Optimization of fruit and vegetable logistics in the Port of Valparaíso, Chile, through strategic logistics platforms and blockchain technology

Blockchain critical success factors for sustainable supply chain

The food supply chain in South Africa faces significant challenges related to transparency, traceability, and consumer trust, exacerbated by growing concerns about food safety, quality, and sustainability. As these concerns grow, there is an increasing need for innovative solutions to address these issues. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising tool that can enhance the transparency and accountability of the food supply chain. This study sought to explore how blockchain technology might revolutionize the development of sustainable food supply chain infrastructure in South Africa. The study found that blockchain technology used in the food supply chain creates an immutable and decentralized ledger of transactions that has the capacity to provide real-time, end-to-end visibility of food products from farm to table. This increased transparency can help mitigate risks associated with food fraud, contamination, and inefficiencies in the supply chain. The implementation of blockchain can improve supply chain efficiency and foster trust among stakeholders, including farmers and food suppliers. This technology used and/or applied in South Africa can reshape the agricultural sector by improving production and distribution processes. Its integration in the food supply chain infrastructure can equally improve data management and increase transparency between farmers and food suppliers. There is a need for policymakers and scholars in the fields of service delivery and food security to conduct more research in blockchain technology and its roles in creating a more transparent, efficient, and trustworthy food supply chain infrastructure that addresses food supply problems in South Africa. The paper adopted a qualitative methodology to collect data, and document and content analysis techniques were used to interpret collected data. This study lays the groundwork for further investigation into blockchain’s potential to shape the future of food supply networks.

This motivational research study shows a better understanding of the influence that aspects like blockchain technology, integration, and mapping have on supply chain sustainability in Pakistan's supply chain industry. The sample size used for the illustration mentioned above was 384, with a 5% error margin and a 95% confidence level. The supply chain sector was selected as the target industry for the campaign. We circulated 500 questionnaires and received valid responses from the targeted supply chain sector 384 through a Google form survey using the PLS-SEM model for work. We will use the PLS-SEM sampling technique to assess the power of latent variables and how well they are able to explain the target structure. The reason PLS-SEM is mainly used here is that it can estimate very complex models with a small amount of data. The results support each of the following direct hypotheses: blockchain technologies have a negative relation with supply chain integration, blockchain technologies have a negative impact on supply chain mapping, the integration has a significant influence on the supply chain sustainability, and supply chain mapping has a significant influence on the sustainability. At least in the future, it should be added with more variables to understand the supply chain sustainability across industries or nations. The focus of this study was mainly on blockchain technologies, supply chain integration, and mapping of supply chain sustainability This study highlights the need for supply chain managers to improve integration and mapping independently to boost sustainability. Fostering collaboration and information sharing can enhance traceability and compliance. Adapting resilient practices helps organizations manage inflation and support sustainable operations. This study enhances the working environment by improving the research piece that charts the influence of BT and SCs in Pakistani supply chain firms.

Blockchain technology is rapidly transforming global supply chain management by introducing new levels of transparency, traceability, and operational efficiency. This narrative review aims to evaluate the impact of blockchain integration on supply chain transparency across various sectors. Using a literature-based approach, studies were retrieved from leading databases such as Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, focusing on applications in food, pharmaceuticals, logistics, and sustainability. The results indicate that blockchain enhances traceability and transparency through decentralized ledgers, enabling real-time data access and reducing fraud, errors, and inefficiencies. Case studies show significant improvements in product tracking, cost reduction, and consumer trust, particularly when combined with technologies like IoT and smart contracts. However, challenges persist, including high implementation costs, limited technical skills, and unequal adoption between large firms and SMEs. Systemic issues such as regulatory uncertainty and lack of stakeholder collaboration further hinder implementation. The discussion highlights the role of public policy and data governance in facilitating adoption and calls for collaborative ecosystems that support blockchain deployment. Limitations in geographic scope, methodological design, and long-term impact assessment were identified, suggesting avenues for future research. Ultimately, blockchain holds significant promise for building sustainable, secure, and efficient supply chains, provided that structural barriers are addressed through targeted policy and inclusive innovation strategies.

The study investigates the role of three essential supply chain capabilities: visibility, traceability, and mapping, collectivity termed as 'visiceability', in the relationship between blockchain technology and supply chain sustainability. The study focuses on Malaysia's Electronics Component manufacturing firms, a sub-sector of the electrical and electronics industry. Data were collected from 105 through a close-ended questionnaire. PLS-SEM was employed to examine the modeled relationships. The findings of the study challenge the notion that supply chain (SC) traceability alone is responsible for mediating the impact of blockchain technology (BCT) on SC sustainability. However, findings confirm the significant roles of SC Mapping and Visibility in the association between BCT and SC sustainability. Findings further validate the significant impact of BCT on SC sustainability, highlighting its multifaceted role. The findings suggest that firms can build their intermediary capabilities instead of exclusively focusing on adopting BCT for SC sustainability. These capabilities can further channel the impact of BCT on improving SC Sustainable. Our findings illustrate that BCT can enhance SC visibility by offering a precise and transparent record of the products, inventory, and transactions. Hence, we strongly suggest that managers consider leveraging BCT to improve their SC visibility, thereby uplifting the sustainability of a supply.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has exposed societies and businesses to the shortfalls of standard manufacturing and consumption patterns, and enduring impact on global Supply Chains (SC). The production plants are temporarily shuttered or running with reduced manpower globally. In addition to this, the outbreak has disrupted the most of trade and shipping links and delivery systems between dealers, manufacturing plants, and consumers. Thus, organizations have had to grapple with unpredictable fluctuations in customer demand, production interruption, and SC disruptions. But, several organizations are espousing Blockchain Technology (BCT) to solve the issues and set forth to handle the sustainable processes of their supply networks during the pandemic situation. Due to its various untapped potentials such as greater traceability, improved transparency, increased efficiency, secured certification, and proof of origin for goods on top of billions of dollars in commercial savings make BCT as an indispensable part of current sustainable SC to resolve the problems including market monopolies, data integrity, and ownership. Given its potential, the implementation of BCT in SC management, though hyped for years, has not witnessed reckless approval. Motivated by the COVID-19 outbreak and the barriers it imposes to sustainable SC, we aim to explore the driving and restraining forces related to BCT adoption in sustainable SC to tackle network disruptions. In this chapter, a comprehensive analysis of BCT technology, sustainable SC, and driving as well as restraining forces for espousing BCT to achieve SC with improved sustainability is discussed. We explore how fostering BCT in sustainable SC processes with several environmental, organizational, and technological promises has been delayed using the triple-bottom-line method. Hence, this chapter will carry out a systematic study of how BCT fits in the modern SC management system and explore possible challenges with its application.

Blockchain technology and the sustainable supply chain: Theoretically exploring adoption barriers

Technological advancements in the past few decades have played a critical role in enhancing supply chain management from varied dimensions. While advancements in information technology have significantly improved various facets of the supply chain, supply chain visibility still lags in tracking and tracing capabilities. The disruptive and emergent blockchain technology (BCT) presents enormous potential to address issues of supply chain sustainability. This paper seeks to evaluate the proximity of BCT to resolve provenance issues throughout the supply chain. The research considers the immaturity of BCT alongside limited success stories in supply chain management. It uses a content analysis methodology to examine recent literature about using BCT in supply chain sustainability and provenance. A conceptual model for using BCT to create an enabled, visible, and sustainable supply chain is provided to frame the investigation. Findings reveal that the benefits of BCT have mostly been conceptually demonstrated in the sustainable supply chain literature, but with few practical applications. Moreover, technically driven challenges including scalability and control are still prevalent. It reaffirms the fact that participants within a blockchain enabled supply chain network must be at the same level of knowledge regarding the technology and its functionality. The study also indicates evidence of a growing research interest in the niche, which will eventually bring about solutions to address ongoing challenges faced by BCT in its integration into supply chain management. These findings contribute to the literature about improving the security and utility of supply chain sustainability and provenance by using BCT.

Blockchain technology has brought about profound revolutions in supply chain management. Notably, in the agricultural sector, blockchain-based traceability has become an essential tool to maintain the safety and quality of farm commodities. However, the implementation of blockchain technology in agricultural traceability is not prevalent. In this paper, mathematical modeling and simulation methods were used to investigate the decision making regarding the adoption of blockchain traceability in agriculture, which comprises producers, processors, and governments. This paper provides further analysis of the optimal blockchain-based traceability strategies of the members of the agricultural product supply chain in different scenarios. The results reveal the following: (1) Producers and processors should manage the traceability costs for adopting blockchains to improve their brand image and gain more benefits. (2) The government should encourage supply chain agents to participate in traceability by establishing an effective reward-and-punishment mechanism. In addition, the research will help agricultural supply chain agents to design strategies to implement traceability in agriculture and create a transparent and efficient data-driven agricultural products supply chain. Furthermore, these findings provide guidance to policymakers to develop policies to accelerate the implementation of blockchain-based traceability systems to guarantee fraud-free and sustainable agricultural supply chains.

The advent of blockchain technologies is transmuting the way conventional supply chains are being managed. Due to the complexity of dealing with many actors involved in the supply chain networks, contemporary supply chains have limited visibility, transparency, and accountability. Likewise, supply chains are increasingly facing the challenge of integration and sustainability. In this vein, blockchain technologies can play a groundbreaking role in improving the traceability, accountability, and sustainability of complex supply chain networks. The present study examines the instrumentality of blockchain technologies in enabling supply chain mapping and supply chain integration. The study also tests the direct impact of blockchain technologies on supply chain sustainability. Data are collected from 132 Malaysian Electrical and Electronics firms using a close‐ended questionnaire. The study employs Partial Least Squares‐Structural Equation Modelling (PLS‐SEM) and Partial Least Squares‐Multi Group Analysis (PLS‐MGA) for analyzing the hypothesized relationships. The results show that blockchain technologies do not have a direct impact on supply chain sustainability. Nevertheless, this finding reveals a robust indirect effect of BT, through SC integration and SC mapping, on the SC sustainability. The study's findings imply that the notion of the sustainable supply chain can be significantly attained by mapping upstream, midstream, and downstream supply chains. The well‐mapped supply chain can further improve supply chain sustainability. The findings of the study also suggest the adoption of blockchain technologies as a broad‐based strategy to attain multi‐tier goals, for example, supply chain mapping, sustainability, and integration.

The agricultural supply chain plays a crucial role in ensuring food security and sustainability. However, traditional supply chains face challenges such as lack of transparency, inefficiencies, and limited traceability, leading to fraud, food wastage, and delays. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising solution to address these issues by providing a decentralized, immutable, and transparent ledger system. This paper explores the key attributes essential for an efficient agricultural supply chain, such as traceability, transparency, data integrity, and operational efficiency. A comprehensive survey of existing research is conducted to analyze blockchain-based solutions implemented in the agriculture sector. Various techniques, including different consensus mechanisms (such as Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Stake, and PBFT), smart contract applications, and scalability solutions, are compared based on performance, cost, and adoption challenges. Despite its potential, blockchain faces limitations such as high transaction costs, interoperability issues, and resistance to adoption by stakeholders. Identifying these research gaps helps in refining future studies to develop a more effective and scalable blockchain framework for agricultural supply chains. This paper presents a novel perspective on blockchain-driven supply chain frameworks, highlighting their role in optimizing logistics, reducing fraud, and ensuring sustainability in global commerce. The future of blockchain-based supply chain management lies in its integration with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data analytics. AI-powered analytics can enhance predictive decision-making, while IoT sensors can provide real-time monitoring of goods, improving accuracy and efficiency.

This paper presents a new approach based on a discrete event simulation to model and simulate the impacts of Digital technologies in supply chain management. A supply chain consists of different elements, like suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, retailers and customers. Based on situation, these elements interact with each other, which will generally increase the complexity of the system. To reduce the complexity, a discrete event-driven adaptation of the supply chain model is introduced in the integrated setting on RFID and blockchain technology which focuses on the consequences of digital intervention in inventory management and lead time reduction. A simulation model of the supply chain has been built with the object-oriented discrete event simulation framework without blockchain, and then compared to its counterpart using blockchain. The findings from our discrete event model indicate a significant improvement in supply chain lead time due to the implementation of blockchain technology. Additionally, key metrics such as the percentage of late orders and total orders have shown notable enhancements. Digitalization through blockchain and RFID technologies streamlined supplier lead times and improved product sell at the retail level, contributing to a more efficient supply chain. The proposed solution will help supply chain managers in opting for blockchain technology.

The COVID-19 crisis has afforded a number of learning opportunities for organizations and society in general. Two particularly notable events were issues related sustainability—especially environmental and social sustainability—and resilience. In this case supply chains were not immune from either of these events and arguably more sustainable practices and supply chains may have actually provided insights into supply chain resilience. We revisit some of these issues and provide evidence for and against these possibilities. We touch on sustainable supply chains, multi-stakeholder digital technologies—such as blockchain technology and virtual communication—circular economy, and other lessons and practices. Practical lessons and research opportunities will also be identified. Discussion will also be encouraged.

PurposeThis study aims to formulate a conceptual sustainable framework for developing a trusted, reliable, scalable, transparent, traceable and sustainable agri-food supply chain in a developing country so that it minimizes wastage and increases the efficiency levels of agri-produce and its usage.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a rigorous review of extant literature, case studies and the interview method for theory building, using blockchain technology (BT) as a subject. Further, the study builds a framework to relate blockchain solutions to the challenges faced by the agri-supply chain. Notably, the use of BT in the agri-food supply chain is a relatively new area of study.FindingsLimitations of using BT 3.0 in a diverse supply chain like the food sector, especially in a developing country such as India, may be overcome by adopting BT 4.0 and could change the country’s face by controlling inefficiencies and ensuring transparency, helping in good governance, improving the humanitarian supply chain and integrating the bottom of the pyramid to the main economy. Based on the findings, this study proposes BT 4.0 for the agri-supply chain in India to deal with the current issues of demand-supply gap, wastages of agri-produce, unequal distribution of profit among agriproduct producers and logistics suppliers and ensuring sustainability.Research limitations/implicationsResults in this study have been derived from a specific demographic condition in India. Future research with other demographic conditions may be replicated. BT is a new technology product, and its effectiveness is yet to be established.Practical implicationsThe outcome of this study provides the application of BT 4.0 in the area of the agri-food supply chain. The BT 4.0 framework has been developed on studying a few cases that either implemented BT or were in the testing phase. The benefits of the agri-food supply chain vis-à-vis its overall social well-being may be achieved on the successful implementation of the framework, despite existing complexities in the food supply chain. Further research on this subject may help the other dimensions of the complexity of adopting BT 4.0. Both practitioners and policymakers from developing countries can, therefore, use the findings of this study to analyze BT 4.0 and address the concerns of the agri-food supply chain.Originality/valueThis research paper has proposed a conceptual framework of BT 4.0, which is a completely new technology. It is fairly transparent, and therefore sustainable supply chain practices may be achieved easily.

Supply chain sustainability (SCS) has recently emerged, and measuring its maturity is important. Triple bottom line (TBL) is considered one of the established measures of SCS. TBL consists of three bottom lines such as environmental, social, and economic, which include three measures commonly known as the three Ps: people, planet, and profit. Adopting sustainability practices is considered key to the success of green firms, but at the same time, they face various risks associated with SCS dimensions, such as upstream, midstream, and downstream risks. These risks not only disrupt the sustainable supply chains but also leave an adverse impact on TBL’s performance. Firms require accurate and timely information sharing among supply chain partners to mitigate SCS-related risks. At the same time, it has been observed that firms are reluctant to share information mainly due to trust issues. Therefore, this paper throws light on Blockchain technology (BT), as it resolves trust issues among supply chain partners by offering transparency, reliability, flexibility, security, openness, and neutrality. This paper comprehensively presents how BT securely shares relevant information with the supply chain partners and enhances a few parameters of supply chains, such as supply chain integration, supply chain adaptability, supply chain visibility, and supply chain agility. The paper encapsulates the adoption of BT in managing SCS-related risks and improving TBL performance. The paper summarizes the new trends in sustainable supply chains and challenges in adopting BT and provides future research directions.