Blockchain-Enabled Supply Chain Transparency, Supply Chain Structural Dynamics, and Sustainability of Complex Global Supply Chains — A Text Mining Analysis

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been hailed as the technology of the future, not only for banking and finance but also for supply chain management and logistics. As lack of transparency in global supply chains is a major risk for sustainability, blockchain offers an attractive solution in the form of a reliable platform to create transparency and risk management. Not considering the nascent stage of the technology, companies are investing millions of dollars into blockchain solutions for many business problems including that of supply chains. However, blockchain-enabled networkwide transparency and visibility also inject new dynamics into supply chains through introduction of structural changes like redefining what is organizational boundary, creating new resources, and a new transactional economy for supply chain management. The structural changes also create a fundamental need for organizations in a supply network to adapt their supply chain processes to this new and emerging supply chain structural dynamics for organizational and network-level efficiency and sustainability. For efficient restructuring of the supply chain processes, organizations need clarity regarding what should be the focus of their processes for creating sources of competitive advantage.Using topic modeling, a text mining technique, this work finds the focus areas of supply chain processes in organizations with examples of successful application of blockchain technology. Apart from how these organizations have integrated the strengths of blockchain in their supply chain processes, we also provide an exhaustive theoretical explanation about how firms can create sources of competitive advantage from blockchain technology. Identification of the focus areas will also help operations and supply chain managers planning to implement blockchain technology and devise plans for data-centric decision-making for their SCM processes for efficiency.