Strengthening Supply Chain Visibility With Blockchain: A PRISMA-Based Review

Abstract

Over the last 5 years, research into the use of blockchain technology in supply chains (SCs) has increased significantly. This is because many firms are faced with the necessity of enhancing SC visibility not just to fulfill statutory obligations, but also to streamline operations, assure the quality of deliverables, and ensure the sustainability of activities. This review article provides a summary of all scientific work published since 2016, with a special emphasis on the business management & accounting and decision science domains, in order to better comprehend the constantly rising knowledge clusters linked with this topic. The prominent contributors and knowledge clusters were identified using suitable bibliometric algorithms on a review corpus of 308 articles extracted from the SCOPUS database. There are five identified knowledge clusters: 1) blockchain for food SC transparency, 2) distributed ledger for sustainable SCs, 3) traceability systems using smart contracts, 4) internet of things for logistics, and 5) the emergence of Ethereum and hyperledger in SCs. This scholarly assessment, in conjunction with PageRank analysis and content mining, assisted in identifying research articles that are prominent in each cluster, which in turn helped in formulating future research avenues for aspiring researchers.