Blockchain Technology between Nakamoto and Supply Chain Management: Insights from Academia and Practice

Purpose: This paper aims to participate in answering the following research question: Will blockchain become the norm in supply chain management? Valuable insights from academia and industry about the use of blockchain technology in supply chain management are presented.

Design/methodology/approach: I review the literature that mainly examined the use of blockchain technology in supply chain management from 2008 to 2020. Additionally, I explore two blockchain projects: Nimble and Carrefour.

Findings: The mainstream research on the use of blockchain technology in supply chain management exhibits a positive trend. This study shows that relevant academic research increased by 174% in only 11 months (from February 2018 to January 2019). Countries and supply chains, to the same extent, are making bold moves toward using blockchain on a large scale. The European Commission, for example, funded a project to create a federated, multi-sided business ecosystem based on cloud services. The project developed a platform, named Nimble, to enable supply chain logistics to benefit from internet platforms and blockchain services. In another example, Carrefour has implemented blockchain in nine sectors (chicken, tomatoes, eggs, oranges, etc.) with a target of 300 sectors by 2022.

Originality/value: Although this area of research becomes incessantly extensive, there is confusion regarding what type of blockchain or what part of the supply chain is addressed. This paper emphasizes some essential points to deal with much of the dubiety under consideration.