Abstract
Blockchain is expected to have a transformational effect on supply chain and logistics due to its promise to improve the information flow between the supply chain partners. However, despite their high hopes, incumbent companies from supply chain and logistics are still struggling to deliver on this promise. In this explorative, qualitative interview study, we identify how incumbent companies try to make use of Blockchain in supply chain and logistics and we also analyze the barriers hampering them. The analysis of twenty-four semi-structured expert interviews and extensive secondary data collates a comprehensive picture of incumbent companies’ activities around Blockchain adoption. We find that companies use Blockchain to drive digital transformation, constitute new business models and unify the industry through consortia. The main barriers to such solutions are a lack of technological usability and long-term uncertainties. The results of our study provide evidence for theoretical constructs and guide managerial practice.
Highlights
Chain and logistics (SC&L) represents the backbone of economic systems
2) Which factors are stopping incumbent companies from making use of Blockchain in Supply chain and logistics (SC&L)?. We address these two research questions with an exploratory Grounded Theory approach, with an aim to contribute to the fast-growing literature body on Blockchain in SC&L
Since the ‘‘what’’ and the ‘‘why’’ of Blockchain adoption in SC&L have been covered by many contributions, we focus on the ‘‘how’’, i.e., the practices SC&L incumbent companies employ to adopt Blockchain for the benefit of their processes
Summary
Managing supply chains is all about supply and demand management within and across companies, starting from the source of the raw materials through different production and distribution stages to a product’s end customer [1], [2]. G., about demand changes and inventory levels of the different supply chain tiers, allows for improving the competitiveness of the entire supply chain [4]. Since supply chains are multi-tiered and interconnected, the effects of disruptions cascade through the entire supply network, calling for quick and well-informed reactions [5]. The Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, resulting in the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, severely disrupted supply chains in different industries [6]
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