chains. However, case studies of such concepts and their economic value are scarce. In order to bridge this gap, we collaborated with a regional label company to clarify how a distributed ledger technology would benefit their ecosystem. This work answers the question of how such a prototype would look and whether it adds value. By following design science research practices, we design two artifacts based on requirements gathered in 14 interviews and discuss the artifacts’ elements within an evaluation panel. Our findings show that a distributed ledger application for the regional label ecosystem should have an open and decentralized architecture giving all participants full access to the shared data while still providing security and privacy for sensitive data. Additionally, data capturing should be simple. However, such an application does not add sufficient economic value and is currently of no practical interest in the regional label ecosystem as the expenditure likely exceeds the benefit.
Highlights
Knowing how food is produced and knowing the involved parties is gaining more importance for consumers
Our findings show that a distributed ledger application for the regional label ecosystem should have an open and decentralized architecture giving all participants full access to the shared data while still providing security and privacy for sensitive data
Each artifact was presented by the respective creator and afterwards the participants directly wrote artifacts satisfy the requirements
Summary
Knowing how food is produced and knowing the involved parties is gaining more importance for consumers. Known examples of such quality labels are vegetarian, meaning the products do not consist of animals or any animal parts [2] and fair trade, meaning the production of the product improves the livelihood of producers while respecting the human rights [3]. Spoken, such labels are thereby not providing more transparency to consumers but rather more ‘trust’ by creditably certifying a certain quality trait of a product. Other examples are the recall of falsely labelled vegan food in Great Britain [7]
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