Making sense of blockchain technology: How will it transform supply chains?

By Yingli Wang, M. Singgih, Jingyao Wang, Mihaela Rit. International Journal of Production Economics, 2019

676 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This research uses sensemaking theory to explore how emerging blockchain technology may transform supply chains. We investigate three research questions (RQs): What are blockchain technology's perceived benefits to supply chains, where are disruptions mostly likely to occur and what are the potential challenges to further blockchain diffusion? We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 supply chain experts. Cognitive mapping and narrative analysis were deployed as the two main data analysis techniques to aid our understanding and evaluation of people's cognitive complexity in making sense of blockchain technology. We found that individual experts developed different cognitive structures within their own sensemaking processes. After merging individual cognitive maps into a strategic map, we identified several themes and central concepts that then allowed us to explore potential answers to the three RQs. Our study is among the very few to date to explicitly explore how blockchains may transform supply chain practices. Using the sensemaking approach afforded a deeper understanding of how senior executives diagnose the symptoms evident from blockchains and develop assumptions, expectations and knowledge of the technology, which will then shape their future actions regarding its utilisation. We demonstrate the usefulness of sensemaking theory as an alternative lens in investigating contemporary supply chain phenomena such as blockchains. Bringing sensemaking theory to this discipline in particular enriches emerging behavioural operations research. Our contributions also lie in extending the theories of prospective sensemaking and adding further insights to the stream of technology adoption studies.

Subfields: Information Systems, Information Systems and Management, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a27da4a7af6ded1cbddab51dd0a7ce90adc1d80e

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Citations in the corpus

Blockchain in global supply chains and cross border trade: a critical synthesis of the state-of-the-art, challenges and opportunities (2019, background): “While Wang, Han, and Beynon-Davies (2018) and Cole, Stevenson, and Aitken (2019) reviewed the development of blockchain for SCM practitioners, Wang et al. (2019) further interviewed with SC experts to understand what senior executives expect from blockchain.”
Blockchain adoption in operations and supply chain management: empirical evidence from an emerging economy (2020, background): “…to transform the SCs and production systems has aroused the interest of a significant number of practitioners and scholars (Schmidt and Wagner 2019; Wang et al.2019; Chang, Iakovou, and Shi 2020; Dolgui et al. 2020; Fosso Wamba, Queiroz, and Trinchera 2020; Koh, Dolgui, and Sarkis 2020; Pournader…”
Evaluating the factors that influence blockchain adoption in the freight logistics industry (2020, background): “(Ksetri, 2018; Wang et al, 2019).”
Blockchain-based framework for supply chain traceability: A case example of textile and clothing industry (2021, background): “Implementing supply chain traceability has emerged as a possible solution that can help to solve these supply chain issues (Mandolla et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2019).”
Analysis of resilience strategies and ripple effect in blockchain-coordinated supply chains: An agent-based simulation study (2020, background): “This is strongly related to features such as reliability, traceability, and smart contracts for trustworthy relationships across the network (Saberi et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2019b).”
System architecture for blockchain based transparency of supply chain social sustainability (2020, methodology): “Despite the interest in supply chain social responsibility research [22-24] and the emerging attempts to apply blockchain in practice [25], knowledge of blockchain applications in supply chain social sustainability remains limited.”