Enhancing sustainable supply chain readiness to adopt blockchain: A decision support approach for barriers analysis

Abstract

Blockchain technology (BT) enhances the capacity to monitor products consistently, fostering supply chain responsiveness to a wide range of societal and environmental issues. Although BT is known as an innovative tool, there exist potential operational and organizational challenges affecting BT adoption. This study proposes a decision support approach to leverage risk management to analyze potential barriers associated with BT adoption in sustainable supply chains (SSCs). This approach is developed to model how the economic, social, and environmental-related barriers (e.g., energy consumption) and their corresponding risk factors are interrelated. To model the causal relationships (CRs) among the barriers identified through the literature review, the fuzzy cognitive map advanced by Z-number theory is embedded in the proposed approach. Then, a hybrid learning algorithm is employed to determine the criticality of the barriers. As the reliability of information affects the accuracy of decision-making, the Z-number theory applies uncertainty and reliability simultaneously in specifying the values of risk factors and the weights of the CRs. Taking advantage of the learning algorithm and Z-number theory, the findings show a reliable and unbiased ranking compared to the failure mode and effect analysis. This helps managers develop more efficient mitigation strategies to deal with critical barriers. The results of the study also imply that adoption costs, extra audits, and regulatory uncertainty are the critical barriers affecting SSC readiness.