Abstract
The circular economy is gaining in importance globally and locally. The COVID-19 crisis, as an exceptional event, showed the limits and the fragility of supply chains, with circular economy practices as a potential solution during and post-COVID. Reverse logistics (RL) is an important dimension of the circular economy which allows management of economic, social, and environmental challenges. Transportation is needed for RL to effectively operate, but research study on this topic has been relatively limited. New digitalization opportunities can enhance transportation and RL, and therefore further enhance the circular economy. This paper proposes to review practical research and concerns at the nexus of transportation, RL, and blockchain as a digitalizing technology. The potential benefits of blockchain technology through example use cases on various aspects of RL and transportation activities are presented. This integration and applications are evaluated using various capability facets of blockchain technology, particularly as an immutable and reliable ledger, a tracking service, a smart contract utility, as marketplace support, and as tokenization and incentivization. We also briefly introduce the physical internet concept within this context. The physical internet paradigm proposed last decade, promises to also disrupt the blockchain, transportation, and RL nexus. We include potential research directions and managerial implications across the blockchain, transportation, and RL nexus.
Highlights
Circular economy transportation is an under investigated yet important issue
We provide the following adjusted research propositions based on our previous discussions, background and application examples; these adjusted propositions represent potential moderations to the reverse logistics (RL) and transportation relationship from blockchain technology adoption: The effectiveness of a transportation system in RL is positively related to the efficient use of existing and proven transportation routes and schedules used for virgin products; this effectiveness is lessened as improved blockchain capabilities are introduced into this relationship; as more routes can be found using blockchain
The work provides an overview of existing trends, potential use cases, research gaps, and promising research directions with managerial implications detailed
Summary
Circular economy transportation is an under investigated yet important issue. Transportation, including multimodal concerns, network development, and technological issues are all part of the conversation when considering transportation’s role in forward and reverse logistics (RL). Investigating these aspects has occurred [1], and many dimensions have been introduced. With modern developments of information technology and networked systems—especially blockchain technology—some of the rules for RL and transportation may be rewritten or at least require significantly more investigation. We focus on RL because it is the core activity to closing-the-loop for many circular economy practices In this background we introduce two major subsections related to RL and blockchain technology. Not all activities are always completed and will depend on the product, components, or materials flowing through the RL channels
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