Role of Blockchain Technology Adoption between Sustainability Related Supply Chain Risks and Triple Bottom Line Performance

Abstract

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.