A Literature Review of Blockchain Technology Applications in Supply Chains

Computers & Industrial Engineering 154 (2021) 107133
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Computers & Industrial Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/caie
A literature review of blockchain technology applications in supply chains:

A comprehensive analysis of themes, methodologies and industries
Ming K. Lim a, b, *, Yan Li a, Chao Wang c, Ming-Lang Tseng d, e
a
College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
b
Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
c
Research Base of Beijing Modern Manufacturing Development, College of Economics, Management, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
d
Institute of Innovation and Circular Economy, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan
e
Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: In the past few years, blockchain, the underlying technology of Bitcoin, has received considerable attention from
Supply chain academia and industry. It is widely accepted that blockchain technology causes disruptive changes in supply
Blockchain chain operations that can overcome supply chain difficulties encountered in realizing information sharing,
Descriptive and content analysis
maintaining traceability in the entire process and improving operational efficiency. However, the application of
Literature review
blockchain technology in the supply chain field is still in its infancy, which limits an understanding of its po
tential. This article uses descriptive and content analysis to review publications related to blockchain-based
supply chains between 2017 and 2020 inclusive. To fully explore research on blockchain-based supply chains,
four well-designed questions are proposed and addressed, namely, the value of blockchain in supply chains, the
attraction of scholars to particular supply chain themes, the development of research methodologies and illus
tration types in adopting blockchain in supply chains, and the types of industries involved in blockchain-based
supply chains. The results reveal that there is growing interest in applying blockchain technology to supply chain
operations. A detailed analysis of findings is provided to identify the future opportunities of blockchain-based
supply chains, including prospects for tertiary industries and concerted efforts that are necessary to explore
sustainability themes. This article provides valuable information to help scholars and practitioners better
determine the relevant research topics to accelerate the development of blockchain-based supply chains.
1. Introduction application of blockchain technology is mainly concentrated in the

financial field, but it also leads to disruptive changes in non-financial
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published his study on “Bitcoin: A Peer- fields, such as e-commerce, e-government, credit evaluation and sup
to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, in which a peer-to-peer (P2P) elec ply chains (Allen et al., 2019; Hald & Kinra, 2019; Juma et al., 2019).
tronic cash system was proposed (Nakamoto, 2008). This system Supply chain management is a comprehensive management problem
allowed payments to be directly initiated by one party and sent to the involving information flow, capital flow, logistics and business flow that
other without a third-party financial institution (Rana et al., 2019). In establishes a dynamic collaborative relationship between suppliers,
recent years, with increasing attention to digital cryptocurrencies such manufacturers, retailers and end users (Mou et al., 2018). There are
as Bitcoin, scholars have gradually realized the important role of several problems with current supply chain management. First, supply
blockchain, which is a crucial underlying technology of Bitcoin (Kumar chain information is isolated within an enterprise, which leads to in
et al., 2020; Nawari & Ravindran, 2019). Blockchain technology is a formation silos (Jiang & Ke, 2019). Upstream and downstream enter
distribution database in which the use of cryptography technology prises expand the information, causing a bullwhip effect (Jeong & Hong,
guarantees that the distributed ledger cannot be changed, and smart 2019). Second, the opacity of information in the supply chain reduces
contracts composed of script code enable transactions to be automati the trust between parties and hinders the exchange of real information
cally executed (Juma et al., 2019; Kshetri, 2018). Currently, the (Jia et al., 2020). Third, product tracking is difficult, and particular
* Corresponding author at: College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China (M.K. Lim).
E-mail address: [email protected] (M.K. Lim).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2021.107133
Received 4 July 2020; Received in revised form 4 January 2021; Accepted 14 January 2021
Available online 20 January 2021
0360-8352/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.K. Lim et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 154 (2021) 107133
difficulties arise in finding the source of the problem when counterfeit Table 1
and inferior products appear (Zhang & Guin, 2020). Blockchain tech Review of the previously published literature.
nology is very suitable for solving these challenges faced by the supply Article Time N Research Key findings
chain since it can ensure the authenticity and traceability of information questions/Aims
during transmission and the security of transactions in a distrusted Antonucci 2008–2018 34 -To analyze the -A great number of
environment (Helo & Hao, 2019; Tijan et al., 2019). These character et al. research of researches in food
istics have a substantial impact on supply chain management and affect (2019) blockchain-based traceability used the
the design, organization, and operations of the supply chain (Hald & agricultural radio-frequency
supply chain. identification (RFID)
Kinra, 2019; Kamble et al., 2019). technology, and it can
Some scholars conducted studies on the blockchain-based supply be used to collect
chain to explore the potential of blockchain. For example, Wang et al. information of the
(2019) conducted a literature review to determine the value of block whole production
chain.
chain for supply chain management in four areas that encompassed:
-The RFID and
extended visibility and traceability, supply chain digitalization and blockchain
disintermediation, improved data security and smart contracts. Philipp technology were
et al. (2019) identified potential applications of smart contracts in integrated to ensure
multinational and multi-mode supply chains through expert interviews the authenticity of the
food safety and
and case studies. Even if there are some related studies, it should be quality due the
clearly recognized that these types of studies are still in the early stages, characteristics of
and related academic articles are not fruitful (Pournader et al., 2020). In blockchain.
addition to academic publications, industry is also exploring the appli -To explore the - Supervision
commercial inspection centres,
cation of blockchain in supply chains. In the food industry, Wal-Mart has
application field such as government
established a traceability system for mangoes that improves food of blockchain in departments and
traceability and shortens the traceability time of mangoes from farm to the agricultural third-party regulators,
store from the original seven days to the current two seconds (Wong supply chain. could implement
et al., 2020). In the trade industry, Maersk and IBM cooperated to use emergency measures
through the
blockchain technology to solve problems in cross-border supply chains
blockchain platform
because it increases information transparency and realizes information to prevent the danger
sharing among trading partners (Chang et al., 2020). Despite the spreading.
aforementioned academic and practical concerns, the understanding of -Coffee, fish, beef,
beer, fresh food, milk,
the impact of blockchain technology on supply chains is still limited. To
pasta and wood.
better understand the value of blockchain, identify the current research Zhao et al. 2008–2018 62 -What are the -Traceability,
content, and determine a research agenda for the future, this article (2019) main applications information security,
reviews publications related to blockchain-based supply chains. of blockchain in manufacturing and
Some articles have carried out literature reviews about blockchain- agri-food value sustainable water
chain management.
based supply chains, and the articles reviewed here are presented in
management? -Storage capacity and
Table 1: five articles focused on food supply chains (Antonucci et al., -What are the key scalability, privacy
2019; Chen et al., 2020; Duan et al., 2020; Feng et al., 2020; Zhao et al., challenges of leakage, high cost and
2019), two articles reviewed the transportation field (Astarita et al., applying regulation problem,
blockchain in throughput and
2020; Pournader et al., 2020), and the remaining four articles did not
agri-food value latency issue, and lack
have a specific application background (Gurtu & Johny, 2019; Queiroz chain of skills.
et al., 2019; Wamba & Queiroz, 2020; Wang et al., 2019). These articles management? -Apply the blockchain
analyzed the value, current trends and future opportunities from the technology and edge
perspective of the impact of blockchain on supply chains. To the best of -What are the computing in different
research gaps and agri-food
our knowledge, no literature review has been carried out that considers
future research manufacturers using
the four aspects proposed in this article, including supply chain themes, directions of empirical and
research methodologies, illustration types and industries addressed. In blockchain-based analytical tools to
addition, this article also discusses the value that blockchain will bring agri-food value assess its effect on
chain agri-food
to the supply chains through the content of the existing research works,
management? manufacturing.
which has great significance for the technology at its early stage of Chen et al. 2009–2019 2710 -To investigate -Processes:
development. This article aims to answer the following questions to (2020) the processes, Information collection
provide research insights for scholars and practitioners. benefits, and on food supply chain,
RQ1: What is the value of blockchain for supply chains? The answer challenges of and chain-style
adopting storage mechanisms
to this question will be given in Section 2.
blockchain on the supply chain.
RQ2: What supply chain theme has attracted the most attention of technologies in -Benefits: Enhance
scholars? The answer to this question will be given in Section 4.2. food supply efficiency of the
RQ3: What research methodologies and illustration types are chains. supply chain, quick
developed in adopting blockchain in supply chains? The answer to this and accurate
traceability, reliability
question will be given in Section 4.3 and 4.4. and transparency, and
RQ4: Which industries are involved in blockchain-based supply improve food quality
chains? The answer to this question will be given in Section 4.5. management.
The rest of this article is as follows. The value of blockchain is -Challenges:
Complexity of
explored in Section 2. Section 3 introduces the research methodology.
integration, immature
The descriptive analysis and content analysis of the reviewed articles are application of
described in Section 4. Section 5 explores future research opportunities. (continued on next page)
Finally, Section 6 presents the conclusion.
2
Table 1 (continued ) Table 1 (continued )

Article Time N Research Key findings Article Time N Research Key findings
questions/Aims questions/Aims
blockchain challenges in etc. These connected

technology, implementing devices are able to
blockchain blockchain communicate with
technology technology in ledgers in blockchain.
characteristics, high food traceability? -Benefits:
investment in informational
blockchain-based security,
systems, and absence technological
of regulations, advantages,
legislation, and global improvement of
standard. supply chain
Duan et al. 2008–2019 26 -What research -Conceptual collaboration and
(2020) has been carried framework, pilot trust, reducing
out on blockchain cases, theory papers, economic loss and
adoption in food survey and systematic product waste,
supply chain literature analysis. sustainability and
management? -Blockchain improves transparency of
-What benefits food traceability, food traceability
can blockchain supply chain management.
bring to the food transparency and the -Challenges: technical
supply chain? efficiency of food challenges,
recall, and blockchain blockchain
can be combined with infrastructure,
internet of things interoperability and
devices. standardization,
-What are the -Lack of deep social and
challenges of understanding and institutional
blockchain knowledge of the challenges, and
adoption in food blockchain system performance.
supply chain technology by Pournader 2008–2018 48 -To identify the -Traceability/
management? companies et al. main themes transparency,
-Technology (2020) appearing in the technology, trust and
scalability issue field of trade.
-Possibilities of raw blockchain and
data manipulation supply chains,
before uploading to transport and -Case study research is
blockchain. logistics. recommended to
Feng et al. 2005–2019 None -How can -The characteristics of -To systematise investigate the
(2020) blockchain the blockchain the future integration of
technology technology ensure the research agenda hardware and
provide better information in supply chain, software technologies
solutions to transparency and logistics and into supply chain,
address the food security, including transport logistics and transport
traceability decentralized and management. operations.
concerns in terms trustless network, Astarita 2015–2019 371 -To explore the -The first cluster is
of full smart contracts in et al. current research strongly focused on
information traceability business (2020) trends of the use of blockchain
transparency and process, consensus blockchain-based technology, with the
security in food mechanism, systems in aim of ensuring
supply chains transaction transportation. product traceability in
transparency and food chains
anonymity of the -The second cluster
traceability chain, and refers to the
data tamper-proof and intelligent
traceable -To highlight the transportation
- How can -Traceability possible future systems and
blockchain-based information includes research in the interconnected smart
Internet of Things quality information, field of vehicles.
traceability processing data, blockchain-based -The need to have real
system be assets, logistic and transportation. case studies in the
implemented for transaction food supply chains,
food traceability information. Data is because the
management? recorded with simulations
connected devices approaches found in
(such as identity the literature are not
chips, RFID, and suffice to demonstrate
barcode technology). the feasibility of
Various sensors will blockchain.
be used to collect and -The right match
transmit between energy
automatically and demand and supply in
continuously the the field of electric
ambient information vehicle.
-What are the about temperature, Gurtu and 2008–2018 299 -To identify the -Make supply chains
benefits and humidity, O2, CO2, Johny value of more efficient, reduce
(continued on next page)
3
Table 1 (continued ) Table 1 (continued )

Article Time N Research Key findings Article Time N Research Key findings
questions/Aims questions/Aims
(2019) blockchain the cost of the within the supply disintermediation and
technology brings verification/audit chains. reintermediation,
to the supply processes, create a digital trust and
chain secure network and supply chain
managements. improve supply chain relationship
transparency. management,
Queiroz 2008–2018 27 -What are the -Transportation, the blockchain, inequality
et al. main current electric power and supply chain
(2019) blockchain industry, security sustainability, and the
applications in improvement, dark side of
supply chains traditional supply blockchain.
management? chains management Wamba and 2008–2019 3507 -To present the -Bitcoin, blockchain
(distribution), Queiroz themes and trends and smart contracts
education, smart- (2020) in blockchain with their
contract transactions, research. applications, and
governance, emissions challenges,
trading, healthcare vulnerabilities,
-What are the systems and business limitations related to
main disruptions information. -To explore the the bitcoin and
and challenges in -Smart contracts will future research blockchain protocols.
supply chains contribute to several directions of -How can blockchain
management supply chain blockchain-based leverage the
because of management supply chains. traceability of food
blockchain improvement supply chains in a
adoption? measures such as global perspective?
improved -What is the role of
responsiveness, lead- blockchain in health
time reduction, care systems?
transaction costs
reduction, increased Note: The second column indicates the time horizon of review articles, and the
visibility and more third column “N” represents the word “Number”, which indicates the number of
trust, security and review articles. “None” means no mention of the number of articles reviewed.
transparency in the
-What is the network.
2. Value of blockchain
future of -Innovative changes in
blockchain in goods traceability will
supply chains improve network This section illustrates the value of blockchain for supply chains, that
management? transparency, is, the benefits that blockchain brings to supply chains. The definition
dramatically reducing
and attributes of blockchain technology are introduced in Section 2.1. A
the costs of
monitoring processes.
review of the functions of basic blockchain technologies provides further
-Future insights to explore the relationship of blockchain and supply chains in
blockchain–supply Section 2.2.
chains management
integration will
transform 2.1. Blockchain technology
relationships not only
in business-to- In technical terms, blockchain refers to a distributed ledger
business contexts, but
composed of a series of data blocks that are linked through crypto
also in business-to-
customer and graphic methods (Zachariadis et al., 2019). Each block records a batch of
customer-to-customer network transaction information; the structure of a block is shown in
contexts. Fig. 1. A block consists of a block header and a block body (Liu & Li,
Wang et al. 2017–2018 29 -To identify the -Trust, public safety 2020). The block header holds information used to connect to the pre
(2019) drivers of and security.
blockchain
vious block and information used for verification, including the version
deployment in -Extended visibility number, the hash value of the previous block, the timestamp of the
supply chains. and product current block writing time, the nonce and difficulty target used to prove
-To identify areas traceability, supply the difficulty of the workload, and a total hash of Merkle tree root for
where blockchain chain digitalisation
verifying the block body transaction (Azzi et al., 2019). The block body
provides the most and
value for supply disintermediation, contains transaction information and the Merkle trees of all the trans
chain improved data action information (Pandey & Litoriya, 2020). In Fig. 1, “T” is used to
management. security for represent “transaction.”
information sharing, In a blockchain network, any two nodes can conduct transactions,
and smart contracts
-To investigate -Organizational and
and each transaction is broadcast by a single node to all nodes on the
the challenges/ user-related entire network (Frizzo-Barker et al., 2020). Transaction information is
barriers of further challenges, linked in the blockchain when all nodes confirm that the records are
diffusion within technological correct, and this process relies on the consensus mechanism of the
the supply chain challenges and
blockchain network (Feng et al., 2020). The distributed structure en
-To develop the operational
elements of future challenges. ables each node to record all transaction information, and each node
research agenda -Cryptocurrency and updates and stores all the information of the entire network in real time
for blockchain supply chain finance, (Hughes et al., 2019). Blockchain technology involves three techno
logical innovations, namely, cryptography, consensus mechanisms and
4
Fig. 1. . Blockchain structure.
smart contracts. has an enormous impact on the design of business models (Zhu
et al., 2020). A smart contract can be used to model various types
(1) Cryptography technologies, including the hash function and of businesses, organizational behaviours and rules in the real
public key cryptography, are the basic technologies used to world and affects interactions among various entities, including
ensure the security of the blockchain system and are used in data the transfer of asset ownership, payments of digital assets and
structures, verification methods, communication protocols, and currency transactions (Wang et al., 2019).
information storage (Wang et al., 2019). The hash function gua
rantees the integrity, authenticity and immutability of the
2.2. Blockchain and supply chain relationship
distributed ledger data through the hash value and hash pointer,
and it can convert the input data into a fixed-length digest
The three major aspects of blockchain technologies that create value,
through a hash algorithm, whose process is irreversible (Maesa &
namely, shareable, secure and smart attributes, are summarized ac
Mori, 2020). Public key cryptography is an asymmetric encryp
cording to the analysis of the aforementioned blockchain technology,
tion algorithm that is used to provide identity verification to the
namely, cryptography, consensus mechanism and smart contracts.
blockchain network (Lopez & Farooq, 2020). Public key cryp
tography effectively solves the problem of key distribution and
2.2.1. Shareability
exchange in network communications, which ensures the security
Blockchain uses a P2P network model, which means that the re
of information transmission (Ali et al., 2019).
sources and services are distributed across all nodes, allowing each node
(2) The consensus mechanism proves the ownership and accuracy of
to obtain a copy of the same distributed ledger achieving the data
the bookkeeping nodes through a consensus algorithm that solves
sharing (Drljevic et al., 2020; Savelyev, 2018). This mechanism gua
consistency problems. This mechanism establishes trust between
rantees that a transaction conducted by any node requires all nodes to
different nodes in the blockchain system and guarantees that each
jointly verify the transaction, thus ensuring the integrity of the data in
transaction remains consistent for all nodes (Feng et al., 2020).
the entire network. At the same time, this distributed system can better
With the development of blockchain technology, many consensus
prevent hackers from attacking, and it does not affect the operation of
algorithms have been developed, such as proof of work (POW),
the entire system even if individual nodes are attacked.
proof of stake (POS), and practical byzantine fault tolerance
Azzi et al. (2019) pointed out that blockchain technology can pre
(PBFT).
vent data fraud caused by data centralization in a traditional supply
(3) A smart contract is a set of promises defined in digital form; the
chain because it uses a distributed system that eliminates in
contract content is fixed in the blockchain in the form of code,
termediaries. This process also occurs for supply chain finance, which
and eventually, an automatically executed script is generated
allows parties in supply chains to directly carry out activities, such as
(Tanwar et al., 2020). Each transaction is processed by a smart
transfers, payments and stock transactions in a secure manner without
contract, and the corresponding contract terms can be executed
financial service providers (Chen & Wang, 2020). Furthermore, Toen
automatically once a predefined condition is triggered (Abdullah
nissen and Teuteberg (2020) claimed that the elimination of in
et al., 2020). This process does not require a third party, which
termediaries reduces the time and cost of transactions. In a traditional
5
supply chain, another issue that needs attention is information frag carbon products more, but it is difficult to define them in traditional
mentation between participants, and blockchain is regarded as a supply chain systems (Manupati et al., 2020). Blockchain technology
promising technology that can solve this problem (Gonczol et al., 2020; can track the raw materials of products and the carbon emissions of the
Wang et al., 2019). Longo et al. (2019) concluded that data sharing entire process of a product, which is conducive to customers’ green
through blockchain technology helped upstream enterprises gain a consumption (Saberi et al., 2019). At present, IBM and the Energy
deeper understanding of the needs of downstream customers, which Blockchain Lab have jointly developed a carbon asset platform using
helped enterprises make better decisions. At the same time, the ability to blockchain technology to help organizations measure their carbon
obtain timely data can improve procurement management, production footprint and facilitate the trading of carbon assets (IBM, 2018).
management, transportation management, inventory management and
many other links in a supply chain, thereby improving the overall level 2.2.3. Smart capabilities
of supply chain management (Cole et al., 2019). In addition, the mode of The smart capabilities of blockchain are reflected in smart contracts,
common recording across the entire network allows each permitted which is considered a revolutionary application. Singh et al. (2020)
modification to be observed in real time, which shortens the response introduced smart contracts embedded in a blockchain network; contract
time (Nayak & Dhaigude, 2019). terms can be automatically executed to achieve internal interaction
Blockchain technology makes intermediaries unnecessary and allows between participants when the execution conditions are triggered.
for data sharing, making it suitable for large and complex supply chain Smart contracts are executed quickly, which improves operational effi
networks, such as those used for international trade, in which a large ciency, and the rights and interests of the participants are protected
number of stakeholders are involved (Bai & Sarkis, 2020; Cole et al., through the contract terms (Macrinici et al., 2018). Liu and Li (2020)
2019). According to Chang et al. (2020), there are two problems related proposed that smart contracts reduce paperwork and labour by elimi
to traditional international trade that need to be urgently solved. The nating contract registration and monitoring processes, which reduce
first is that the processing platforms used for international trade are operating costs and improve the efficiency of supply chains.
mostly centralized, which limits transactions. The second is that hard The contract terms agreed upon by supply chain participants are
copies are required for all documents required for cross-border trans fixed in the coding used for smart contracts, which define the statement
portations, so there may be delays, losses, and misplacement, which obligations, benefits, and penalties, and the terms are enforced when the
affect the operational efficiency. Liu and Li (2020) considered that the conditions for execution are met (Dolgui et al., 2020). For example, in a
application of blockchain can be used to develop digital solutions and cash-on-delivery smart contract, the stakeholders realize automatic
could enhance the ability to share transaction records in real time across settlement when the goods are successfully stored in the warehouse. This
the network to improve operational efficiency. high degree of automation makes blockchain technology particularly
suitable for multi-tier supplier networks with complex relationships; in
2.2.2. Security this context, it is difficult to track the status of the business and settle
The security of the blockchain system is protected at three levels. payments. Smart contracts can be used to organize the financial situa
First, decentralization eliminates the possibility of data tampering tion of the entire supply chain network and establish connections for
(Schmidt & Wagner, 2019). Second, the use of cryptographic technology transactions between different currencies so that each participant is paid
guarantees data security and ensures that information cannot be modi (Pournader et al., 2020). At the same time, the use of smart contracts can
fied without authorization (Lu, 2018). Finally, the consensus mechanism prevent the risk of default and ensure that the trading parties fulfil their
provides protection for the entire network by requiring all nodes on the obligations (Min, 2019). Transactions are carried out within a safe and
network to adhere to consistent protocols (Singh & Kim, 2018). controllable range, as the clearing of the funds of both parties is solid
Behnke and Janssen (2020) claimed that information and product ified (Dolgui et al., 2020). Smart contracts should be established for the
security are improved through blockchain-based supply chain manage different links in a supply chain system and can be used for purchase
ment. From the perspective of information security, trust among par contracts, transportation contracts, and storage contracts. Each contract
ticipants is not high due to the lack of transparency in traditional supply has its own stated variables, and if any changes occur, information is
chains (Feng et al., 2020; Mao et al., 2018). Di Vaio and Varriale (2020) automatically sent to the stakeholders of the contact. Any entity that
pointed out that blockchain technology prevents information from being needs other relevant information can obtain the corresponding power by
changed, which reduces the risk of the supply chain and thus improves registering events in the relevant contract. This approach also ensures
trust between the supply chain participants. Blockchain guarantees data information flow throughout the supply chain (Panescu & Manta, 2018).
integrity by ensuring fixed information (on raw materials, processes and
operators), item flow information (changes in different locations) and 3. Research methodology
changes in ownership information (Lambourdiere & Corbin, 2020).
Other types of information can be collected according to actual needs. This section describes the research methodology used for the litera
Blockchain technology enhances product safety (Ding et al., 2020). ture review, which consists of article screening and article coding.
Effective enterprises have realized that high product transparency en
hances consumer trust, which is a competitive advantage (Wang et al., 3.1. Article screening
2019). Kamble et al. (2020) illustrated that transparency is essential to
ensure product authenticity and improve product traceability. The in Relevant high-quality articles were considered to provide reliable
crease in transparency in blockchain technology depends on two as insights into the research questions. Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and
pects. The first aspect is the timestamp in the block, which provides Google Scholar are the three most important citation databases. WoS is
chronological proof of a series of transactions (Hyla & Pejas, 2020). The considered to be a more reliable international academic journal data
second aspect is the integration of modern sensors into blockchain, such base than the other two sources and covers the most high-quality
as radio frequency identification (RFID) and a global positioning system research articles (Wang et al., 2020). To further improve the quality
(GPS) (Helo & Shamsuzzoha, 2020). Blockchain technology creates a and rigour of the search for articles, the types of articles reviewed were
block for each link of goods that follows processes from manufacturing limited to those published in peer-reviewed academic journals and ar
to sales, and these blocks are connected to record information on the ticles that focus only on technology, Bitcoin and finance were excluded
entire process (Azzi et al., 2019). Information cannot be changed once to make the analysis effective. This study used “blockchain” and “supply
the blocks are formed, and this process ensures traceability and thus chain” as the query string. To further expand the relevant research
product safety (Galvez et al., 2018; O’Leary, 2017; Yong et al., 2020). content, other query strings related to supply chains were identified
With the deterioration of the environment, people are favouring low- after a consultation among the authors: “transport”, “logistics”, “cross-
6
border trade” and “manufacturing.” All articles with these query strings discussion. Basic information on the articles, including publications per
in theme were selected. The term blockchain can be traced back to 2008, year, main journals and countries, is described in the descriptive anal
but it was only used in the financial field in the beginning. In June 2017, ysis (Section 4.1). Moreover, content analysis is carried out to analyze
the first academic journal article related to the combination of block the current research content based on the four coding dimensions pro
chain and supply chains was published. Hence, the range of the time posed in Section 3.2: including supply chain themes (Section 4.2),
frame that was searched was set to June 2017 to March 2020. research methodologies (Section 4.3), illustration types (Section 4.4)
Each article was independently reviewed by four authors in the and industries addressed (Section 4.5).
article screening stage. The four authors exchanged opinions to deter
mine the selected articles after completing the review. This method re 4.1. Publications per year, main journals and countries
duces individual subjective bias and makes the results more rigorous.
Table 2 lists the three stages used to screen the articles: theme search, Table 3 shows the number of articles published in related fields since
type screening and content screening. This table also lists the screening 2017, and the articles are divided into research articles and review ar
criteria. In the first stage, theme search, 421 articles were selected. After ticles. The overall trend indicates that the number of published articles
filtering by article type, 198 articles were identified. Finally, 106 valid increased year by year, showing that scholars’ research interest has
articles remained after content screening. gradually increased. The timeframe considered in this study ends with
2020.03.31. The number of articles published reached 43 in the first
3.2. Article coding quarter of 2020; therefore, the number of articles published throughout
the year is expected to exceed 150. It can be seen that review articles
The coding method used in this study is based on the four- have appeared since 2019. This is because research on the combination
dimensional coding proposed by Ghadimi et al. (2019) including sup of blockchain and supply chain has just started, and the previous
ply chain themes, research methodologies, illustration types and appli research results are not rich enough to support the completion of review
cation industries. The selected 106 articles discussed in Section 3.1 were articles. As the research deepens, the number of review articles will
coded according to the above four dimensions to obtain the four angles rapidly increase.
of content analysis described in Section 4. In the coding process, a In addition, the sources of the articles are analyzed. The 106 articles
problem arises that deserves attention: defining the category to which considered in this study were published in 45 journals, covering areas
the article belongs is a subjective process. Therefore, the guidelines including computer science, information science, environmental sci
proposed by Wang et al. (2019) to double-check the categories were ence, engineering, manufacturing, operations management, and busi
adopted to ensure the rigour and objectivity of the classification process. ness management. Fig. 2 lists the top ten journals, in which
The specific process used is as follows: The first author and the second abbreviations (“Int.” for International and “Trans.” for Transportation)
author completed the coding. If there was any inconsistency in the are used to represent the reported journals. The largest number of
coding, the third author participated in the coding and all the authors publications appeared in the International Journal of Information Man
made the final decision together. agement and IEEE Access, both of which published 12 articles. The impact
Here, Zheng et al. (2020) is used as an example to introduce the factors of these two journals are 13.17 and 6.17, respectively, which
specific coding process. These scholars studied the risk decision-making means they are influential. Therefore, they are likely to become high-
problem in a spacecraft supply chain under decentralized, partially level journals in the field of blockchain-based supply chains attracting
centralized and fully centralized situations using blockchain. (1) Supply a large number of submissions in related fields. It is worth noting that a
chain themes. The study discussed the risk issues in supply chains, so it large number of articles have not been published in supply chain and
belongs to the risk category in terms of the specific impact of the logistics journals, such as Supply Chain Management: An International
blockchain. (2) Research methodologies. The study used the Stackelberg Journal and Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and transportation
game model to explore the profit in three situations, so it belongs to the review. It is speculated that the number of studies on blockchain-based
modelling category for mathematical models. (3) Illustration types. The supply chains published in these two journals will grow rapidly.
use of mathematical models means the study used numerical experi The 106 articles considered in this study come from 31 countries, so
ments. (4) Industries addressed. The study analyzed a spacecraft pro the topic of blockchain-based supply chains has attracted the attention
duction supply chain, which obviously belongs to the manufacturing of scholars from various countries, and research has been carried out on
industry category. a global scale. Table 4 shows the top eight countries with the total
number of published articles. China published 23.58% of the total ar
4. Findings and discussions ticles, ranking first in the world. This is because blockchain has risen to
national strategic importance in China, and various departments,
This section discusses the descriptive and content analysis of the 106 provinces and cities have also actively issued relevant documents to
selected articles as described in Section 3.1, leading to the findings and support the development of the blockchain industry (China Blockchain
Technology and Industrial Development Forum, 2016). Therefore,
Table 2
scholars can actively carry out relevant research on blockchain. China is
Criteria used to screen the articles. followed by the United States (16), Italy (9), the United Kingdom (7),
India (7), France (5), Arabia (3), and South Korea (3). However, it
Stage Details
should be noted that the average number of citations in the articles
Theme search -Database:WoS core collection published in China is only 4.04, far lower than 15.75 in papers from the
(4 2 1) -Language: English
United States and 10.57 in papers from the United Kingdom.
-Time range: June 2017 to March 2020
-Query strings: “blockchain” AND【“supply chain” OR “transport”
OR “logistics” OR “cross-border trade” OR “manufacturing”】
-Search space:Theme
Type screening -According to the theme search, the articles in the WoS database Table 3
(1 9 8) are initially selected. Number of articles per year.
-Delete conference papers, books, comments and editing notes,
Types 2017 2018 2019 2020
only journal papers are retained.
Content -Read the title and abstracts to judge the relevance. Research 3 15 40 37
screening -In addition, read the contents of the articles selected in the Review 0 0 5 6
(1 0 6) previous step to judge the relevance Total 3 15 45 43
7
Fig. 2. Top ten journals with the number of articles.
specific changes caused by blockchain in terms of a certain aspect, which

Table 4
is a deeper study of the value of blockchain in terms of “Impact”.
Top eight countries with the number of articles.
Through a review of 63 articles, it is found that blockchain has pene
Rank Country Count Citations Average Citations trated four aspects: product (35), process (11), operation (9), and sus
1 China 25 101 4.04 tainability (8). The sub-theme “Product” has attracted the most
2 United States 16 252 15.75 attention, in which most articles focus on “Traceability”. For example,
3 Italy 9 33 3.67
Kamble et al. (2020) identified thirteen enablers of blockchain appli
4 United Kingdom 7 74 10.57
5 India 7 28 4.00
cation in the agriculture supply chain based on a combined interpretive
6 France 5 4 0.80 structural modelling and decision-making trial and evaluation labora
7 United Arab Emirates 3 5 1.67 tory methodology, and the findings from the study suggest that, among
8 South Korea 3 3 1.00 the identified enablers, traceability was the most significant reason
followed by auditability, immutability, and provenance. This phenom
4.2. Supply chain themes enon is consistent with the view that traceability is the greatest value of
blockchain for supply chains. In contrast to the “Specific” theme with
In terms of applying blockchain technology to supply chains, re four subthemes, there are also many articles about “Information
searchers and practitioners have discussed three themes, impact, func sharing” and the “Trust system”. In terms of the supply chain process,
tion and configuration, which are expanded in Wang et al. (2019). This these articles discuss the impact of blockchain on design (Rahmanzadeh
study further subdivides these three themes into subthemes based on the et al., 2020), order management (Martinez et al., 2019), produce (Leng
characteristics of supply chain activities, which are shown in Table A1 in et al., 2018; Mandolla et al., 2019), workflow (Chang et al., 2019; Per
Appendix A. The 106 articles are classified according to these themes. boli et al., 2018; Philipp et al., 2019) and logistics (Dolgui et al., 2020;
The first theme is “Impact”, with 36 articles, accounting for 34% of Hasan et al., 2019; Tijan et al., 2019; Toennissen & Teuteberg, 2020).
all the articles. Since research on blockchain-based supply chains has For example, Martinez et al. (2019) studied blockchain-driven customer
just started, it is necessary to define the impact of blockchain on supply order management and carried out simulations for three scenarios:
chains to identify research opportunities. Most of these articles are still current with no blockchain, 1-year and 5-year blockchain use. The re
in the reasoning stage, meaning that conceptual means are used to sults showed that blockchain improved the efficiency of the process: it
explain the value, current status, challenges and opportunities of reduced the number of operations, the average time of orders in the
blockchain. For example, Queiroz and Wamba (2019) discussed the system and the workload, showed order traceability, and improved
challenges of adopting blockchain in the supply chain through empirical visibility to various supply chain participants. The level of operation
research on the main driving forces in India and the United States. In directly affects the overall performance. The existing research studied
their research, a model based on a slightly altered version of the classical operations from the viewpoint of partnerships (Kim & Shin, 2019), co
unified theory of acceptance and use of technology was developed, and ordination (Li et al., 2019), performance (Hald & Kinra, 2019), plat
the results obtained revealed the existence of distinct adoption behav forms (Choi, 2019) and risk management (Choi et al., 2019; Fu & Zhu,
iours between India-based and USA-based professionals. For example, in 2019; L. Liu et al., 2019; Min, 2019; Zheng et al., 2020).
response to the hypothesis that “social influence positively affects the The operation of the supply chain should focus on economic benefits
behavioural intention to adopt blockchain”, India supports this view, and consider the environment and society, which collectively represent
while the United States stands on the opposite side. Under the theme the well-known triple bottom line (TBL) principle. Saberi et al. (2019)
“Impact”, 25 articles have no specific application area (categorized in proposed that blockchain technology may be a panacea for addressing
the sub-theme “Ordinary”), and 11 articles explore the impact of in the TBL, which is based on sustainability. To date, eight articles studied
dustry background including the agriculture (Antonucci et al., 2019; sustainability. Among them, two articles considered a single factor,
Chen et al., 2020; Duan et al., 2020; Feng et al., 2020; Kittipanya-ngam environment (Kouhizadeh & Sarkis, 2018) and society (Venkatesh et al.,
& Tan, 2020; Zhao et al., 2019) and service industries (Boulos et al., 2020). Two factors were studied in three articles: environment and so
2018; Chang et al., 2020; Choi, Guo, et al., 2020; Juma et al., 2019; ciety (Castka et al., 2020), economy and society (Yadav & Singh, 2020),
Yang, 2019). More industries that have applied blockchain are discussed economy and environment (Manupati et al., 2020). Only three articles
in Section 4.5. comprehensively considered all three factors (Di Vaio & Varriale, 2020;
Most articles, 59.4%, focus on the second theme “Function”. This Nayak & Dhaigude, 2019; Saberi et al., 2019). Therefore, the study of
theme is related to addressing the following problem: “Where will blockchain-based sustainable supply chains considering the three di
blockchain penetrate the supply chain?” These articles focus on the mensions of economy, society and environment is still insufficient, and
agendas for future studies are proposed in Section 5.
8
Fewer studies, only 7, explore the theme “Configuration”. The arti production allocation problems in a multi-echelon supply chain, and the
cles focusing on this theme consider the simultaneous application of results showed that the blockchain approach minimizes both total cost
blockchain technology and emerging technologies such as big data, the and carbon emissions. Furthermore, 6 articles used simulation model
Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence (Bencic et al., 2019; ling, and the purpose of this method is to imitate the implementation of
Fernandez-Carames et al., 2019; Lezoche et al., 2020; Mazzei et al., blockchain. For example, Leng et al. (2018) designed an agricultural
2020; Mondal et al., 2019; Rejeb et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020). For supply chain system based on blockchain technology, and the results
example, Fernandez-Carames et al. (2019) designed a system in which illustrated that the proposed system improved the openness and security
blockchain and a distributed ledger are used to store the big data of a of transaction information. In addition, 5 articles applied multicriteria
certain inventory collected by unmanned aerial vehicles. Different tests decision modelling methodologies, including fuzzy decision making
that were performed in a real industrial warehouse concluded that the (FDM) and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). The barriers
system is able to rapidly obtain the inventory data compared with (Ozturk & Yildizbasi, 2020), evaluation and selection criteria (Bai &
traditional manual tasks. Furthermore, the system is also capable of Sarkis, 2020) and success factors (S. S. Kamble et al., 2020; Nayak &
estimating item positions from a hovering vantage point that leverages Dhaigude, 2019; Yadav & Singh, 2020) were determined using the
their tag’s signal strength. multicriteria decision method.
The smallest number of articles, 23, focused on system imple
4.3. Research methodologies mentation, and current research focuses on the framework (52.2%) and
system (47.8%). This series of articles attempted to determine how to
This section analyzes the research methodologies used to study deploy blockchain in supply chains. Technical and business solutions
blockchain-based supply chains. Four research method categories are were provided in the “Technical” articles. Some scholars proposed
identified through a review of 106 articles: conceptual, empirical, technical frameworks, for example, Wu et al. (2017) introduced a de
modelling and technical. Table A2 in Appendix A shows the 106 articles livery framework composed of a set of private distributed ledgers and a
grouped in the proposed four method categories, and it can be seen that blockchain public ledger. Studies also focused on the implementation of
the number of articles aligning with each of the four methodologies are a system. Helo and Hao (2019) established a blockchain-based logistics
not much different. This result illustrates that research opportunities still monitoring system that was designed and tested based on Ethereum. In
exist, as research in related fields is still in the exploration stage. general, most systems were implemented through Ethereum (Fernan
There are 31 articles, the largest number, falling into the “Concep dez-Carames et al., 2019; Hasan et al., 2019; Helo & Hao, 2019; Toyoda
tual” category, and this is consistent with the development of an et al., 2017; Yoo & Won, 2018) and Hyperledger Fabric (Cui et al., 2019;
emerging research field. A general description, literature reviews and Wang et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020).
theory are developed to address the proposed problem and are catego
rized in the “Conceptual” category, in which most studies were a general 4.4. Illustration types
description. For example, Schmidt and Wagner (2019) utilized trans
action cost theory to create a better understanding of how blockchain This study designed three illustration types to narrow the various
might influence supply chain relations, specifically in terms of trans gaps in the research methodologies discussed in Section 4.3 and to
action costs and governance decisions. The results revealed blockchain identify the theoretical gaps and empirical opinions of different authors.
might significantly reduce transaction and governance costs of supply Three categories were developed, “Application”, “Theoretical approach”
chain transactions, especially in reducing search and information cost. and “Numerical examples”, as shown in Table A3 of Appendix A. This
“Empirical” is the second largest research methodology category, table shows that 38 articles, the largest number, study and verify the
with a total of 28 articles, including 19 qualitative articles and 9 proposed theories by analysing case studies or applications of block
quantitative articles. In qualitative research, different methods, such as chain, which is consistent with the view that industry leads academia in
seminars, implementation experience, expert interviews, and case the study of practical technology. For example, Kshetri (2018) discussed
studies are adopted to gain research insights. For example, van Hoek case studies of blockchain projects at various stages of development for
(2019b) explored lessons learned by early adopters of blockchain tech different purposes to analyze how it affects key supply chain manage
nology in the supply chain through three case studies from different ment objectives. The results showed that blockchain affects cost, quality,
industries (logistics services, consumer products and retail), supply speed, reliability, risk reduction, sustainability and flexibility.
chain positions (manufacturer, carrier, and retailer) and geographies Thirty-five articles (33%) used a “theoretical approach”; these
(Europe and USA). Based on the insights from the case studies, lessons studies discussed the theoretical gap by using some methodologies or
learned include the value in scoping pilots in a targeted manner, empirical approaches. Only qualitative empirical approaches fall under
including the use of existing technology in the pilot, and the ability to this theme. The quantitative empirical approaches are classified as
rapidly when provided with executive and stakeholder engagement. In “Numerical examples” due to the use of empirical data. For example, the
addition to the qualitative analysis mentioned above, some studies study of Wang et al. (2019) falls into the “theoretical approach” category
carried out “Empirical” quantitative research, which refers to devel because these scholars determine how blockchain technology has
oping and testing hypotheses, collecting data, and verifying hypotheses. transformed the supply chain through in-depth interviews with 14
For example, Wong et al. (2020) discussed the impact of top manage supply chain experts. However, Yang (2019) studied the driving factors
ment support, cost, market dynamics, competitive pressure, and regu of the successful application of blockchain in a maritime supply chain
latory support on supply chain management based on empirical data through empirical data from top management, members of boards of
from 194 small-medium enterprises in Malaysia. The results showed directors and planning staff. Hence, their research is classified into the
competitive pressure, complexity, cost and regulatory support have “Numerical example” category.
significant effects on behavioural intention. In contrast, market dy Thirty-three articles used “Numerical examples” to prove the effec
namics, regulatory support and upper management support were tiveness of the developed methods; this is regarded as an appropriate
insignificant predictors. approach for verifying the theories of the study, but it should also be
A total of 22.6% of the articles used modelling methods to solve noted that the limitations of this approach cannot be fully fitted unless it
research problems. More specifically, 12.3% of the articles adopted is applied in practical applications. Longo et al. (2019) simulated the
mathematical modelling, which consists of nonlinear programming, operation process of a blockchain-based supply chain to quantitatively
game theory and mean–variance approaches. These approaches attempt evaluate the benefits that companies can obtain under this context, and
to solve problems through the results of mathematical operations. For the results showed that blockchain technology is a convenient tool for
example, Manupati et al. (2020) studied the use of blockchain for supply chain collaboration, trust and overall performance. More
9
discussions about the theory and practice are provided in Section 5.3. products, etc., and the results showed that there is no disintermediation.
Chang et al. (2020) summarized the key challenges for blockchain
4.5. Industries addressed implementation through the analysis of blockchain applications in the
maritime industry, transportation industry, food, pharmaceuticals and
Research on the combination of blockchain and supply chains fo manufacturing supply chains.
cuses on different industrial sectors. The review articles are classified
into primary, secondary and tertiary industries according to the North 5. Future opportunities in the field of blockchain-based supply
American Industry Classification System (Wang et al., 2019). Primary chain
industries refer to agriculture, forestry, fishing, and animal husbandry,
and secondary industries include manufacturing, light industry, con The findings and discussions in Section 4 help to determine the
struction, mining and so on. Trade, logistics, transportation, retail, etc., research gaps and identify future research opportunities. Based on
are all tertiary industries. Table A4 in Appendix A shows that 36 out of Sections 4.2-4.5, research gaps and opportunities are found in terms of
106 articles did not focus on a specific industry application, which is the following four directions: (1) ignored themes in supply chains, (2)
indicated under the category “None”. These studies tried to explain applied methodologies in the research, (3) academic theory and indus
common problems, which is the current research focus. In the articles trial practice and (4) practice in different industrial sectors.
focusing on a specific industry, the primary, secondary, and tertiary
industries accounted for 21.7%, 18, 9%, and 17.9%, respectively. 5.1. Ignored themes in supply chains
Most research mainly focused on primary industries, and agriculture
has attracted the most attention, with studies on pork (George et al., The research of configuration receives less attention in comparison
2019; Sander et al., 2018), soybeans (Salah et al., 2019), wine (Bencic with the themes of impact and function. This situation may be due to the
et al., 2019), fresh food (Perboli et al., 2018), eggs (Bumblauskas et al., following three reasons (Duan et al., 2020). The first is described as the
2020), cereals (Zhang et al., 2020) and so on. The agricultural field amount of data increases exponentially with the widespread use of the
attracted the most attention. There are two reasons to show that the the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which brings great difficulties to
concern for the agricultural field is reasonable. The first reason is that data storage. The second is the delay in the transmission process. The
consumers need detailed product information from the farm to the table, consistency of the entire blockchain network is ensured through delay,
and blockchain technology improves the traceability of agricultural but the delay is unacceptable for many IoT-based applications. The third
products (Feng et al., 2020). At the same time, blockchain technology is the security issue; the blockchain network security and the privacy of
can realize real-time temperature monitoring for fresh foods with strict the participants are both worthy of attention due to the vulnerability of
temperature requirements such as eggs and pork, during circulation the IoT. Zhang et al. (2020) proposed that the integration of blockchain
(Leng et al., 2018). The second reason is due to concerns about food and IoT, artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning and other
safety. Blockchain technology can quickly and accurately locate prob emerging technologies can achieve excellent operation of the supply
lematic products to improve the recall rate of food and be used to build a chain. Therefore, carrying out related research in this field, especially
complete recall system to respond to public health emergencies (Zhao regarding data storage, information transmission, and blockchain
et al., 2019). network security, is a promising avenue.
The second largest group of articles focuses on three types of sec The discussion on sustainability seems to be limited compared with
ondary industries: manufacturing (Ko et al., 2018; Mandolla et al., 2019; other subthemes. The following limitations are discovered by analysing
Xu et al., 2019), light industry (Sylim et al., 2018; Tseng et al., 2018; eight articles related to the theme of sustainability: (1) Social dimension
Yong et al., 2020), and construction (Wang et al., 2020; Xiong et al., attention is insufficient. Social-level standards should all be considered
2019). For example, Mandolla et al. (2019) focus on the phases char in the sustainable supply chain, including working conditions, work
acterizing the metal additive manufacturing process for producing health and safety, human rights and product safety. However, product
components for the aircraft industry and propose a digital twin for ad safety is the focus of most articles, and only one article considers other
ditive manufacturing in the aircraft industry through the exploitation of dimensions in addition to product safety (Venkatesh et al., 2020).
blockchain solutions, ultimately providing a conceptual answer to Therefore, relevant research is needed to improve the indicators of the
securing and organizing the data generated through an end-to-end ad social dimension in the blockchain-based supply chain. (2) Environ
ditive manufacturing process in the aircraft industry. Most of the mental concern is not comprehensive. The environmental issues
research focused on manufacturing because the bullwhip effect arises if considered in supply chains should include waste management, energy
an upstream enterprise cannot obtain the demand of the downstream efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and so on. Most of the current
enterprise in a timely and accurate manner. Blockchain technology research focuses on the discussion of “Green”, that is, reducing carbon
improves information incompleteness and asymmetry in the emissions (Manupati et al., 2020). A few articles mention waste man
manufacturing process and can be used to achieve real-time information agement (Kouhizadeh & Sarkis, 2018; Saberi et al., 2019), and there is
sharing (Fu & Zhu, 2019). no relevant research on energy efficiency. Therefore, more compre
Finally, the third group of articles studied the field of tertiary in hensive environmental issues need to be studied to better emphasize the
dustry, which consists of trading (Allen et al., 2019), transportation role of blockchain in promoting environmental management. (3) Lack of
(Yanovich et al., 2018), retail (Choi & Luo, 2019) and health (Boulos quantitative research. Since conceptual methods were used in most ar
et al., 2018). The application of blockchain technology in the trade field ticles, the quantitative studies are deemed inadequate. At present, there
can bring some benefits, such as reducing intermediaries, reducing costs is no research that can systematically propose a sustainable supply chain
and increasing efficiency (Liu & Li, 2020). In addition to the specific performance model under the blockchain environment.
industry sector, some scholars have also conducted research in multiple More research should be carried out under the theme of coordina
industrial sectors (meaning an article contains two or more application tion, performance and order management. From Table A1, it can be seen
scenarios), which are shown under the category “Multi-industry” that the top five specific articles are traceability (20), information
(Astarita et al., 2020; Azzi et al., 2019; Chang et al., 2020; Gurtu & sharing (9), economy, society and environment (8), trust system (6), and
Johny, 2019; Karamchandani et al., 2020; Toennissen & Teuteberg, risk (5). This phenomenon is consistent with the value of the blockchain
2020; van Hoek, 2020; Wamba & Queiroz, 2020), which makes the for supply chains analyzed in Section 2. The other topics listed in
conclusions more universal and applicable to providing industry in Table A1 have not received much attention, such as coordination, per
sights. For example, Toennissen and Teuteberg (2020) investigated ten formance and order management, which are crucial for supply chains
blockchain-based industries, including ocean freight, agri-food, animal management (Hald & Kinra, 2019; Li et al., 2019; Martinez et al., 2019).
10
Therefore, the research related to these topics should also be conducted 5.3. Academic theory and industrial practice
to meet the challenges of blockchain-based supply chains.
Theoretical gaps and empirical claims are verified in three types of
articles, namely, those that fall into the application, theoretical
5.2. Applied methodologies in the research approach and numerical examples categories, as shown in Table A3.
Thirty-eight articles validated their theories through “Applications”.
Four methodologies are developed to carry out the research, This method is generally accepted by the related research community,
including conceptual, empirical, modelling and technical. This section and the research results provide opinions for current academic and
explores the research opportunities from the above four methodologies. practical research. To better explore the relationship between academic
First, literature reviews have gradually become the focus of research theory and industrial practice, scholars should consider the following
under the conceptual category with the increase in the number of related research opportunities.
studies. However, the existing literature review can be divided into two Blockchain technology has not attracted the attention of small and
categories: research in which there is no specific industry background medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through the analysis of 13 case
focus, and research that has an agricultural background focus. Hence, studies in the “Application” category, it is found that most cases are
there is a lack of literature reviews about the application of blockchain concerned with the implementation of blockchain projects of some large
in manufacturing, trade and other specific fields. Second, current enterprises, such as Wal-Mart, IBM and Maersk, and only two of them
research uses empirical qualitative methods. As this research deepens, focus on SMEs (Chang et al., 2020; Perboli et al., 2018). It is normal for
case studies and quantitative research should occupy a dominant posi this phenomenon to occur, and the development of SMEs is lagging
tion to guide the configuration of blockchain in supply chains. Since behind that of large enterprises in emerging technologies due to the
blockchain technology is in the early stages of development, conceptual difference in cognitive level and infrastructure. However, blockchain
and empirical methodologies can be used to strengthen the relationship technology can solve current dilemmas of SMEs, including limited re
between blockchain and supply chains and propose related theories. As sources and the difficulty in finding investors and expanding the busi
the research continues, it is necessary to use modelling methods to verify ness scale. Therefore, blockchain technology presents both
newly developed theories. opportunities and challenges for SMEs. At the same time, SMEs should
Currently, there are many research opportunities in mathematical also recognize their own advantages. Having a concise organizational
modelling, simulation modelling and multicriteria decisions, which fall structure makes the deployment of blockchain easier and the initial cost
in the modelling category. There is a lack of studies using mathematical lower. As noted above, relevant research on SMEs is in-depth. Since
modelling for the direct application of blockchain. At present, research research on SMEs has just started, there are many topics that can be
content focuses on the blockchain environment and determining the considered: (1) What value does blockchain technology have for SMEs,
factors affected by blockchain as well as their impact on the results. For and how does this value differ from that for large enterprises? (2) What
example, Ko et al. (2018) compared the impact of blockchain technology are the obstacles to successful blockchain implementation in SMEs?
on the profits of manufacturing companies, and the results showed that What are the similarities and differences concerning those found in large
blockchain technology improves the profitability and competitiveness of enterprises?
manufacturing firms. Choi et al. (2019) discussed aviation logistics risks The voices of different groups should be investigated when academic
in the era of blockchain, focusing on “air-logistics related operations”, research is conducted. There are 35 articles using the “Theoretical
“demand management”, “supply management”, and “supply–demand approach” method, so a question arises: Can theory be used to guide
coordination”. Therefore, research using mathematical modelling to practice? Pagell and Shevchenko (2014) claimed that academic research
analyze blockchain technology is urgently needed to address this involving practice managers can better guide practical activities.
research gap. Therefore, some research involves the intersection of theoretical
The articles using simulation modelling connect theory and practice methods and numerical experiments due to the use of statistics. To carry
and narrow the gap between them. There are six articles in the category out research on industrial practice, seminars, questionnaire surveys and
for this theme, but only one article simulates the entire supply chain expert interviews are designed to obtain data. The interviewees are
operation (Longo et al., 2019). Therefore, future simulation research supply chain experts (Hackius & Petersen, 2020; Kim & Shin, 2019;
should consider goods, information, capital flow, organization, pro Philipp et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2019), supply chain industry managers
duction, and delivery processes (purchasing, inventory management, (Dubey et al., 2020; Sander et al., 2018; van Hoek, 2019a, 2019b), and
logistics management, etc.) with suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, and supply chain practitioners (Behnke & Janssen, 2020; Kamble et al.,
carriers. Five articles use multicriteria decision-making models to 2019; Karamchandani et al., 2020; Queiroz & Wamba, 2019; Sheel &
determine the successful factors of implementation (Kamble et al., 2020; Nath, 2019; van Hoek, 2020; Wong et al., 2020; Yang, 2019), with
Nayak & Dhaigude, 2019; Yadav & Singh, 2020), obstacles to imple different perspectives from academia and industry. Future research
mentation (Ozturk & Yildizbasi, 2020) and blockchain selection and needs to include other groups, such as individuals representing the
evaluation (Bai & Sarkis, 2020). There are gaps in some of the studies government, different industries, and different countries, to obtain a
determining the factors of and obstacles to successful implementation, more general view. The articles using numerical experiments operate
so the general conclusion needs to be applied to blockchain practice. It is somewhere in the middle of “theoretical method” and “real-world
also necessary to establish a connection between these factors through application”, which connects theory and practice.
mathematical modelling or simulation modelling and identify new The sustainability theme deserves more attention. In the numerical
research gaps. example category, there are 12 articles that considered cost or profit
Finally, research on technology should be strengthened. The review when the objective function was established (Choi, 2019; Choi et al.,
of the technology studies indicates that the following two aspects are not Feng, et al., 2020; Choi & Luo, 2019; Choi et al., 2019; Hayrutdinov
well studied. First, each company currently has its own management et al., 2020; Ko et al., 2018; Li et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2019; Longo et al.,
system, so studies should pay more attention to existing systems that can 2019; Manupati et al., 2020; Rahmanzadeh et al., 2020; Zheng et al.,
be integrated with blockchain technology. Second, many enterprises 2020); these two aspects have attracted great attention and will be the
have developed their own unique blockchain platforms. If an enterprise focus of future research. However, only one of these articles in the
participates in multiple groups, it needs to use multiple platforms, which sustainability theme category considered environmental factors (Man
will increase the burden of the participants and consume too many re upati et al., 2020), which means that relevant research on theory and
sources. Therefore, unified technical standards are needed to ensure practice of the sustainability theme is insufficient.
system compatibility.
11
5.4. Practice in different industrial sectors Acknowledgement
Tertiary industry presents prospects for the future of blockchain- This research is funded by the Chongqing Science and Technology
based supply chains. According to the survey results presented in Commission (Project no. cstc2019jscx-msxmX0189).
Table A4, research on blockchain-based supply chains considers pri This research is funded by the Chongqing Science and Technology
mary, secondary and tertiary industries, indicating that blockchain has Commission (Project no. cstc2019jscx-msxmX0189) and National Nat
good applicability in all industries. In addition, the proportion of studies ural Science Foundation of China (72071006 and 61603011).
on various industries is not very different. This result indicates that there
are still research opportunities for studying blockchain technology in Appendix A. Supplementary data
various industries. However, in recent decades, the economy has
developed rapidly and there is a great focus on tertiary industries rather Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
than secondary industries. Therefore, more relevant research will be org/10.1016/j.cie.2021.107133.
carried out in tertiary industries to determine the value of blockchain.
More industrial sectors should be studied. In terms of the industries References
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A Literature Review of Blockchain Technology Applications in Supply Chains

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Computers & Industrial Engineering 154 (2021) 107133

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Computers & Industrial Engineering

A literature review of blockchain technology applications in supply chains:

1. Introduction application of blockchain technology is mainly concentrated in the

Table 1 (continued ) Table 1 (continued )

blockchain challenges in etc. These connected

Table 1 (continued ) Table 1 (continued )

Fig. 1. . Blockchain structure.

Fig. 2. Top ten journals with the number of articles.

specific changes caused by blockchain in terms of a certain aspect, which

5.4. Practice in different industrial sectors Acknowledgement

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