Abstract
Blockchain technology is now considered a next generation information technology tool for sustainable growth in supply chain (SC) management. However, its study is relatively rare in the literature on SC collaboration and sustainability management research, despite its advantages in sustaining connectivity and reliability among SC partners. This study investigates how the use of blockchain in SC activities can influence (increase or decrease) SC partnership efficiency and growth, thereby affecting SC performance outcomes. Specifically, this study empirically validates a measurement and structural equation model with 306 SC experts from various industries. The findings show that the blockchain technology characteristics (information transparency, information immutability, and smart contracts) have significant positive effects on partnership growth and marginal effects on partnership efficiency. Though partnership growth has a positive effect on firm performance, partnership efficiency shows a negative effect.
Highlights
An efficient and strategic partnership between a buyer and its suppliers is one of the critical success factors in supply chain management (SCM)
blockchain technology (BCT) application was represented by the degrees of information transparency, immutability, and smart contracts’ applicability
Smart contracts, defined as an automatic mechanism of proceeding contract terms only after confirming pre-determined conditions such as rules and penalties that are agreed between the contracted parties, was measured using three items adopted by Kouhizadeh and Sarkis [3] and Francisco and Swanson [49]
Summary
An efficient and strategic partnership between a buyer and its suppliers is one of the critical success factors in supply chain management (SCM). Chain (SC) collaboration includes the sharing of key information derived from the market and global network operations, followed by rapid joint decision-making based on such information. Through joint efforts to match demand and supply, two trading partners can increase mutual benefits and reduce risks. Since the early stages of SCM, the importance of SC collaboration has been stressed in both the industry and academia. Information technology (IT), such as web services, bar code, and radio-frequency identification, has played a crucial role in the successful operation of SC collaboration. IT integration has made it possible to acquire operational information from the SC, and share it with interconnected partners in real-time. As new IT is developed, its potential application in SC collaboration should be investigated
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