Aristotle University MSC in Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Aristotle University
MSc in Logistics & Supply Chain Management
ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY
OF
THESSALONIKI
Chrysi Pateli
“The Influence of Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain: A Systematic Literature

Review and Potential Applications”
SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
M.Sc. of “LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT”
Master of Science
Academic Year:2018-2029
Scientific Supervision by
Dr. Michael A. Madas
September, 2020
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Abstract
Blockchain is, undoubtedly, one of the most important, discussed, and complex topics
in this day and age. The interest in blockchain is noticeably high, and it is growing
dramatically over the years. Undoubtedly, blockchain technology is a promising
technology that is not limited to the extensive utilization of cryptocurrencies but can be
anticipated to revolutionize a wide range of business sectors, like healthcare, real estate,
retail, banking and finance, gaming, transportation, insurance to drive the most value
for them.
When supply chain management meets blockchain technology, numerous opportunities
for research emerge. To better connect the supply chain and the offer of blockchain in
this field, this dissertation adopted a systematic literature review to provide current
blockchain-based supply chain approaches and the application areas of this technology
into a supply chain. Also, the purpose is to address through this literature the research
gap regarding the use of blockchain technology in supply chain management and
provide an application that can show some of the application areas that blockchain can
have in the supply chain.
The study has the potential to show the exact relationship between the supply chain
objectives and blockchain roles with a framework based on the Supply Chain
Operations Reference model and connect the application areas of blockchain
technology and their contribution to the supply chain. In addition to this, a concept is
offered to prove this contribution in a more empirical and simple way, as a proof-of-
concept.
Keywords: Blockchain, Supply Chain, SCOR Model, Application Areas
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Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisor, Professor
Michael A. Madas, for the constant guidance, insightful comments on my thesis, and
willingness to answer all of my questions throughout the time of my dissertation
research. His comments and feedback on thesis context were really helpful and I am
sincerely grateful to him.
Most importantly, I would like to show my gratitude to my parents and my sister. Their
support was the guiding key for the successful completion of my dissertation as well as
my master's degree, also. Million thanks for your unconditional love and support for
my study this year.
Also, I would like to extend my appraisal to all of the professors of the master's degree
for the knowledge, the experience, and the encouragement that they were provided to
me. Last but not least, I would like to thank my master's degree colleagues for the
support and all the good times we had.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 3
List of Figures ............................................................................................................... 9
List of Tables .............................................................................................................. 11
List of Graphs ............................................................................................................. 12
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 13
1.1 Overview of the Chapter .............................................................................. 13
1.2 Background .................................................................................................. 13
1.3 Research Aim and Objectives ...................................................................... 15
1.4 Overall Methodology Framework................................................................ 16
1.5 Outline of the Thesis Structure .................................................................... 17
2. Theoretical and Technological Background of Blockchain: Functioning and
Principles .................................................................................................................... 20
2.1 Blockchain overview .................................................................................... 21
2.2 The Birth of Blockchain ............................................................................... 22
2.3 Blockchain Technology ................................................................................ 23
2.3.1 What is the Blockchain Technology ....................................................... 23
2.3.2 Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) .................................................. 24
2.3.3 Peer-to-Peer Network ............................................................................ 24
2.3.3.1 Nodes .............................................................................................. 25
2.3.4 Ledgers ................................................................................................... 27
2.3.5 Types of Blockchain ............................................................................... 27
2.3.5.1 Permissionless, Public Blockchain ................................................. 27
2.3.5.2 Permissioned, Private Blockchain .................................................. 29
2.3.5.2.1 Hyperledger Fabric .................................................................... 31
2.4 How Blockchain Works? .............................................................................. 32
2.4.1 Public Key Cryptography ...................................................................... 32
2.4.2 Cryptographic Hash Function and the right Hash ................................ 34
2.4.3 The Mining Process ............................................................................... 37
2.4.4 The Blockchain Procedure ..................................................................... 41
3. Research Methodology ...................................................................................... 44
3.1 Overview of the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) .................................. 44
3.2 Process of the Systematic Literature Review ............................................... 45
5
3.2.1 Stage 1: Planning the Review ................................................................ 47
3.2.2 Stage 2: Conducting the Review ............................................................ 51
3.2.2.1 Identification of the Research and Selection of Studies ................. 51
3.2.2.2 Quality Assessment of the Articles.................................................. 53
3.2.2.3 Data Extraction .............................................................................. 55
3.2.2.4 Data Synthesis of the Selected Articles ........................................... 56
3.2.3 Stage 3: Reporting and Dissemination ................................................. 56
4. Descriptive Analysis of the Corpus .................................................................. 57
4.1 Papers Published by Journal ....................................................................... 58
4.2 Publication Time by Year............................................................................. 61
4.3 Geographical Origin of the Articles ............................................................ 62
4.4 Research Methodology of the Studies .......................................................... 63
4.5 Keywords Frequency ................................................................................... 64
5. Thematic Analysis .............................................................................................. 66
5.1 Identification of the Proposed Blockchain-based Applications in Various
Industries within a Supply Chain ............................................................................. 67
5.1.1 Agricultural & Food Supply Chain Industry ......................................... 67
5.1.2 Drug & Pharmaceutical Industry .......................................................... 71
5.1.3 Logistics & Distribution Industry .......................................................... 72
5.1.4 Other Industries ..................................................................................... 73
5.1.5 General Supply Chain ............................................................................ 74
5.2 Topic Areas of the Applications ................................................................... 80
5.2.1 Improve Product Traceability ................................................................ 80
5.2.2 Automated Execution and Simplification of the Payments and Processes
(deliver) 87
5.2.3 Reputation of the Sellers ........................................................................ 88
5.2.4 Manage Regulatory ................................................................................ 89
5.2.5 Prove Provenance .................................................................................. 90
5.2.6 Supply Chain Partnership Growth and Efficiency (sE2) ....................... 91
5.2.7 Anti-counterfeiting ................................................................................. 92
5.2.8 Reduce Paperwork ................................................................................. 94
5.2.9 Improve Information Sharing ................................................................ 94
5.2.10 Carbon footprint documentation............................................................ 97
5.2.11 Decrease of the Supply Chain Risks ...................................................... 97
5.2.12 Provide Secure Business Rules .............................................................. 98
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5.2.13 Manage Supply and Demand Issues ...................................................... 98
5.2.14 Manage Logistics Resources.................................................................. 99
5.2.15 Manage Supply Chain Assets ............................................................... 100
5.2.16 Monitor Transport Conditions ............................................................. 100
6. Blockchain on Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model .......... 105
6.1 Definition of the SCOR Model ................................................................... 106
6.2 Processes of the SCOR Model ................................................................... 108
6.2.1 Plan Process ........................................................................................ 108
6.2.2 Source Process ..................................................................................... 110
6.2.3 Make Process ....................................................................................... 111
6.2.4 Deliver Process .................................................................................... 113
6.2.5 Return Process ..................................................................................... 114
6.2.6 Enable Process..................................................................................... 114
6.3 Determination of the Research Gap .......................................................... 116
6.4 Synthesis of the SCOR Framework ............................................................ 117
6.4.1 Connection between Application Areas and SCOR Processes ............ 117
6.4.2 SCOR Processes affected by Blockchain Technology.......................... 120
6.4.2.1 Plan Processes .............................................................................. 120
6.4.2.2 Source Processes .......................................................................... 122
6.4.2.3 Make Processes ............................................................................ 125
6.4.2.4 Deliver Processes ......................................................................... 126
6.4.2.5 Enable Processes .......................................................................... 128
6.4.2.5.1 Manage Supply Chain Business Rules (sE1) ........................... 129
6.4.2.5.2 Manage Data and Information (sE3) ....................................... 129
6.4.2.5.3 Manage Supply Chain Assets (sE5) ......................................... 130
6.4.2.5.4 Manage Supply Chain Contracts/Agreements (sE6)................ 130
6.4.2.5.5 Manage Supply Chain Network (sE7) ...................................... 130
6.4.2.5.6 Manage Regulatory and Voluntary Compliance (sE8) ............ 131
6.4.2.5.7 Manage Supply Chain Risks (sE9) ........................................... 131
6.4.2.5.8 Manage Supply Chain Procurement (sE10) ............................ 132
7. Implementation of a Blockchain Concept Using Smart Contracts to Prove
its Role in Supply Chain .......................................................................................... 135
7.1 The Idea Behind the Concept ..................................................................... 135
7.2 Overview of the Concept ............................................................................ 136
7.3 Development of the Smart Contract ........................................................... 138
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7.4 Validation of the Smart Contract on the Ethereum Blockchain Platform . 141
8. Conclusion, Limitations and Future Research Agenda................................ 145
8.1 Objective Fulfilment and Contributions .................................................... 145
8.2 Managerial Implications ............................................................................ 147
8.3 Limitations and Future Research Agenda ................................................. 148
8.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 152
References ................................................................................................................. 153
Appendix / Appendices ............................................................................................ 165
Appendix A: Summary of the selected articles of the systematic literature review 165
Appendix B: A Traceability Smart Contract .......................................................... 176
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List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Structure of the Chapter.............................................................................. 13

Figure 1.2 Outline of the Thesis Structure ................................................................... 19
Figure 2.2 Blockchain Technology in Financial Sector (USD Million) ...................... 21
Figure 2.3 An example of a Peer-to-Peer Network ...................................................... 25
Figure 2.4 Nodes (individual computers) in Blockchain ............................................. 26
Figure 2.5 A simple transaction process in Blockchain ............................................... 26
Figure 2.6 Public/Permissionless Blockchain .............................................................. 28
Figure 2.7 Permissionless/Public blockchain network ................................................ 28
Figure 2.8 Private/Permissioned Blockchain ............................................................... 30
Figure 2.9 Private/Permissioned Blockchain network ................................................. 30
Figure 2.10 Creation of Digital Signature.................................................................... 33
Figure 2.11 Verification of a Transaction .................................................................... 33
Figure 2.12 Addresses are identifiers which used to send Bitcoin to another person . 33
Figure 2.13 Digital Signature ....................................................................................... 34
Figure 2.14 Every block has its unique hash output .................................................... 35
Figure 2.15 The procedure of the creation of the Hash Function ................................ 36
Figure 2.16 The difficulty to find a valid hash ............................................................ 36
Figure 2.17 The memory pool of unconfirmed transactions........................................ 38
Figure 2.18 An example of a nonce mechanism .......................................................... 40
Figure 2.19 A block in the bitcoin blockchain ............................................................. 42
Figure 2.20 Confirmations of blockchain .................................................................... 43
Figure 3.2 The Process of Systematic Literature Review ............................................ 46
Figure 3.3 Selection process of the articles against the inclusion and exclusion criteria
“Document and Publication Type Option”, “Language”, and “Publication Year” ..... 53
Figure 4.2 Heat map of the high-frequency keywords, created in VOSviewer ........... 64
Figure 6.1 Structure of the Chapter............................................................................ 106
Figure 6.2 SCOR model around 6 major process ...................................................... 107
Figure 6.3 Customer Order Decoupling Point .......................................................... 110
Figure 7.2 The tracking of products flow in a supply chain for the proposed concept
.................................................................................................................................... 137
Figure 7.3 An illustration of the blockchain-based supply chain application using
smart contract ............................................................................................................. 141
Figure 7.4 Initial tokens and creation of smart contract ............................................ 142
Figure 7.5 Set the conditions ..................................................................................... 142
Figure 7.6 Record the details ..................................................................................... 143
Figure 7.7 Record the details of the received shipment ............................................. 143
Figure 7.8When predetermined conditions are not met ............................................. 144
Figure 7.9 When an error defined in unit or amount of the unit ................................ 144
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List of Tables
Table 1. Review Panel of the study ............................................................................. 47

Table 2. General information about the databases ....................................................... 49
Table 3. Summarize of the exclusion and inclusion criteria of the selected articles ... 51
Table 4. Strings’ Combination ..................................................................................... 52
Table 5. The quality assessment process ..................................................................... 55
Table 6. The journals of the selected papers and their SJR ......................................... 60
Table 7. Identification of the proposed blockchain- based application in various
industries within a supply chain (some of the articles refer to more than once) ......... 79
Table 8. Categorization of Blockchain Application Areas in Supply Chain provided
by the authors of the selected articles ........................................................................ 104
Table 9. Description of the Plan processes ................................................................ 109
Table 10. Description of the Source processes ......................................................... 111
Table 11. Description of the Make processes ............................................................ 113
Table 12. Description of the Deliver processes ......................................................... 114
Table 13. Description of the Enable processes .......................................................... 116
Table 14. Connection between Application Areas and SCOR processes, in a first-level
processes .................................................................................................................... 119
Table 15. Classification of Application Areas, relevant to the Enable Process, in a
second-level processes ............................................................................................... 119
Table 16. Blockchain’s role in Plan process .............................................................. 122
Table 17. Blockchain’s role in Source process .......................................................... 125
Table 18. Blockchain’s role in Make process ............................................................ 126
Table 19. Blockchain’s role in Deliver process ......................................................... 128
Table 20. Blockchain’s role in Enable process .......................................................... 134
Table 21. Agenda for Future Research ...................................................................... 151
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List of Graphs
Graph 1 Distribution of the journal’s Quartile ............................................................. 60

Graph 2 Distribution of Publication Time by Year ..................................................... 61
Graph 3 Geographical Distribution of the Articles ...................................................... 62
Graph 4 Main Research Methodologies Employed by the Selected Articles .............. 63
Graph 5 List of the high-frequency keywords exported by VOSviewer ..................... 65
Graph 6 Classification of the selected articles in various industries ........................... 80
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1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of the Chapter
The first chapter serves as an introduction to the thesis as well as a presentation of the
thesis objectives and aims, and the structure of this is illustrated in Figure 1.1. A more
detailed introduction will be presented in the following sections.
1.2 Background
1.2 Research Aim and

Objectives
1.1 Overview of the

Chapter
1.3 Overall Methodology

Framework
1.4 Outline of the Thesis

Structure
Figure 1.1 Structure of the Chapter

(The author,2020)
1.2 Background
Globalization and the increased interest in the adoption of information systems and
related technology moved to the suitability of blockchain technology to many
applications. After Nakamoto's white paper about Bitcoin, one of the most flourishing
applications of this technology, and peer to peer networks, distributed ledger
technologies has been in the public eye. The interest in this innovative technology and
its applications became with slow but steady steps following an exponential growth.
The growth rate of blockchain can be observed in (Google Trends, 2020) where it
started to develop in the middle of 2015 and enjoyed a boost at the end of 2017 and at
the beginning of 2018, maintaining a stable rate of progress. Blockchain is often
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mentioned at the present literature as a disruptive technology (Crosby, Nachiappan,
Pattanayak, Verma, & Kalyanaraman, 2016; Deloitte., 2016; Nofer, Gomber, Hinz, &
Schiereck, 2017; Holotiuk, Pisani, & Moormann, 2017; Karamitsos, Papadaki, &
Barghuthi, 2018; Saberi, Kouhizadeh, Sarkis, & Shen, 2018). Undoubtedly,
technological changes generate new opportunities and challenges for firms
necessitating their compliance if they want to be at the top. The introduction of
blockchain in the agenda of countries and companies introduced sincere disruptions in
the traditional businesses and their processes. Companies can now operate with the
potential to make their architectures in a decentralized way without the need of a trusted
third party providing tamper-proof digital ledger transactions. Moreover, they are
capable of decreasing their transaction costs as blockchain’s activities happen in a more
transparent, reliable, secure and controllable way (Casino , Dasaklis, & Patsakis, 2019;
Helo & Hao, 2019; Kumar, Liu, & Shan, 2019; Venkatesh, Kang, Wang, Zhong, &
Zhang, 2020; Gonczol, Katsikouli, Herskind, & Dragoni, 2020).
It is doubtless that blockchain can provide high expectations. In 2016, (Deloitte.)

referred to blockchain as "Internet of Value". "This new global computational
architecture could rewire commerce and transform how society operates, becoming one
of the most significant innovations since the creation of the internet" (World Economy
Forum System Initiative, PwC, Natural Resource Security, September 2018).The
growing need to design sustainable supply chains for increasing efficiency and
effectiveness requires blockchain as an indispensable technology. (Kim & Shin, 2019)
assumed that this technology is a "next-generation information technology tool" for the
sustainability of supply chain. Also, (Kshetri, 2018) claimed that the most promising
non-finance applications of blockchain are anticipated to be those in supply chain.
According to (Lu & Xu, 2017), it is noticed as a solution for supply chain problems,
and (Gurtu & Johny, 2019) agrees that it can transform the global supply chain
platform, delivering value to this domain. Blockchain can transform supply chain
activities (Kshetri, 2018; van Hoek, 2019) and according to (Zheng, Xie, Dai, Chen, &
Wang, 2018; Saberi, Kouhizadeh, Sarkis, & Shen, 2018), there is a need to integrate
blockchain in the existing supply chain technology. It guarantees to bring security,
transparency, security, and efficiency to currency transactions at a new level (Queiroz,
Telles, & Bonilla, 2019; Tonnissen & Teuteberg, 2019) and also, to eliminate some
illegal practices such as children labor upstream in the manufacturing process
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(Venkatesh, Kang, Wang, Zhong, & Zhang, 2020). Moreover, trust and
disintermediation are inherent components of this technology (Tribis, Bouchti, &
Bouayad, 2018; Kshetri, 2018; Tonnissen & Teuteberg, 2019).
There is a great interest in blockchain- based applications in the supply chain, in both
industry and academic research. (Treiblmaier, 2018) mentioned in his article that a large
number of companies, because of the gap in this topic, spent huge sums of money
aiming to revolutionize supply chain domain with the help of blockchain-based
solutions. Moreover, (Dobrovnik, Herold, Fürst, & Kummer, 2018) claimed that even
though blockchain is said to revolutionize and redefine supply chain and logistics, the
existing empirical research consists of a limited amount regarding the benefits and
improvements that blockchain technology can provide in supply chain. Also, (Gurtu &
Johny, 2019) claimed that the implementation of blockchain in supply chain is in a
nascent stage, and it is limited so far. In their article, they suggested to future researchers
a more extensive work about the advantages of the blockchain-based technology
applications in a supply chain to ensure that it can add value. Besides, (Shahid, et al.,
2020) highlighted that automation and digitalization of supply chains can be a
prominent source of benefits. Because of the slow-moving of blockchain development,
which is somewhat like the early days of the internet appearance, it is now the turn of
it to offer and provide similar expectations. Thus, it is required to do rigorous academic
research to ensure the ability of this technology to optimize the SC domain.
1.3 Research Aim and Objectives

The deployment of blockchain technology in supply chain applications is in early-
stage, as mentioned before. Despite the importance of the blockchain technology and
its features, that could lead to disruption and support SC innovation and reconfiguration
in the digital age according to many researchers, the literature about blockchain
technology in the field of supply chain is in its infancy. To the best of our knowledge,
there are only a few papers that deal with implementations and approaches in this
domain. Therefore, central of this article is the role that this emerging technology plays
in supply chain in order to support the development of greater blockchain technology
usage in this field.
It is worth noting that many research papers have been written since blockchain
technology is continuously growing and gains widespread acceptance. The goal of this
15
research is to present a comprehensive review of the results of blockchain current
approaches and implementations, and its benefits in the supply chain domain via a
systematic literature review. In this article, empirical literature is going to be reviewed
on the following potential benefits and factors driving in blockchain implementation in
SC, as mentioned above.
This study plans to evaluate the current research literature published on supply chain
and blockchain fields. Exactly because this is a relatively new subject, the need for this
review comes from the growing research interest for the adoption of blockchain from
supply chain. This research contributes towards a rigorous and intensive understanding
of blockchain technology's impact on optimizing the supply chain and provides an
insight into the different current types of blockchain applications across the supply
chain area. Thus, the objectives of this paper, that form the basis for the review, seek to
explore three questions concerning blockchain in supply chain management:
Q1: What are the main industries of the supply chain that blockchain technology has
been currently approached?
Q2: What are the application areas of blockchain technology that affect positively
supply chain?
Q3: What is the main research gap regarding the use of blockchain technology in supply
chain management?
Q4: How blockchain can be implemented in some of the areas in the supply chain to
prove its role?
1.4 Overall Methodology Framework

This thesis requires a systematic literature review on blockchain and supply chain from
published empirical articles. It is crucial to include articles that locate, assess, and
synthesize appropriate evidence that responds to the dissertation's research questions
and objectives, providing useful information and findings. It is necessary for the
fulfillment of this aim to define appropriate and precise searching strings and suitable
inclusion criteria to ensure that the selected core articles could be qualified for an in-
depth investigation and their quality is at high levels. Thus, SLR should be in a
transparent way reporting each step in a well-organized structure. SLR follows
particularly steps, which will be analyzed in more details in Chapter 3.
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The topic of the dissertation is about blockchain-based supply chain applications. An
in-depth investigation with the method of the systematic literature review (SLR) will
provide and conclude the application areas of blockchain technology that affect the
supply chain as well as the presentation and classification of the industries within a
supply chain where the use of blockchain has been applied.
Considering the requirements of the topic, this thesis will in turn present an extensive
analysis and distinguish of these application areas and noteworthy insights into the
influence of blockchain technology on the processes of the supply chain based on the
Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, bridging a gap, and a clear lack in
the current literature's overview. First, a conceptual level of the SCOR model is
presented to provide knowledge about this model. In addition, an attempt to depict and
categorize the applications of blockchain in the supply chain area that they affect is
made. The next step was to categorize and connect directly these areas to the SCOR
model, where the relevant applications affect the supply chain major processes after a
rigorous analysis of each paper. The development of the SCOR framework based on
the outcomes from the application areas that links blockchain roles to the supply chain
management objectives. It should be mentioned that it was not possible to distinguish
a relevant second-level process for the other processes because some of the articles were
not specified the category of the products or the major operation strategies as defined
by SCOR.
Also, the blockchain concept that is designed is evidence to prove blockchain's role in
the supply chain in a more empirical way. The idea behind the concept is to validate
some of the application areas that defined from the systematic literature review and
have a positive effect on the supply chain processes based on the SCOR model. All the
information used to execute supply chain logic on a blockchain, based on predetermined
conditions, is programmed in a smart contract. This smart contract is written in Solidity
programming language and is designed to run on the Ethereum blockchain network.
1.5 Outline of the Thesis Structure

The paper proceeds as follows. The next chapter 2 introduces blockchain technology
and its main principles giving the opportunity for a better understanding and
explanation of its core components and processes. Further, chapter 3 presents and
describes thoroughly the methodology applied in this paper and the process to conduct
17
it, while chapter 4 and chapter 5 discuss the results of the selected papers and the
classification mechanism extracted of the data, providing a descriptive and thematic
analysis. Furthermore, chapter 6 presents a general overview of the Supply Chain
Operations Reference (SCOR) model and the design of a SCOR framework based on
the outcomes of the blockchain’s technology impact in supply chain and its major
processes. Chapter 7 offers a blockchain concept using smart contracts running in the
Ethereum network, Remix, as an evidence to prove its role in supply chain in a more
empirical way. Ultimately, chapter 8 presents the conclusions, managerial implications,
limitations, and future research opportunities of the thesis as well as the contributions
of it. The outline of the thesis can be seen in Figure 1.2.
18
Chapter 1 • Introduction of the Topic

Introduction • Identification of the Research Aim and
Objectives
Chapter 2
• Presentation of the Blockchain Technology
Theoretical and • Presentation of Blockchain's functions
Technological Background • Presentation of Blockchain's Principles
of Blockchain
Chapter 3 • Description of the Methodology Process-

Systematic Literature Review
Research Methodology
Chapter 4 • Presentation of the Descriptive Findings

Descriptine Analysis of the • Analysis of the Results
Corpus
Chapter 5 • Presentation of the Thematic Findings

Thematic Analysis • Analysis of the Results
Chapter 6 • Definition of the SCOR Model

Blockchain on Supply • Processes of the SCOR Model
Chain Operations • Determination of the Research Gap
Referenece (SCOR) Model • Synthesis of the SCOR Framework
Chapter 7 • The Idea Behind the Concept

Implementation of a • Overview of the Concept
Blockchain Concept Using • Development of the Smart Contract
Smart Contracts to Improve • Validation of the Smart Contract on the
its Role in Supply Chain Ethereum Platform
• Discussion of the Research Objectives of

the Thesis
Chapter 8
• Discussion about the Managerial
Conclusion, Limitations Implications
and Future Research • Identification of the Thesi's Limitations
Agenda
• Identification of the Research Future
Agenda
Figure 1.2 Outline of the Thesis Structure
(The author,2020)
19
2. Theoretical and Technological Background of

Blockchain: Functioning and Principles
This section introduces blockchain technology, its main principles, and its definition.
Furthermore, it seeks to clearly define the process of how blockchain works while
describing basic concepts and components that need to understand its procedure. Thus,
it provides the advantage to someone to become familiar with this new growing
technology and to discover it deeply. Briefly, this section aims to give an overall
overview of the blockchain before starting the research process of the systematic
literature review enabling someone to become first acquainted with this technology.
The outline of this chapter is as illustrates in Figure 2.1.
2.1 Blockchain Overview
2.2 The Birth of Blockchain
Overview
2.3 Blockchain Technology
2.4 How Blockchain Works?

(The author,2020)
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2.1 Blockchain overview
Blockchain is, undoubtedly, one of the most important, discussed, and complex topics
in this day and age. The interest in blockchain is noticeably high, and it is growing
dramatically over the years. It is noteworthy that (Ito, Narula, & Ali, 2017) in their
article in Harvard Business Review mention that "the blockchain will do to the financial
system what the Internet did to media." Big companies that begin to explore it are great
in number and have already written proofs of concept1 using blockchain. Furthermore,
many companies are still at the preliminary stage, but blockchain has become one of
their priorities. The rapid increase in the attention to blockchain is due to the benefits
and the characteristics of this technology. Undoubtedly, it will revolutionize numerous
business sectors, like healthcare, real estate, retail, banking and finance, gaming,
transportation, insurance. Therefore, blockchain technology is a promising technology
that is not limited to the extensive utilization of cryptocurrencies but can be anticipated
to drive the most value for industries and companies enabling many applications in a
wide range of sectors, such as the financial domain, healthcare domain, logistics
domain, etc. In (CB Insights’, 2019), the machine intelligence platform has claimed
that 55 big industries are expected to be impacted by blockchain and start to explore
blockchain applications. The following Figure 2.2 could give an example of the impact
of blockchain in the financial sector and expound an idea about the adoption of it in this
field.
Figure 2.2 Blockchain Technology in Financial Sector (USD Million)

(Grand View Research, July,2019)
1
PROOF OF CONCEPT(PoC): “is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its
feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has
practical potential. (Wikipedia, 2016)
21
Many experts wonder if blockchain can begin an economic revolution or the abilities
of this technology are over faced. According to (Swan , 2015), this technical invention
can be capable to reconfigure all the major aspects of the community. The World’s
Economy Forum survey data concluded that at least 10% of GDP worldwide would be
saved in blockchain by 2025 (Bauman, Lindblom, & Olsson, 2016).
2.2 The Birth of Blockchain

Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous person or group that used only this nickname and
keep the identity as a secret until today, developed and presented this technology in
2008 in a paper entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System.” The
research was proposed a peer-to-peer network using an electronic coin, the known
Bitcoin, “as a chain of digital signatures” and the allowance of online payments to be
sent from one party to one other directly with the needless of a third party in the
transaction (Satoshi Nakamoto, 2008). Nakamoto did not use in this whitepaper the
name “Blockchain” but “a chain of blocks.”.
Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2010, stated that “The design supports a tremendous variety of
possible transaction types that I designed years ago. Escrow transactions, bonded
contracts, third party arbitration, multi-party signature, etc. If Bitcoin catches on in a
big way, these are things we will want to explore in the future, but they all had to be
designed at the beginning to make sure they would be possible later” (Nakamoto, 2010;
Popper, 2015). It is evident that Nakamoto, since the beginning of his Bitcoin idea, was
pretty sure about the unlimited opportunities and implementations that this “chain of
blocks” can give to each one of the different sectors. Although (White) mention to his
research that from 2008, 2013 was the first year that blockchain techniques started to
make their appearance and to be implemented.
Furthermore, (Bauman, Lindblom, & Olsson, 2016) are of the opinion that more than
100,000 businesses accept electronic transactions paid with Bitcoin while the number
of the users of this cryptocurrency is increasing rapidly, approximately in 10 million.
Bitcoin was the first implementation and one of the most flourishing applications of
this technology.
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2.3 Blockchain Technology
To begin with, it is important to focus a great deal on the blockchain, its applications,
its architectural overview, its types, and characteristics to understand how it works so
as to acknowledge its benefits and advantages.
2.3.1 What is the Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology has been read up by numerous researchers, scientists and
academics, also. In 2016, (Samaniego & Deters) mentioned that “a blockchain is a
distributed and decentralized ledger that contains connected blocks of transactions.” “It
is an increasingly popular networking technology for streamlining business processes
that uses a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to verify and share data” is argued by (Cole,
Stevenson, & Aitken) in 2019. “Blockchain technology is a combination of various
algorithms and techniques like cryptography, mathematics, peer-to-peer networking,
etc., that are used to solve the synchronization problems of distributed databases”,
highlighted recently by (Shiso & Ganesh) in 2020.
(Swan ) in 2015 claims that “the blockchain may be used not just for transactions, but
also as a registry and inventory system for the recording, tracking, monitoring, and
transacting of all assets.” Four years after, 2019, (Shi), agrees that “the blockchain is an
incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record
not only financial transactions but virtually everything of value”.
In the traditional world, every individual consigns its assets to a third party or parties
to secure and protect their online privacy. In simple words, people trust others for their
online transactions. For example, when someone wants to send some money to one
other or to pay a bill online through a bank’s application, after the completion of the
necessary procedure, they wait for the bank’ s-third party-confirmation that the money
has been delivered. Contrary to this, the blockchain does not need intermediaries.
It is concluded that blockchain is a distributed peer-to-peer database or public ledger

that stores transactions or records that have been executed among participating users
and confirmed by the consensus of the majority of them. Trust in the blockchain is
beyond doubt the foremost goal since this technology provides interaction between
unknown participators, reducing or even eliminating the need for intermediaries, such
as banks, etc. The committed blocks are immutable and cannot be alterable or be
deleted. Also once the transactions are verified, the data are stored in confirmed blocks,
23
which are linked with the previous blocks in the chain because “the blockchain contains
a certain and verifiable record of every single transaction ever made” (Crosby,
Nachiappan, Pattanayak, Verma, & Kalyanaraman, 2016).
2.3.2 Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

Blockchain is a specific type of distributed ledger, and through this, technology has
made its presence more important. Specifically, DLT is the principal technology of
Bitcoin. However, in general, distributed ledger technology appeared before the
Blockchain technology. (Rauchs, et al., 2018) referred that “Distributed ledger
technology has established itself as an umbrella term to designate multi-party systems
that operate in an environment with no central operator or authority, despite parties who
may be unreliable or malicious (‘adversarial environment’).” (UK Government Chief
Scientific Advisor) mentioned in their report that “Distributed ledger technology could
enable firms and governments to run more efficiently, without expensive reconciliation
and duplication”.
Distributed Ledger Technology has the ability to record and share all the electronic
transactions and data that take part in the system at the same time. DLT gives the
opportunity to independent users to make a consensus with the lack of the need of a
central coordinator or other intermediaries or third parties to confirm or validate the
transactions, making them transparent and instant.
“The chain is actually distributed among all its users around the world” (Khalifa, 2019).
Thus, this means that if someone wants to hack or have illegal access to the chain, they
should hack every user individually. “Since transactions are stored in different nodes in
the distributed network, so it is nearly impossible to tamper the public blockchain”
(Zheng, Xie, Dai, Chen, & Wang, 2018).
2.3.3 Peer-to-Peer Network

“A distributed network architecture may be called a Peer-to-Peer network, if the
participants share a part of their own hardware resources (processing power, storage
capacity, network link capacity, printers, ...)” (Schollmeier, 2001). All transactions in
the blockchain are performed and validated by a peer-to-peer system, which is an
integral part of the blockchain’s function. Peer-to-peer systems had made their
appearance approximately in 2000 “when a broadband Internet infrastructure became
widely available” (Eberspacher & Schollmeier, 2005).
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“Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are distributed systems in which nodes of equal roles and
capabilities exchange information and services directly with each other”, claimed by
(Yang & Garcia- Molina) in 2002- see Figure 2.3. “The basic idea of the P2P network
is to have peers participate in an application level overlay network and operate as both
servers and clients” (Qiu & Srikant, 2004). Namely, in the distributed peer-to-peer
systems, there is no need for a third party, and the users have a direct interaction. They
comprise a well-known way to store and share a considerable quantity of data.
Figure 2.3 An example of a Peer-to-Peer Network

(hackernoon.com, 2019)
2.3.3.1 Nodes
A peer to peer network is a distributed software system which comprises nodes. Nodes
are a significant part of the infrastructure of blockchain technology. These nodes are
individual computers, “which make their computational resources (e.g., processing
power, storage capacity, data or network bandwidth) directly available to all other
members of the network without having any central point of coordination” (Drescher,
2017)-see Figure 2.4. They store and maintain the incoming data in the form of blocks
from the miners, the “producers” of the new valid blocks. Nodes can accept or refuse
the new block if only its transactions match up with the current blockchain history.
When they do not reject the new block, they store it at the top of the already stored
blocks and make a copy of their transaction history. Ultimately, a node is a full copy of
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the transaction history of a blockchain, and anyone can have the opportunity and the
right to run it.
Figure 2.4 Nodes (individual computers) in Blockchain

(Jura Protocol Media, 2019)
“Every cryptocurrency has its personal nodes, maintaining the transaction records”, and
the owners of these nodes, who spend their computing resources to store and validate
their transactions, benefit from this with the opportunity to receive the transaction fees
and enlist a reward (Perwej, 2018). This procedure is known as mining, but it is going
to be analyzed in the following chapter. Furthermore, nodes have the same rights and
equal functional capabilities and responsibilities. They guarantee the accuracy and
security of the blockchain data by validating them.
Figure 2.5 A simple transaction process in Blockchain

(Evans, n.d.)
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2.3.4 Ledgers
Ledgers have made their appearance since the 15th century in the financial accounting
system. In 2018 in their analysis about ledgers, (Locher, Obermeier, & Pignolet)
highlight that the number of applications and cases that have been proposed until now
for ledger technology is numerous, “ranging from registry services to smart contracts”.
According to (Kenton) in 2019, “a general ledger represents the record-keeping system
for a company's financial data with debit and credit account records validated by a trial
balance. The general ledger provides a record of each financial transaction that takes
place during the life of an operating company”.
So, ledgers are not a new concept, and its appearance came into existence long before
the blockchain presence. On the other hand, a digital ledger is a consensus mechanism,
which used to record all the transactions in the system-an immutable record of them-
and preserve the blockchain network in a safe and adequate way. That is why,
(Davidson, Filippi, & Potts) describe in their article in 2016 “blockchains as ledgers (or
databases) and anything that can be coded into a ledger can be recorded on a
blockchain”.
2.3.5 Types of Blockchain

Today, it is noteworthy to comprehend that the kinds of blockchain types, depending
on the accessibility of the users, are infinite. (Lin & Liao, 2017) agreed in their article
that regardless of the configuration of blockchain, each type has its advantages and
benefits, “depending on what service we offer or what place we use it”. The study is
limited to the presentation of the two main categories, the permissionless public
Blockchain, and the permissioned private Blockchain.
2.3.5.1 Permissionless, Public Blockchain

In this type of system, all users have the possibility to participate to the network, such
as adding new records or confirming transactions. “Everyone in the world could join
the consensus process of the public blockchain" (Zheng, Xie, Dai, Chen, & Wang,
2018). This is due to the fact that the access to the data is open, and anyone can audit
every transaction on the blockchain-see Figure 2.6. The identity of an un-permissioned
public ledger user can be anonymous or with the use of pseudonymous (Brennan ,
Zelnick, Yates, & Lunn, 2018).
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Figure 2.6 Public/Permissionless Blockchain

(DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation in cooperation with Accenture, 2018)
Specifically, this type of blockchain uses a number of algorithms to make certain that
the transactions are valid. As mentioned above, all the transactions are broadcast
publicly and are recorded on a single database. Individuals, also known as miners,
convert the submitted transactions into blocks. When a miner adds the block into the
blockchain through a cryptographic consensus mechanism, then the ledger cannot be
modified or altered. The procedure of transactions' confirmation demands an extremely
huge amount of computing power. Furthermore, it is achieved the secure
decentralization of the system as well as there is no need of the members to trust each
other or the requirement of a central authority to ascertain the transactions. This
procedure is illustrated in Figure 2.7.
Figure 2.7 Permissionless/Public blockchain network

(Lewis, McPartland, & Ranjan, 2017)
Some of Nakamoto’s suggestions in his article on 2008 comprehend that “We proposed
a peer-to-peer network using proof-of-work to record a public history of transactions”,
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“[…] transactions must be publicly announced”. It is evident that Nakamoto proposed
an unpermissioned version of the blockchain, in which access is open to the data of the
transaction, and there is no restriction on who wants to join the network or see the
information.
“In the public Blockchain, because no participants are implicitly faith to reassert
transactions, all participants follow an algorithm that reasserts transactions by
committing hardware and software resources to extricate a trouble by brute force”
(Perwej, 2018), which means that the transaction validation process is very time
consuming. However, the flip side of a public, permissionless blockchain is the
probability of a malicious actor to create many different pseudonyms in order to
validate a transaction for the sake of his/her favor.
Typical instances of public, unpermissioned Blockchain are Bitcoin and Ethereum. For
a greater level of understanding, it is presented a short explanation of the Bitcoin’s
procedure. For Bitcoin’s implementation, a Proof of Work consensus algorithm is
needed. The miners, through a competitive calculation, convert the submitted
transactions into the blocks, which will be included in the network. The miner who first
solves the problem and adds the transaction in the ledger will be paid with a specific
number of bitcoins from an “implied transaction fee”.
2.3.5.2 Permissioned, Private Blockchain

Nowadays, businesses prefer to have less or no transparency at all about the transactions
or assets or information that concern with them. Therefore, they tend to choose
blockchains with private/permissioned ledgers, as these composed of a closed
participant ecosystem with selected participants. In 2016, (Bauman, Lindblom, &
Olsson) reaches a conclusion in their article that “private blockchains are implemented
to leverage blockchain technology for a permissioned and controlled environment, for
example, in regulated financial markets or for government services”.
For the creation of permissioned/private blockchains, the use of an external mechanism

with custom identification services is required. This mechanism is responsible for the
identification of the users that want to take part in the network, either adding records,
participating as validators, or just read the information. The permissions to the
participants are given by one entity who has the utmost credibility, is highly trusted,
and matters greatly by the other users of the system and, according to (Dinh, et al.,
29
2017), the identities of them are authenticated-see Figure 2.8. "The entity in control
has the power to change the rules of the private blockchain and may decline transactions
based on its established rules and regulations" (Ganne, 2018). In another case, the
validation of transactions is controlled by certain and safe listed members, who
broadcast data to the network and access data from the network-see Figure 2.9.
Figure 2.8 Private/Permissioned Blockchain

(DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation in cooperation with Accenture, 2018)
Figure 2.9 Private/Permissioned Blockchain network

(Lewis, McPartland, & Ranjan, 2017)
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"Protocols that can be applied to permissioned blockchains have been studied for
decades in the field of Distributed Systems, where they are known as Byzantine Fault-
Tolerant (BFT) protocols" (Ibanez, O'Hara, & Simperl, 2018). Moreover, the process
of the transactions' verification is significantly faster and more efficient than in the
public/permissionless blockchain because they need less amount of computing power.
In 2015, Nasdaq2 announced that “an issuer was able to use its Nasdaq LINQ
blockchain ledger technology to successfully complete and record a private securities
transaction - the first of its kind using blockchain technology” (NASDAQ, 2015). This
is, definitely, an example of a permissioned, private and distributed ledger which
provides the ability of the online implementation and completion of documents as well
as a solution for faster “trade settlement transactions in public markets” (Bauman,
Lindblom, & Olsson, 2016).
2.3.5.2.1 Hyperledger Fabric

The most well-known instance of private and permissioned Blockchain is Hyperledger
Fabric. Hyperledger Fabric in an open-source, permissioned, distributed ledger
platform created to enhance the blockchain concept. "This project is designed to be
highly modular and extensible, delivering confidentiality, privacy and scalability to
enterprise blockchains" (Baliga, et al., 2018). It is founded by the Linux Foundation
and, according to (IBM ) “is the flexible blockchain framework that’s changing the
business world”. Thus, the IBM Blockchain Platform is based on this framework to
provide rapid progress in the innovation, making IBM one of the most significant
contributors of it.
Hyperledger Fabric, till 2018, has supported a wide variety of companies,

approximately more than 250 members, such as Intel, Accenture, Huawei, as mentioned
by (Ma, Kong, Lan, & Zhou, 2019). The well-known enterprises widely accept that this
project provides confidentiality, privacy as well as security and personal data
protection.
2
“Nasdaq is a leading provider of trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing, information, and
public company services across six continents. Also, it is the creator of the world's first electronic stock
market, its technology powers more than 70 marketplaces in 50 countries, and 1 in 10 of the world's
securities transactions. Nasdaq is home to more than 3,600 listed companies with a market value of
approximately $8.8 trillion and more than 10,000 corporate clients”. (NASDAQ, 2015)
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2.4 How Blockchain Works?
While the other chapters give a general understanding and some definitions of
blockchain and what it is, it is worth asking how it works. After reading this chapter,
one is able to get a sense of how this system works in simple words because of the
introduction in its principal parts that form a block and its structure. It is an in-depth
look at how the transactions are verified using the public key cryptography, the
procedure of hashing and mining, and then determine the step-by-step procedure of
blockchain.
2.4.1 Public Key Cryptography

Public key cryptography is a fundamental part of cryptocurrencies and a useful
component of blockchain, assuming that it ensures the legitimacy of it. This technique
affirms that the transactions are valid, and the attackers cannot alter them or steal the
funds of the blockchain’s users. “The cryptography behind the protocol is based on
asymmetric encryption modulo mathematics where the 'key' for encrypting a message
or transaction is different from the 'key' to decrypt it” (Apte & Petrovsky, 2016).
Each participant possesses a public key and a private key. With the private key, the
transactions/documents are digitally signed. So, when a user signs a transaction using
his private key, a digital signature/hash is produced. After the signing, the public key
of the user that is able to be seen by anyone in the system in “cooperation with” the
digital signature is used to confirm the transaction. Public key and hash are responsible
for the creation of the public address that the users send and receive the funds.
In essence, public key cryptography contains the following actions:
(a) Sign of a transaction/document/etc. + Private key ➔ Digital Signature (Hash)-

see Figure 2.10
(b) Digital Signature + Public key + transaction/ document/etc. ➔ Verification OR
not- see Figure 2.11
(c) Public key + Digital Signature ➔ Public Address of the transaction-see Figure
2.12
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Figure 2.10 Creation of Digital Signature

(Brownworth, 2017)
Figure 2.11 Verification of a Transaction

(Brownworth, 2017)
Figure 2.12 Addresses are identifiers which used to send Bitcoin to another person
(BLOCKCHAIN.COM)
"If a document is encrypted using a mathematical formula, it can be decrypted to

produce the original document" (Condos, Sorrell, & Donegan, 2016). Briefly, when a
user X wants to make a transaction with another user Y, the first participant uses his/her
private key to encrypt the data and sent to the second participant the encrypted result
33
and the original document. Then the user Y uses the public key of user X to verify the
transaction. In blockchain, the miners verify the transactions (more information about
this in the Mining procedure below). Figure 2.13 illustrates this process.
To give a better understanding, the public key can be compared with the known address
of a mailbox and the private key with the password, that is used to unlock or lock the
mailbox (DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation in cooperation with Accenture, 2018).
Figure 2.13 Digital Signature

(Asolo, 2019)
2.4.2 Cryptographic Hash Function and the right Hash
Blockchain uses “a cryptographic hash function, which is a mathematical algorithm that
maps data of arbitrary size to a bit string of a fixed size, called hash, and is designed to
be a one-way function which is infeasible to invert” (Chowdhury, 2020). A hash aims
to differentiate a transaction from another transaction and a block from another block
in the chain, providing a unique signature to each one of them. Hash in blockchain
improves the security and accuracy of the data due to the fact that it is pretty difficult
for a user to decrypt the data of the transactions through the hash as a result of the
enormous length of the encrypted information as detailed below.
After the form of a block with confirmed transactions from the miner, the next step is
the creation of a hash for it. In effect, this hash output is a cryptographic output, a unique
64-digits string of 32 bytes size with the use of a secure mathematical algorithm, like
SHA-256. SHA-256 is the fundamental cryptographic hash function in Bitcoin. SHA-
256 means Secure Hashing Algorithm, and 256 represents the numerical quantities of
34
the fixed-length sequence of bits3. The hash should always start with a specific number
of consecutive zeros consisting of random letters and numbers. It is more difficult to
solve this cryptographic puzzle and find the right hash than to verify it and needs a lot
of computing power for its creation.
If the string of the data is modified, even if the change is barely noticeable, then the
hash number will not be the same. The same input always has the same output. It is
unfeasible for a transaction A to have the same hash with a transaction B and for a block
X to have a similar hash output with block Y-see Figure 2.14. “For example, if we take
the content c ="Buyer orders 200 items from vendor" and apply a specific hash function
h(c), we get a unique result r” (Mendling, Van der Aalst, Weber, & Brocke, 2018).
Every block contains the hash value of its transactions and the hash value of the
previous block. It gives the opportunity to keep stock of the input data just with the
knowledge of the hash value.
Figure 2.14 Every block has its unique hash output

(BLOCKCHAIN.COM)
So, the hash function is the procedure of taking any kind of input in the block, regardless
of their size and length, and transform them into digital fingerprints/ signatures, named
hash, for each unique block. Each block uses the hash of the previous block, its data,
timestamp, which generally shows that the blocks are connected in chronological order
and in a certain period of time and the nonce to produce through a hash function the
current hash, its own unique digital fingerprint-see Figure 2.15. The form of a hash is
an inviolable rule in a blockchain that uses bitcoins, and the number of the zeros relies
on the degree of the difficulty that a block has. Searching the right hash, if the hash that
3
Bit is the smallest piece of data in a computer and is either a 0 or1.
35
found is bigger than the difficulty target, then the network rejects it until it finds a valid
hash that is smaller than the difficulty level. If the difficulty target increases, the amount
of the network's processing power is increased, as well. “The difficulty is adjusted
periodically as a function of how much hashing power has been deployed by the
network of miners” (BLOCKCHAIN.COM). Figure 2.16 represents the measurement
of the difficulty to find the correct hash within a year, from 4th March 2019 until 26th
February 2020.
Figure 2.15 The procedure of the creation of the Hash Function

(The author,2020)
Figure 2.16 The difficulty to find a valid hash

(BLOCKCHAIN.COM)
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It is crucial for everyone who wants to know how blockchain works and maybe to create
one, to understand how the hashing procedure works because it provides the security in
the network, making it one of the core principles in blockchain technology.
2.4.3 The Mining Process

“Miners participate in the network and contribute their computational resources to
achieve a trustworthy, gradual advancement of the chain” (Azaria, Ekblaw, Veiera, &
Lippman, 2016). “Mining means employing the abilities of the computers in searching
for the correct “Hash” that distinguishes the transaction so that it can be completed
successfully” (Khalifa, 2019). That is to say, there are many (millions) computers
worldwide which participate to the correctness of the transactions solving extremely
complicated mathematical processes, which require considerable computational power.
This procedure takes part first before the completion of the transactions. A simple and
explanatory example is the following. A user wants to make a transfer to another user
in the blockchain system. The transaction cannot be completed without the 'approval'
of the miners; even the money exists. In order to understand how the mining process
works exactly, it is going to be presented the step by step procedure of the transactions
entry and the role of the mining on a blockchain system.
Several experts argue that “the chance of a computer solving one of these problems is
about 1 in 13 trillion”. The “bitcoin mining” is presented as an instance of this step by
step clarification. For the other cryptocurrencies the procedure is quite the same with a
certain amount of permutation. Firstly, once a transaction is signed off on by its owner,
this transaction is broadcasted to the network. The total of the transactions that have not
confirmed yet and wait to be processed, remain in “a memory pool of unconfirmed
transactions”- see Figure 2.17.
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Figure 2.17 The memory pool of unconfirmed transactions

(BLOCKCHAIN.COM)
The miners pick up these transactions from this pool and form their own blocks of
transactions. It is possible for a miner to select a transaction from the pool that another
user has already chosen. By means, one transaction can be a part of the blocks of more
than one miner simultaneously.
As detailed previously in the digital signature chapter, after the selection of a

transaction, the miner uses the owner’s/ sender’s public key to ensure that the digital
signature of the transaction is not fake, and this transaction is entitled to be executed. If
this procedure is performed successfully, the miners continue to the next step, which is
the addition of this transaction to their block. At this point, it is useful to be cited the
fact that the miners give way to the transactions with the highest mining reward. The
higher the fee, the faster the miner will check and execute a transaction.
In the next, the miner who creates his/her block of valid transactions should create a
unique signature (hash) for it. This process needs a lot of computing power since the
miner should solve a difficult and complicated mathematical problem. The above
procedure is referred to as mining.
Each block encloses multiple valid and verified transactions, the hash of the previous
block, the timestamp and also, “contains an additional “nonce”, which is a counter that
serves as one of the inputs of the hashing function”. “To proof the hashing work, the
nonce is incremented by one bit each time fir the hash computation, until the hashed
38
value contains a predefined number of leading zero bits” (Kuo, Kim, & Ohno-Machado,
2017). That is to say, the number of the nonce values is huge (millions) every second
because the miners repeatedly recompute, change and discard nonce until one of them
produce randomly the correct hash that contains the required number of zero bits
meeting the target. This hash value should be a value that is less than or equal to that
set by the network difficulty. This means that the greater the difficulty is and increases,
the higher the number of the hash value has to be at its start, and as a result the value of
the hash is reduced. According to the number of the miners that join the network, the
target is calculated. It is based on the hashrate, which is the measurement of the
network’s processing power.
Finally, when a miner finds the correct nonce, which also called the golden nonce, then
the right hash is ready to be produced and the block to be added to the chain. “The
nonce is a central part of the proof of work (PoW)4 mining algorithm for blockchains
and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin” (Whittle, 2018). This explains the definition of
proof-of-work. The hash is the proof of the work that the miners performed. The miner
that produces the valid hash receives the block reward.
Figure 2.18 illustrates the nonce mechanism. One can see that the Node 1/Miner 1 has
completed effectively the procedure to find the right nonce at 10:14:30 and to add the
block B2 to the network as a continuation of block B1, after the confirmation of the other
miners. This means that the unconfirmed transactions will be confirmed as a part of this
new block, and Node 1 will take the fee reward. The other two Nodes- Node 2 and Node
3- should end their proof-of-work after the Node’s 1 “achievement”.
4
In blockchain network, Proof-of-Work (PoW)is the consensus algorithm that the miners used to
confirm transactions, create and add new blocks to the chain.
39
Figure 2.18 An example of a nonce mechanism

(Kuo, Kim, & Ohno-Machado, 2017)
Ultimately, after the successfully completion of the mining process, the miner who
produces the correct hash broadcasts the new block to the other miners. It has been said
above that the hard part of the mining process is to solve the mathematical problem,
and the "easy" is to verify the block and its signature. The miner with the “gold nonce”
could take the confirmation of the other miners so as to add the new block in the chain.
“Other miners now verify the signature’s legitimacy by taking the string of data of the
broadcasted block, and hashing it to see if its hash output indeed leads to its included
signature of so many zeros” (bitcoinmining.com). If they identify the new block as
valid, they will make the confirmation. The new block is ready to be added to the chain.
After the addition, the block is broadcasted to all the nodes which are responsible for
the acceptance, receiving, and store of the new block. Due to the fact that the nodes
keep a full copy of the transaction history in blockchain, they will accept the
broadcasted block if only its transactions match up with the current blockchain history.
In conclusion, mining is not just a push in a button to find the solution. It requires a
tremendous amount of time, resources, and computational power to find the correct
nonce and to produce the “desire” hash value. Its role is very important and crucial to
uphold blockchain’s integrity because there is no chance to accelerate the procedure.
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2.4.4 The Blockchain Procedure
“The blockchain maintains the whole history of all transactions that have ever happened
by storing their transaction data in the blockchain-data-structure in the order in which
they occurred” (Drescher, 2017). In general, blockchain is a manner to store data, keep
a copy of all the confirmed transactions, and maintain them immutable. To make it more
understandable, the exact procedure of it should be presented below.
Bitcoin is one of the most famous cryptocurrencies, and according to (Kuzuno &
Karam, 2017), “bitcoins biggest innovation is the Blockchain”. Thus, the blockchain
procedure will be described step-by-step with bitcoin payments in transactions. At the
time of writing, there are already 618,679 existing blocks. So, how the blockchain
works? There are six main phases:
(1) The first step is someone to request and sign off on a transaction, which is
broadcast to the network and passed all the network participants, the nodes.
(2) This transaction goes to “the Mempool of unconfirmed transactions” until a

miner picks it up.
(3) Different miners are able to select the same transaction and form their own block
with other unconfirmed transactions from the Mempool. The combination of
these transactions leads to the creation of the new block. Before forming it, the
miner should use the senders’ public key to ensure that the digital signatures of
the transactions are not fake, and these transactions are entitled to be executed.
As it is already mentioned in the mining chapter, a block can have one or
thousand transactions.
(4) The miners should find a unique digital signature for their block, the hash
solving an extremely difficult and complicated mathematical problem that needs
a vast amount of computational power. Every miner has a different problem
based on their own block of transactions. This is the mining process.
(5) The miner that first finds the desirable unique hash takes the block reward and
broadcast the new block to the network and to the other miners. The other
miners that cannot ascertain the solution have to create the Proof of Work again
and start another time going back to the step 3 with a new set of transactions
from the Mempool.
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(6) The other miners verify the hash’s authenticity and credibility by hashing the
data of the new block, and if its hash output is valid, they confirm the new block.
So, the new block is ready to be added to the chain and to be broadcast to all the
nodes in the blockchain. The nodes accept and make a copy of their transaction
history.
As mentioned previously, each ‘block’ composes the chain in the blockchain and
consists of digital data. In sequence, this digital data is stored in the distributed ledger.
“The first block of a blockchain is called genesis block” (Zheng, Xie, Dai, Chen, &
Wang, 2018). Every block can document the information about one transaction or
maybe thousands of transactions relying on the size of the block or the transactions’
size. Each block comprises the exact time and date (timestamp of recent valid
transaction) of the transactions, the unique hash value of the block, the hash of the
previous block, the nonce. In Figure 2.19, someone can observe that a block effectively
contains more other fields like the name of the miner that found the hash or the
confirmations that have than the ones mentioned above. When the miners try to find the
correct and desirable hash, the only parameter that they can change from the block’s
input is the nonce, all the other maintaining static.
Figure 2.19 A block in the bitcoin blockchain

(BLOCKCHAIN.COM)
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The newly confirmed block is connected at the end of the chain. “Once the new record
is verified and added to the blockchain, multiple copies are created in a decentralized
manner to create trusting chain” (Saberi, Kouhizadeh, Sarkis, & Shen, 2018). The
blocks cannot be altered or deleted, or it is not possible to add a new block between two
other existing blocks. This is the blockchain’s unbreakable rule of immutability.
Moreover, the block that is the last added in the blockchain is a confirmation for the
previous blocks. Figure 2.20 gives an example of this annotation. The 618608 block is
added before the 618679 block and has 72 confirmations (618679-618608), as it can be
observed from the data, which means that 72 blocks are added on top of it and at any
moment that one more block will join the blockchain network the previous blocks will
take one more confirmation on the complete transaction history. The 618679 block is
on the top of the blockchain, or else that last block that has been added to the chain.
That is why it has only one confirmation yet. The more confirmations that a transaction
has, the fewer eventuality has to be attacked.
Figure 2.20 Confirmations of blockchain

(BLOCKCHAIN.COM)
Owning to the fact that the primary target of blockchain is security, confidentiality, and
reliability, it is obvious that this technology encrypts the identity of the user, who has a
unique digital signature. This new technology looks so powerful.
43
3. Research Methodology
In this chapter, we will present a systematic literature review (SLR) to provide a
rigorous and referential method. It is applied to ensure that in this thesis the selected
articles have resulted from the most related, reliable and high-quality previous and
existing studies in blockchain technology and its applications in supply chain. The
outline of this chapter is as illustrates in Figure 3.1.
3.1 Overview of the Systematic

Literature Review (SLR)
Overview
3.2 Process of the Systematic

Literature Review

(The author,2020)
3.1 Overview of the Systematic Literature Review (SLR)

The systematic literature review is a well- established method that identifies, selects,
and summarizes the results, relating a study to the already existing knowledge of
academic researchers in a transparent way. SLR is an effective and efficient method to
resolve contradictions, limitations, and uncertainties from previous studies, as well as
organize and evaluate opportunities and emerging topics. They can separate the
insignificant, unsound, or redundant.
44
(Mulrow) in 1994 mentioned that " systematic literature review is a fundamental
scientific activity," which has the ability to integrate valid existing information in an
efficient way, thus providing data for sensible decision making. According to
(Kitchenham, et al., 2009), SLR was foremost adopted in medical science since it was
observed that the selected results from scientific experiments and articles are more
trustworthy than the opinion and advice from medical experts. In the field of business
research, knowledge production is increasing rapidly, and the scientific researches are
fast-growing. Therefore, the need and the desire for other domains, like economics,
healthcare, engineering, to be also at the forefront of research and knowledge, have
actuated them to adopt this method.
A systematic review has been explained from (Liberati, et al., 2009) as an attempt to
solve an exact research question or hypothesis or has a specific focus searching through
pre-specified criteria to result in dependable empirical findings. The explicit methods
used to conduct systematic reviews reduce bias and enhance the reliability of the results
and conclusions (Liberati, et al., 2009; Snyder, 2019). (Cochrane Handbook for
Systematic Reviews of Interventions version. 2nd Edition, 2019) gives the following
definition for systematic reviews:
"A systematic review attempts to identify, appraise, and synthesize all the empirical
evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research
question."
3.2 Process of the Systematic Literature Review

SLR in an appropriate approach to comprehend the blockchain-supply chain
integration, assisting in the improvement of previous methods to collect and flesh
empirical evidences out. In this paper, a systematic review is designed to provide an
easy evaluation of the findings’ validation in a transparent and reproducible way,
reviewing prior empirical research papers on blockchain and supply chain area. The
adoption of this method can aid in future research projects. This process is based on a
synthesis of various guidelines and criteria that have been employed with success in
previous literature reviews.
The dimensions and the analytic processes used in this study contain mainly a guideline
from the steps proposed by (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003), but also a synthesis of
other existing similar SLRs elements exists. In particular, the process of conducting
45
this literature review is based on and influenced principally by (Tranfield, Denyer, &
Smart, 2003) and also, successfully used in previous literature reviews by (Kamal &
Irani, 2014; Queiroz, Telles, & Bonilla, 2019; Snyder, 2019; Zhao, et al., 2019), either
with precision or with some modifications. (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003)
presented a three stages approach that based on “the Cochrane Collaboration’s
Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook (Clarke & Oxman, 2001) and the National Health
Service Dissemination (2001). The process illustrates in Figure 3.2. Therefore, this
paper follows the following steps of preparing and maintaining a systematic review.
Figure 3.2 The Process of Systematic Literature Review

(The author,2020)
46
3.2.1 Stage 1: Planning the Review
In the first stage the phases are three:
(a) Specifying the research aim and the objectives of the review
(b) Preparing the proposal for the review
(c) Developing the review protocol
At the beginning of the review, a review panel should be formed for the guidance and
the need of an expert or experts that are familiar with the systematic literature review
methods or the field of this study. This can guarantee the high quality and the reliability
of the results’ data. The review panel, as shown in
Table 1, in this thesis consists of the supervisor only, who is an expert in the fields of
Supply Chain Management and Logistics.
NAME ROLE SHORT PROFILE

Assistant Professor,
Department of Applied
Informatics, University
Michael A. Madas Thesis Supervisor
of Macedonia,
Thessaloniki Greece
Table 1. Review Panel of the study

(The author,2020)
Moreover, in this stage, the scope is to define the research aim and to answer to the
question about why this SLR should be conducted. This is important to take place
before the prosecution of the review starts. According to (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart,
2003), “the initial stages of the system reviews may be an iterative process of definition,
clarification and refinement”.
Once the research questions have been identified and an overall review approach has
considered, now is the time for the development of the review protocol. In systematic
review, a research protocol should be modelled so as to ensure and protect objectivity.
This search strategy will assist in ensuring the reliability and the high- quality of the
protocol and the study. This protocol provides a map of the plan (Boland, Cherry, &
Dickson, 2014). It is a written plan that is designed to specify in advance the objective
47
of the systematic literature review, to help in planning and reduce the risk of bias in the
review process. In the Introduction, Section 1, the aim of the study has been already
expounded. Thus, in this section, the review protocol and its characteristics will be
presented.
Review protocol is a fundamental step in SLR. In this literature review paper, following
the synthesis of (Delbufalo, 2012), it provides details for the following themes:
A. Conceptualization of the blockchain key factors that explained the deployment

in the supply chain and the current blockchain-based approaches for the
implementation in the supply chain.
Specification of the overall typology and the eligibility and selective criteria of the
review protocol that should be followed by the studies so as to be included in the
research as detailed below. Table 3 summarizes the exclusion and inclusion criteria of
the final selected articles. Scopus and IEEE Xplore Digital Library were adopted as the
primary research databases for the literature search. They are two of the most reliable
academic libraries. They were found to result in a better coverage in the fields of Supply
Chain and Blockchain.
Table 2 provides general information about these two databases.
Research Database Information

Scopus is a bibliographic database
containing abstracts and citations for
academic journal articles. It covers
Scopus nearly 22,000 titles from over 5,000
publishers, of which 20,000 are peer-
reviewed journals in the scientific,
technical, medical, and social sciences
IEEE Xplore is a resource database that
offers an access in a huge selection of
full-text articles, conference
IEEE Xplore Digital Library
proceedings, books and educational
courses with a scientific and technical
content not only those published by the
48
IEEE and its partners but also provided
some of the publications with a highly
citation.
Table 2. General information about the databases

(The author,2020)
1. For the publication type, only the articles from peer-reviewed journals
were considered. In 2013, (Costello, Michener, Gahegan, Zhang, &
Bourne) mentioned in their article that “peer review is the highest
standard in scientific publications” and also, that this is the best way to
enhance the precision of the research data. Moreover, as argued by
(Blyth, et al., 2019), the major element of peer-reviewed publications in
the research evaluation is the ability to provide and enhance the research
quality in the results. Therefore, other publication types choices, such as
not peer-reviewed articles, books, conference proceedings, article in
press, reviews, magazines were excluded.
2. The articles published in the English language were only included,
because is a global and widely widespread language for academic
articles. Also, another reason of this limitation is that this language can
be understood by the author. Articles in another language were not be
selected.
3. For the reassurance of the validity and the recently updated of the
selected articles, the publication year should be between 2015 and to
date. After all, this issue is in the early stages, so the results will be
freshly.
4. The articles should be in full-text and have open access, so the author
can have the opportunity to read and analyze the whole article in order
to provide better quality assessment.
5. (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003) mentioned that the systematic
review process starts with the development of the keywords and strings.
They should be essential for the quality of the SLR, so they should
follow the aim of the thesis. As it has already mentioned, this research
49
paper’s goal focuses on identifying the factors/benefits of blockchain in
the field of Supply Chain, and to shed light on blockchain- SCM current
approaches and implementations. Thus, the basic keywords research
criteria requiring to be contained in the final selected articles should be
"supply chain" and "blockchain" in their abstract or title or author's
keyword.
6. As the different objectives in this paper are varied, the research in this
thesis necessitates selecting articles that provide strong data support,
enhance and prove the quality of the included articles, and as a result the
quality of this paper. Following (Newbert, 2007; Delbufalo, 2012)
approach, for the guarantee of the empirical-based content, the final
articles should contain at least one of the following keywords in their
abstract: “data”, “empirical”, “test”, “statistical”, “finding”, “result”,
“evidence”, “case study”, “survey”, “interview”. The empirical research
articles can provide original research by collecting data from
observation alone or relying on experience.
7. The substantial relevancy should be confirmed by reading the whole
remaining article for substantive context, i.e., discussion of the
factors/benefits that lead blockchain adoption in the supply chain area
and empirical framework, as the mention of quantitative or qualitative
analysis or findings from surveys. Thus, the author excluded the articles
that do not serve the purpose of the research review's aim and objectives.
Criteria Type Inclusion Exclusion
Not Peer-Reviewed Journals

Peer-Reviewed Journals
articles/ Books/ Conference
Publication Type (Scholarly or Academic
Proceedings/ Article in Press/
Journals) articles
Magazines/ Reviews
Language English Not in English
Publication Year From 2015 to date Before 2015
50
Only Full- Text and Open Abstracts only or Parts of
Full- Text and Open Access
Access Articles articles
Not included “blockchain”,
Keywords and Key Phrases “blockchain”, “supply chain”
“supply chain”
Document Type of the Article Empirical Conceptual
Table 3. Summarize of the exclusion and inclusion criteria of the selected articles
(The author,2020)
The inclusion and exclusion selection criteria mentioned above and summarized in
Table 3 were all applied to this systematic literature review to form an efficient database
searching methodology process. This process is presented and described specifically
and explicitly in the following sub-section 3.2.2.
3.2.2 Stage 2: Conducting the Review

A systematic literature review is a time-consuming process; however, it is considered a
high-quality method because of its impartial and comprehensive search "character". A
list of scientific articles should be the output of the database searching process, on
which the analysis and the conclusions of this systematic review will be based. Only
the articles that meet the requirements specified through the inclusion selected criteria
in the review protocol and do not appertain to the exclusion criteria need to be integrated
into this research. In the second stage, the phases are five:
(a) Identification of the research

(b) Selection of studies
(c) Quality assessment
(d) Data extraction
(e) Data synthesis
3.2.2.1 Identification of the Research and Selection of Studies

According to (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003) , the database searching process
(criterion number 1) starts with the specific identification of search strings that are
51
based on the scope of the study and are the most suitable for this paper. The keywords
and search terms that have already specified in the previous sub-section should be
combined through the Boolean operators OR/ AND to form search strings to be applied
in the selected electronic academic databases. The combination of the strings is shown
in
Table 4.
String 1: "supply chain*"
String 2: blockchain* OR "chain of blocks" OR “distributed ledger

technology”
Combination Strings
("supply chain") AND (blockchain
Strings 1&2 OR "chain of blocks" OR
“distributed ledger technology”)
Table 4. Strings’ Combination

(The author,2020)
This thesis searched through the Scopus and IEEE Xplore Digital Library electronic
databases to collect relevant articles. The combined search strings were keyed into the
databases. This process resulted in a total of 1.884 articles. The author used only one
string combination with the main keywords and phrases because the research on this
field is on early stages and the restrictions with other keywords had as an outcome a
small sample of articles. Next, these articles were filtered by the inclusion and exclusion
criteria, number 2, 3, and 4, presented in sub-section 3.2.1. After the selection according
to “Publication Type” 1.292 articles were left. Also, the criteria “Language” was limited
the number of relevant articles in 1.143. Furthermore, after filtering according to the
“Publication Year” the pertinent articles were remained 1.143, because this research
field is at the beginning and publications that follow the criteria of this research were
not found before 2015. Also, according to condition 5, the articles should be in full-text
and to have open access. After this process of “Full Text/ Open Access”, 419 articles
52
were left. Figure 3.3 illustrates the selection process in detail. Finally, the remaining
519 articles will go to the next phase of the selection, the quality assessment.
“Full Text/
“Language”
•Inclusion: 1.292 •Inclusion: 1.143 Open Access
•Exclusion: 592 •Inclusion: 1.143 •Exclusion: 0 •Inclusion: 419
•Exclusion: 149 •Exclusion: 724
“Publication “Publication
Type” Year”
Figure 3.3 Selection process of the articles against the inclusion and exclusion
criteria “Document and Publication Type Option”, “Language”, and “Publication
Year”
(The author,2020)
3.2.2.2 Quality Assessment of the Articles

Quality assessment in the systematic review refers to the assurance and the appraisal
that the selected articles satisfy the predetermined criteria. (Jüni, Altman, & Egger,
2001) mentioned that a systematic literature review demands the quality assessment of
the articles for the identification of the quality of the articles that include in the study,
because "if the “raw material” is flawed, then the conclusions of systematic reviews
cannot be trusted".
In this paper, the pertinent articles were evaluated by a title, abstract, or author's
keyword analysis on the two databases. The assessment is based on the exact keywords
and phrases that are specified against the criterion listed in number 6. 105 articles were
considered for further investigation.
Then, the author adopted by (Pittaway, Robertson, Munir, Denyer, & Neely, 2004;
Thorpe, Holt, Macpherson, & Pittaway, 2005; Delbufalo, 2012; Kamal & Irani, 2014)
their quality assessment process to guarantee the reliability and the lack of bias in the
articles. At this point, the author further scanned the articles thoroughly to examine if
their content includes empirical evidence, by containing at least one of the keywords
specified in the criterion number 7 in their abstract ending up in a number of 84. Next,
53
the remained articles were grouped into three categories, “A”, “B”, and “C”. By doing
so, category “A” was about to incorporate all the studies that were definitely relevant
to the research scope and review questions. Category “B” was defined for those articles
that were partially relevant. Finally, category “C” represented the articles that were
failed to add enough knowledge in this field or were less relevant. There were 39
“relevant” articles respond to list “A”, 36 “partially relevant” for list “B” and 9 “less
relevant” for list “C”.
In the final step, as detailed in condition 8, the full text of the articles was read
thoroughly, beginning with the category “A” and continuing with the category “B” and
“C”, to confirm substantive relevance empirically. “The relevance of a study to the
review depends on the relevance of its research questions” (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart,
2003). To respond to each Q1, Q2, and Q3, every article is reviewed individually. After
this process, the total number of the final articles used in the analysis is 42 while 40
articles were further excluded for this paper, as they are not useful for the research
scope.
Table 5 summarizes the quality assessment of the study.
Assessment Results
105 articles contained the main keyword
Main Keywords in the Title, Abstract and phrase, “supply chain” and
and Authors’ Keywords “blockchain”, while 394 of them were
excluded.
84 articles are contained at least one of
the keywords: “data”, “empirical”, “test”,
“statistical”, “finding”, “result”,
“evidence”, “case study”, “survey”,
Empirical Evidence in the Abstract “scientific experiment”, “research”,
“interview” in their abstract, proving an
empirical- based context. 41 were
removed because they did not include
one of these words.
54
Reading the full text of the articles, 42
were definitely relevant to the research
scope and gave an answer to review
Full-Text Screening
questions, while 40 were failed to add
enough knowledge in this field or were
less relevant.
Table 5. The quality assessment process

(The author,2020)
3.2.2.3 Data Extraction

Data extraction is the process for acquiring all the information and data from primary
researchers and already existing articles that are necessary to conduct a new research
analysis (Forbes, 2003). Ensuring as much bias reduction and human error as possible,
the author should develop a data extraction form (Forbes, 2003; Tranfield, Denyer, &
Smart, 2003). This form should provide general information on each article, like the
title and author, journal details, and also any other features and specific methods of the
study. According to (Cochrane Training, 2019), "there is no single correct way to design
a data collection form," and a data extraction document could serve three essential
functions. First, this form should be connected with the aim and the objectives of the
study, while second, it could be considered as the historical record of all the decisions
made throughout the review writing. Thirdly, the form" is the data repository from
which the analysis will emerge" (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003).
The spreadsheet software, Microsoft Excel, was used to store all the necessary and
significant data and findings in an efficient and systematic way, and it was beneficial
in the systematic review as an electronic data collection form. The following data were
collected from the selected articles in this paper's extraction form: year and title of the
articles, name of the author/authors, journal titles, date of the publication, journals’
rankings, geographical distribution of articles, research methods of the study,
factors/benefits from the blockchain adoption, current approaches, and additional
comments.
55
3.2.2.4 Data Synthesis of the Selected Articles
The goal of data synthesis is to summarize the findings derived from the final chosen
articles. (Thorpe, Holt, Macpherson, & Pittaway, 2005) stated that this process is an
interpretive and rigorous approach that provides the opportunity to the readers to
comprehend the aim of the study, the procedure, and the reason for selecting the
included articles.
3.2.3 Stage 3: Reporting and Dissemination

The carefully planned of the systematic literature review in this study can promise the
validity through the transparency of the methodology. In this paper, a two stage report
is conducted through a descriptive analysis and thematic analysis of the findings, which
are provided in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 respectively. This is useful for the authors to
justify their conclusions and core contributions.
56
4. Descriptive Analysis of the Corpus

This chapter presents the findings of this study descriptively. The 42 final selected
articles that were found in the two databases and after a thorough screening, according
to the systematic literature review flow process, are analyzed in the context of a specific
variable and primary attribute, such as publication year, journals, research methods, and
keyword frequency.
The descriptive analysis aims to investigate and describe some of the main attributes
and characteristics of the 42 chosen articles using graphs and figures for their
understanding. Firstly, the journals and their ranking are presented based on the
SCImago Journal Rank. Then, the publication time of the articles is expounded, and the
geographical origin is depicted. Furthermore, the study focuses on the research
methodology that the articles are employed. Finally, the high-frequency keywords from
the 42 final articles are illustrated with a form of a heat map generated with the
assistance of the VOSviewer tool. These descriptive findings can give an insight into
the validity of the final papers and the value of this study. The outline of this chapter is
as illustrates in Figure 4.1.
57
4.1 Papers Published by

Journal
4.2 Publication Time by

Year
4.3 Geographical Origin

Overview of the Articles
4.4 Research
Methodology of the
Studies
4.5 Keywords Frequency

(The author.2020)
4.1 Papers Published by Journal

Table 6 organizes the final 42 papers according to the journals that published them, and
their SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). SJR is "a publicly available portal that includes the
journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in
the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.)" (SCImago, (n.d.). SJR — SCImago Journal &
Country Rank [Portal], 2020). It is used to present the web visibility of the journals
from 1996 to date and the ranking is separated into four Quartiles. The best is Q1 with
the highest value while the lowest is Q4.
58
Total
Journal
Journal Name Number of SJR
Quartile
the Papers
BMC Medicine 1 3.55 Q1
International Journal of
3 2.88 Q1
Information Management
IEEE Internet of Things
1 2.61 Q1
Journal
Mechanical Systems and
1 2.19 Q1
Signal Processing
Journal of Cleaner
1 1.89 Q1
Production
Robotics and Computer-
1 1.80 Q1
Integrated Manufacturing
Computers & Industrial
1 1.47 Q1
Engineering
Future Generation
1 1.22 Q1
Computer Systems
Journal of Medical
1 1.19 Q1
Internet Research
Computers in Industry 1 1.01 Q1
Expert Opinion on Drug
1 0.98 Q1
Safety
Intelligent Systems in
Accounting, Finance and 1 0.9 Q1
Management
IEEE Access 13 0.78 Q1
Sensors (Basel,
1 0.65 Q1
Switzerland)
Journal of Intelligent
1 0.59 Q1
Information Systems
British Food Journal 1 0.58 Q1
Journal of Advanced
1 0.57 Q1
Transportation
Environmental Research 3 0.74 Q2
and Public Health
Sustainability
2 0.58 Q2
(Switzerland)
Processes 1 0.4 Q2
Informatics 1 0.4 Q2
Transport and
1 0.32 Q2
Telecommunication
59
Electronics (Switzerland) 1 0.3 Q2
Information (Switzerland) 1 0.35 Q3
Innovative Technology 1 0.1 Q4
and Exploring Engineering
Table 6. The journals of the selected papers and their SJR

(The author,2020)
Q4
Q3 2% Journal Ranking Quartile
2%
Q2
22%
Q1
74%
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Graph 1 Distribution of the journal’s Quartile

(The author,2020)
Among the collected existing literature reviews, the majority of the journals that belong
to Q1 are more than half of the total journals with a percentage of 74% (31/42 papers)
while a percentage of 22% is clustered in Q2 journals (9/42 papers),as dispayed in
Graph 1. Only 1 paper is ranked in Q3 and one in Q4, also. This fact can provide higher
value to this study. Furthermore, as indicated in
Table 6, IEEE Access is responsible for most of the publications in this study, with a
number of 14 articles, followed by the International Journal of Information
60
Management, and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public
Health.
4.2 Publication Time by Year

The inclusion criterion of the publication time, that was determined in chapter 3, set
limits in the research not only because the author seeks to ensure recent data and updates
for the validity and the efficiency of the research, but also because blockchain research
has emerged and been developed the last 5 years, as it observed in the (Google Trends,
2020) search.
Graph 2 depicts the distribution of the 42 final chosen articles based on publication
time. In 2015 and 2016, there were no publications that fulfill the inclusion criteria and
are about the deployment of blockchain in the supply chain domain, and in 2017 the
papers were only 3. The growth in research on this emerging technology became in
2018. The author believes that it is because territories like China and the US have turned
their attention to develop blockchain projects. Deloitte's and PwC's global blockchain
surveys in 2018 can prove that blockchain has gained the admittance of businesses and
can have a potential impact in the future. "Gartner forecasts that blockchain will
generate an annual business value of more than US $3 trillion by 2030", mentioned by
PwC in 2018. It appears obvious that blockchain has peaked and reached an inflection
point in 2019 with a percentage of 45.5% of the selected articles. Further, in one third
of 2020- , there is already an amount of 10 articles, a proportion of approximately 25%.
The author did not add in the graph the number of the articles in 2020 due to the reason
that the research has data until April and not for the entire year of 2020.
Publication Time Analysis

19
20
15
10
10
5 3
0 0
0
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Graph 2 Distribution of Publication Time by Year

(The author,2020)
61
4.3 Geographical Origin of the Articles
As far as the geographical distribution of the 42 selected articles is concerned, the data,
as shown in Graph 3, depict that the vast majority of the articles were published in
China, specifically 12. This can be explained because China is one of the countries that
has invested in blockchain technology earlier than others. This followed by 8 articles
from the United States while India has published 5. In Europe, the total number of
articles is 14, in which Italy (n=3) and the Netherlands (n=3) have the most papers
published compared to the rest of the European nations. Greece, Sweden, Norway,
Estonia, Belgium, Croatia, and the United Kingdom have published one article each
while Germany has just 2. Additionally, Saudi Arabia, the United Arabic Emirates,
Egypt, Pakistan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, Macao, South Korea, and
Brazil have also one article. 2 articles separately have published from Canada, Japan,
and Hong Kong. Some of the articles belong to more than one region.
Graph 3 Geographical Distribution of the Articles

(The author,2020)
62
4.4 Research Methodology of the Studies
Since blockchain is an emerging information technology, the majority of the studies
employed qualitative methods rather than quantitative methods, such as case studies
(n=12), in-depth interviews, surveys, and questionnaires (n=10) to collect data for
qualitative analysis. This can be explained by the fact that blockchain is in a nascent
stage and early development, where the quantitative analysis was defined rarely in the
existing papers. Graph 4 demonstrates that the vast majority of the papers explored and
proposed the built of blockchain-based system design and architecture (n=27) in the
supply chain field for future implementation, followed by the conduction of literature
reviews (n=8) to flesh the lack of existing literature reviews out or provide new, and
theory/model buildings (n=8). Furthermore, some papers developed simulation
experiments (n=7) to assess the performance of blockchain-based systems while others
explored blockchain technical issues by creating and improving algorithms, and
protocols (n=5). It should also be noted that there were many papers that used in their
research more than one research methods.
Main Research Methodologies

30
25 Architecture
Building & System
Design; 27
20
15 Interview/
Questionnaire &
Survey; 10
10 Case Study; 12
Literature Review; 8
5 Simulation Theory/Model
Experiment; 7 Building; 8 Algorithm &
Protocol; 5
0
Graph 4 Main Research Methodologies Employed by the Selected Articles

(The author,2020)
63
4.5 Keywords Frequency
VOSviewer is a software tool for generating and visualizing maps based on network
data, such as publications, journals (VOSviewer). In this research, VOSviewer is used
to construct a keyword heat map, providing the high-occurrence keywords extracted
from the 42 selected articles. As shown in Figure 4.2 and in Graph 5 the most frequency
keywords appeared in the map are "Blockchain/Blockchains/Blockchain Technology"
and "Supply Chains/Supply Chain Management/Supply Chain", which is a logical
outcome because they meet the main theme and area of this study. There are also many
other frequently keywords, such as "traceability", "transparency", "sustainability",
"distributed ledger technology", "food safety", which constitute the research trends and
areas of this topic. Furthermore, it is useful to clarify that the result of the heat map and
its keywords is due to the VOSviewer scanning of the 42 articles' abstracts and titles
and the keywords provided by authors.
Figure 4.2 Heat map of the high-frequency keywords, created in VOSviewer

(The author,2020)
64
Keywords Frequency
Ethereum 4
Digital Storage 5
Industry 4.0 6
Food Supply Chain 6
Food Safety 6
Transparency 8
Distributed Ledger Technology 8
Sustainability 8
Traceability 9
Blockchains 13
Blockchain Technology 19
Supply Chain 22
Supply Chain Management 36
Supply Chains 39
Blockchain 67
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Keywords Frequency
Graph 5 List of the high-frequency keywords exported by VOSviewer

(The author,2020)
65
5. Thematic Analysis
Thematic analysis is a qualitative analysis approach "for identifying, analyzing and
reporting patterns (themes) within data" (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In this paper, a
thematic analysis will be provided, and the findings were raised from the extant
literature review will be analyzed to fulfill the research aim answering the research
questions posed in the sub-section 1.3. Based on the research results, the thematic
analysis will be presented in two themes: proposed applications and investigations of
blockchain in the supply chain and across its different various industries and a deeper
knowledge of the applications areas of the blockchain technology deployment in the
supply chain contributing in its optimization. The list of the 42 final selected articles
from the existing literature review are summarized in (Appendix A: Summary of the
selected articles of the systematic literature review). The outline of this chapter is as
illustrates in Figure 5.1.
5.1 Identification of the Proposed

Blockchain-based Applications in
Various Industries within a Supply
Chain
Overview 5.2 Topic Areas of the Applications
5.3 Blockchain on Supply Chain

Operations Reference (SCOR) Model

(The author,2020)
66
5.1 Identification of the Proposed Blockchain-based Applications in

Various Industries within a Supply Chain
Blockchain, as a promising technology, has been generalized and has come to the
forefront with the ability to be applied across various domains. Early applications may
cover different sectors in the supply chain. Also, it is revealed that a wide range of
industries in supply chains starts to adopt or consider adopting this technology to
increase their efficiency and effectiveness. Furthermore, several studies identify
industries where blockchain technology can have a significant impact on a supply chain
ecosystem. In this section, we present and classify the industries within a supply chain
where the use of blockchain has been applied. Also, we identify the proposed
implementations in general supply chain domain.
Table 7 summarizes these various industrial domains, that defined from the selected
articles and
Graph 6 illustrates the segmentation of the final articles, according to the to their
classification.
5.1.1 Agricultural & Food Supply Chain Industry

The agricultural and food supply chain industry is a complex system with various
different involved stakeholders which is responsible for the product route in the chain
from the initial stage of raw materials until the final stage of the consumption. These
two areas have a clear connection due to agriculture's products used as inputs in the
food industry. The use of blockchain technology can provide essential solutions and
digitalize this field. Based on this research, the number of papers that raised from the
literature review and presented applications and approaches in agriculture and food
supply chains was 17.
Blockchain is an innovative technology that clearly can provide transparency,

traceability, and information sharing for consumer goods and simplify the existing
certification system (Sander, Semeijn, & Mahr, 2018). Many researchers have already
proposed different blockchain-based traceability systems. (Sander, Semeijn, & Mahr,
2018) investigated the potential adoption of blockchain technology in the food supply
chain and especially in the meat supply chain as a system that provides transparency
and traceability (TTS). They made a survey with 141 questionnaires of consumers and
12 semi-structured interviews of retail managers, government officials, and blockchain
67
service provider to mention their aspects about the TTS. The results showed that this
technology can have an important effect on the purchasing decisions of the consumers.
According to (Tsang, Choy, Wu, Ho, & Lam , 2019; Lin, Wang Huaizhen , Pei , &
Wang, 2019), blockchain can create a novel ontology for traceability in supply chain.
(Tsang, Choy, Wu, Ho, & Lam , 2019) added to the application list one more
architecture system for food traceability because they were of the opinion that the
preexisting systems were not reliable and accurate. So, they proposed a blockchain-
IoT-based food traceability system (BIFTS) to achieve traceability for perishable food
through integrated consensus mechanisms. While (Lin, Wang Huaizhen , Pei , & Wang,
2019) proposed a prototype food safety traceability system based on the Electronic
Product Code Information Services and the Ethereum blockchain to fulfill the
traceability requirements for reliability and enhance food safety. Thus, they combined
them to design "the enterprise-level smart contract" for non-disclosure sensitive
information, prevention of data tampering, and trust transfer.
There is a need for the agricultural industry to gain a prominent position in the market
with sizable profits through more sustainable and productive ways. A possible and
effective way to achieve this, by (Reddy B , Reddy, & Rekha, 2019), is with the use of
blockchain technology to the agricultural economy and food transparent security. For
this reason, they proposed a system to enhance the scalability of economic efficiency,
eliminate the intermediaries, and provide authentic data in real-time. One more paper
dealt with food traceability and especially, in recipe-based foods was presented by (dos
Santos, Torrisi, Yamada, & Pantoni, 2019). The authors implemented a food ingredient
certification using blockchain-based smart contracts- the IGR token methodology-to
propose a solution of full-chain traceability, starting from the farmer stage and allowing
the consumer to have knowledge about the provenance of the raw materials without
exposing the business-sensitive information of the recipe owner. (Salah, Nizamuddin ,
Jayaraman, & Omar, 2019) is concerned also with the traceability of the agricultural
and food supply chain because it is an important requirement for the products' safety
guarantee in this industry. They suggested a system based on Ethereum blockchain and
smart contracts, which offers high levels of traceability, visibility, and
disintermediation for soybean into the agricultural supply chain ecosystem.
68
The government and the consumers in respect to the Agri-Food supply chains are
concerned about product quality and safety making it apparent that efficient monitoring
and tracing are indispensable. This perception led (Shahid, et al., 2020) to propose a
complete traceability solution for secure and reliable tracking of the Agri-Food products
from the origin until the final consumers using Ethereum blockchain and smart
contracts along with their algorithms providing also, simulations of them. As
blockchain has gained increased attention, (Behnke & Janssen, 2020) provided the first
investigation to define the necessary insights for the enhancement of food traceability
through sharing assurance information with the identification of the blockchain
technology boundary conditions.
(Zhang, et al., 2020) suggested the architecture of a novel blockchain-based system

and designed a multimode storage mechanism to guarantee food quality and safety-
process traceability. Furthermore, the same year, (Hao, Zhang, Mao, Zuo, & Zhao)
introduced, also, a novel data storage and management platform of food sampling
combining blockchain technology with visualization techniques using Hyperledger to
improve the food traceability analysis and prevent food safety risks.
The food supply chain is a complex system with the involvement of many stakeholders,
in which the application of the blockchain technology can assist in the reassurance of
food safety (Mao, Wang, Hao, & Li, 2018). For this reason, they built a blockchain-
based credit evaluation system via smart contracts to provide more credible and
authentic information for stakeholders in food supply chain and strengthen the
effectiveness of supervision and food safety. (George, Harsh, Ray, & Babu, 2019)
agreed with (Mao, Wang, Hao, & Li) and added that stakeholders of food production
or a restaurant firm place food safety and quality as their major priority. They suggested
a restaurant prototype using blockchain and some product identifiers to capture storage
time data from the stakeholders and applying the Food Quality Index algorithm (FQI)
to determine if the food is appropriate for human consumption. Therefore, food product
traceability can strengthen the quality and safety in the food supply chain.
(Leng, Bi, Jing, Fu, & Van Nieuwenhuyse, 2018) underlined that a public blockchain
supply chain system based on double chain architecture using blockchain can give a
solution to the current Chinese public service platform and its problems. So, they
suggested a system resulted in a mechanism that can adapt rent-seeking and matching
69
of agricultural business resources to their demand and supply, providing transparency,
security, and privacy of the transaction information and enhancing the reliability and
efficiency of the system. (Perboli, Musso, & Rosano, 2018) emphasized that the
implementation of a blockchain can increase the efficiency and reduce the logistics
costs, as well as decrease the inventory levels. To give a better understanding of
knowledge of blockchain and show how it can optimize the warehouse management
and the visibility of the entire supply chain they designed a use case in the fresh food
company implementing a blockchain solution based on Hyperledger Fabric network.
This technology has the potential also to be applied and interact with emerging
technologies such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) to improve the domain of agri-food supply chain (Mondal, et al., 2019).
(Mondal, et al., 2019) proposed a food supply chain system based on IoT and
blockchain technologies to monitor the quality and tracking of the food products
improving and providing a transparent food supply chain. Also, an RFID- based sensor
completed the system and was combined with the other two technologies to supply a
unique identity attachment of each product assisting in visibility and real-time quality
monitoring. As stated by (Kamble, Gunasekaran, & Sharma, 2020), it is observed by
the existing literature that blockchain can offer benefits and enhance the sustainability
of agricultural supply chains. Thus, the blockchain adoption should be fundamental for
this domain. In their research, (Kamble, Gunasekaran, & Sharma, 2020) tried to
identify the variables that actuate the blockchain implementation in this industry
combined Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and Evaluation Laboratory
(DEMATEL) decision-making techniques and to establish the causal relationship
between them. Moreover, (Mistry, Tanwar, Tyagi, & Kumar, 2020) are the only ones
who surveyed the ability of blockchain to revolutionize preexisting industrial
applications of this technology in 5G- enabled IoT devices, which included areas such
as the agricultural and food industry. The nexus of blockchain and 5G provides an
improvement in the security and a decrease in expenditures rendering this cooperation
pivotal for the agricultural’ s supply chain economy efficiency without the need for any
compromises in the quality of the product (Mistry, Tanwar, Tyagi, & Kumar, 2020).
Blockchain-based applications and investigations in the agricultural and food supply

chain field are in early stages, however, it is enjoyed the wide attention of many
academic works and researchers. Based on the selected articles, the majority of use
70
cases and implementation articles are about food traceability, underlining it as a
noteworthy aspect, for enhancing and ensuring security, and quality of the products,
either using blockchain technology alone nor combined with other emerging
technologies such as RFID, IoT, or 5G.
5.1.2 Drug & Pharmaceutical Industry

Drug & Pharmaceutical industries come in second in the areas that the blockchain was
applied with a number of 6 studies raised from the literature review. A review of current
applications cited blockchain as an emerging technology to mitigate or eliminate the
cases of counterfeit and substandard drugs, capable of tracing drug products and
manage drug and pharmaceutical supply chain.
(Mackey & Nayyar, 2017) emphasizes that blockchain technology can be applied in the
pharmaceutical and drug supply chain to combat drug counterfeiters, reducing diversion
or theft, and providing transparency. Thus, they conducted a review on the existing
applications of various digital technologies and especially of blockchain as an
innovative technology that can contribute to the digitalization of drug supply chain
protecting against counterfeiting. In 2018, (Sylim , Liu, Marcelo, & Fontelo, 2018)
presents a pharmaceutical surveillance blockchain system using a simulation
experiment to abolish the drug counterfeiting problem enabling trust, traceability, and
verification along the pharmaceutical supply chain. One year after, in 2019, (Jamil,
Hang, Kim, & Kim) focused, also, on one of the most dangerous and important
problems for public health, the counterfeit drugs. They suggested a novel drug supply
chain system to ensure data safety and "fight" drug counterfeiting. This system allows
doctors, patients, and chemists to enter data and keep track of them in the chain
enhancing data integrity management in a smart hospital.
(Tseng, Liao, Chong, & Liao, 2018), developed a Gcoin, Global Governance Coin,
Blockchain system to provide transparent transaction data for the drugs moving from
the manufacturers to the receivers and change the government surveillance to
surveillance by all involved participant network. While (Fu & Zhu, 2019) provided a
supply chain endogenous risk management mechanism based on blockchain, using a
case analysis of the pharmaceutical industry to decrease the supply chain information
asymmetry. Though still in its infancy, blockchain is remarkable as an innovative
technology framework to ensure a “digitized” drug and pharmaceutical supply chain.
71
(Mackey , et al., 2019) provided a survey of a multidisciplinary group of practitioners
and explored the opportunities of pharmaceutical blockchain applications, ending up in
the conclusion that this technology can modernize and improve the health supply chain
management and performance.
Blockchain technology can be defined as an emerging technology that has the ability to
mitigate counterfeit drugs, one of the serious problems and concerns worldwide.
Nevertheless, its implementation within the drug and pharmaceutical supply chains is
developed with slow rates, as it can be observed from the numbers of the final papers
in this research.
5.1.3 Logistics & Distribution Industry

Blockchain is undeniably a promising technology in Logistics and Distribution industry
(Perboli, Musso, & Rosano, 2018). However, its deployment in factual Logistics
applications is in the early stages and there are still open questions. In this research,
only 5 papers are about the logistics and distribution field. It can be observed that the
existing applications, provided by this paper, pertain to different logistics processes,
whereas only one is about distribution.
(Wu, et al., 2017) introduced a system that applied the emergent blockchain technology
to provide supply chain visibility during the physical distribution phase of the goods
from the suppliers to the customers. (Perboli, Musso, & Rosano, 2018) designed a case
study based on the implementation of a blockchain solution in the fresh food delivery,
ending up in reduced logistics costs. Moreover, (Li, Shen, & Huang, 2019) proposed a
workflow operating system using blockchain for the E-commerce logistics real estate
to accomplish the central management of logistics resources to support and serve
heterogeneous demanders while designed also, a prototype system to implement in the
laboratory environment for conducting real-life case studies.
In 2019, (Philipp, Prause, & Gerlitz) implemented blockchain technology and smart
contracts in the frame of port logistics to present a digitalized and more secure process
management of the documents and result in simplified and automized port logistics
processes with increased efficiency and decreases the total supply chain costs. Finally,
(Behnke & Janssen, 2020) focused on using blockchain for traceability and emphasizes
the fact that traceability activities are closely related to logistics activities, adopting the
definition that food traceability is a part of logistics management. Their findings
72
showed that blockchain technology can be a solution in a food traceability framework
enhancing logistics processes.
5.1.4 Other Industries

Based on the findings, blockchain has received attention in various different industries
in the supply chain, such as maritime, wood, post supply chain, manufacturing. It is
observed that blockchain is flexible to may cover and be applied to different supply
chain contents.
To prevent counterfeiting in the post supply chain, (Toyoda, Mathiopoulos, Sasase, &
Ohtsuki, 2017) proposed a new product ownership management system (POMS) of
RFID-attached products by leveraging the blockchain avoiding or rejecting a purchase
like this. Another example of blockchain implementation was found in wood supply
chain industry. The improvement of the electronic surveillance and traceability in this
field along the whole chain from the time that the tree is in its natural position form to
the final product has been introduced because of blockchain use (Figorill, et al., 2018).
They provided the first work that implemented blockchain combined with RFID to
design an info tracing system that keeps records related to the quality of the product
and digital transactions in an accessible and visible way while keeping them secure.
(Gausdal, Czachorowski, & Solesvik, 2018) provided a survey about blockchain

application within the maritime industry. For this aim, they applied a case study in the
Norwegian offshore industry collecting data through interviews and reports to identify
the main drivers as well as the barriers of digital innovation and blockchain in the
maritime industry.
Aircraft and manufacturing industries can be considered as an essential example for the
use of blockchain in supply chain. (Mandolla, Petruzzelli, Percoco, & Urbinati, 2019)
presented a proof that Blockchain technology is a tamper-proof method to build a digital
twin of the supply chain for the additive manufacturing infrastructure in the whole
process of each product component number. They surveyed a practical case study of a
company in the aircraft supply chain industry to technically suggest a model using
blockchain and supporting the digital twin because this sector uses the additive
manufacturing to produce a prototype of each component. In doing so, the
implementation of blockchain can lead to monitoring the entire history of the
component production procedure. Lastly, the electronics supply chain is a growing
73
industry and the assurance of security and integrity, and as well as, the provenance of
these products are a challenge (Cui, Dixon, & Dimase, 2019). Thus, they end up
building a novel blockchain-based architecture system with its implementation details
to ensure the traceability of every electronic part in the entire supply chain.
5.1.5 General Supply Chain

Blockchain can be a transformational technology for the supply chain. Some
researchers have begun to understand the nascent need for blockchain deployment and
have started to apply it in the supply chain ecosystem. Deployment of blockchain in
supply chain can transform some of its activities, increasing transparency and
accountability (Kshetri, 2018). They surveyed and approached a theory-building from
some case studies of blockchain-based applications and solutions in supply chains in
order to realize its full potentials and how blockchain can be an effective way for
corporations to satisfy supply chain management objectives. Blockchain is a next
generation technology that can be an innovative tool for sustainable supply chain
management growth. (Kim & Shin, 2019) provided the empirical confirmation of a
measurement and structural equation model from various industries in Korean aiming
to prove that blockchain features have a positive influence on supply chain partnership
growth and efficiency.
Supply chain provenance tracking is becoming better with the adoption of the Internet
of Things and blockchain (Kim & Laskowski, 2018). They presented a case study to
investigate a traceability ontology and introduced a proof‐of‐concept implementation
into smart contracts using the Ethereum- blockchain technology to prove that some
traceability ontologies can contribute to the employment of blockchain in supply chain
provenance applications. On the other hand, (Benčić , Skočir , & Žarko, 2019) presented
a digital ledger- tags solution based on distributed ledger technology and Ethereum
blockchain in supply chain management to present the ability to the involved
stakeholders and consumers of the final products to confirm the authenticity and have
a knowledge of the products' origin and route history during their lifecycle.
As maintained by (Wang, Li, Zhang, & Chen, 2019), product traceability in supply
chain domain can be promoted by new ideas and solutions with the development of
blockchain technology. They proposed a prototype product traceability system using
the blockchain technology to establish a reliable and event response mechanism to
74
guarantee the validity of every transaction, the source of products, and the agreement
of all the involved entities. While (Sidorov , et al., 2019) touched upon a similar topic
with (Wang, Li, Zhang, & Chen, 2019), underlining that the visibility and traceability
provided from the current supply chain approaches are limited. For the creation of a
blockchain-based supply chain management system, they proposed an ultra-lightweight
mutual authentication RFID combined with a decentralized database to enhance the
traceability and visibility in every step of the products in the chain from the supplier to
the end-user.
Supply chain is a sector in which the implementation of blockchain is anticipated to

improve the transparency of the transactions (Sund, Lööf, Nadjm-Tehrani, & Asplund,
2020). They presented a traceability prototype event model using the Ethereum-based
Quorum blockchain platform and relying on the data of an international retail company
aiming at the verification ability of the products' provenance by the consumers. The
systems based on blockchain and deal with product traceability and transparency
themes in the whole supply chain have gained major attention but there are many
bottlenecks in the already existing blockchain-based product traceability systems. In
view of this, they (Ding, Gao, Zhu, & Yuan, 2020) designed a simulated double-layer
framework system based on the Hyperledger platform and the deployment of smart
contracts in it to propose a product traceability scheme optimizing the transparency of
product traceability information.
The software architectures that are designed to date for information sharing do not
provide the possibility for governments to collect necessary information from
businesses because the last are reluctant to share their information and they try to
overlook this obligation ( Engelenburg, Janssen, & Klievink, 2019). In their research,
they developed a software blockchain-based architecture based on literature and a case
study for sharing reliable information from businesses in supply chain and customs to
governments. As stated by (Hackius & Petersen, 2020), blockchains could digitally
transform supply chain as a promising technology for the information exchange in this
sector. (Hackius & Petersen, 2020) tried to identify the efforts and the barriers of the
incumbent companies to achieve the deployment of this technology through a
qualitative Grounded Theory approach with a total of 24 semi-structured expert
interviews. (Hayrutdinov, Saeed, & Rajapov, 2020) proposed the establishment of a
supply chain contractual coordination model adapted from the information-sharing
75
effort of the product lifecycle under the blockchain system and the influence of
consumers’ price coefficient on a product which enhances the profits in the whole chain.
Furthermore, the fraud problem in the operation process of a supply chain and business
subjects is an aftereffect of the information asymmetry and decisions' integrity (Fu &
Zhu, 2019). This can be tackled with the application of blockchain technology. (Fu &
Zhu, 2019) gave a description of a system and an intelligent contract operation
mechanism in big production enterprise implementing the blockchain to eliminate the
supply chain risks, enhance the accuracy and the speed of the information and decisions,
and improve the economic profit and the objectivity in the supply chain of big
production enterprises.
76
General Supply
Manufacturing
Pharmaceutical
Logistics and
Agricultural
Distribution
Post Supply
Electronics
Drug and
Maritime
and Food
Aircraft
Chain
Chain
Wood
References
(Sund, Lööf, Nadjm-Tehrani, & Asplund, 2020) ✓

(Behnke & Janssen, 2020) ✓ ✓
(Ding, Gao, Zhu, & Yuan, 2020) ✓
(Hackius & Petersen, 2020) ✓
(Zhang, et al., 2020) ✓
(Hayrutdinov, Saeed, & Rajapov, 2020) ✓
(Shahid, et al., 2020) ✓
(Hao, Zhang, Mao, Zuo, & Zhao, 2020) ✓
(Kamble, Gunasekaran, & Sharma, 2020) ✓
(Mistry, Tanwar, Tyagi, & Kumar, 2020) ✓
(Philipp, Prause, & Gerlitz, 2019) ✓
(Kim & Shin, 2019) ✓
(Jamil, Hang, Kim, & Kim) ✓
(Li, Shen, & Huang, 2019) ✓

(Reddy B , Reddy, & Rekha, 2019) ✓
( Engelenburg, Janssen, & Klievink, 2019) ✓
(Mackey , et al., 2019) ✓
(dos Santos, Torrisi, Yamada, & Pantoni, 2019) ✓
(Sidorov , et al., 2019) ✓
(Benčić , Skočir , & Žarko, 2019) ✓
(Fu & Zhu, 2019) ✓ ✓
(Mondal, et al., 2019) ✓
(Mandolla, Petruzzelli, Percoco, & Urbinati, 2019) ✓ ✓
(Tsang, Choy, Wu, Ho, & Lam , 2019) ✓
(Lin, Wang Huaizhen , Pei , & Wang, 2019) ✓
(George, Harsh, Ray, & Babu, 2019) ✓
(Salah, Nizamuddin , Jayaraman, & Omar, 2019) ✓
(Cui, Dixon, & Dimase, 2019) ✓
(Wang, Li, Zhang, & Chen, 2019) ✓
(Kshetri, 2018) ✓
(Figorill, et al., 2018) ✓
(Leng, Bi, Jing, Fu, & Van Nieuwenhuyse, 2018) ✓
78
(Sander, Semeijn, & Mahr, 2018) ✓

(Sylim , Liu, Marcelo, & Fontelo, 2018) ✓
(Mao, Wang, Hao, & Li, 2018) ✓
(Gausdal, Czachorowski, & Solesvik, 2018) ✓
(Tseng, Liao, Chong, & Liao, 2018) ✓
(Perboli, Musso, & Rosano, 2018) ✓ ✓
(Kim & Laskowski, 2018) ✓
(Wu, et al., 2017) ✓
(Toyoda, Mathiopoulos, Sasase, & Ohtsuki, 2017) ✓
(Mackey & Nayyar, 2017) ✓
Table 7. Identification of the proposed blockchain- based application in various industries within a supply chain (some of the articles refer to
more than once)
(The author,2020)
79
Classification of the selected articles
27%
35%
15%
13%
10%
Agricultural & Food Drug & Pharmaceutical Logistics & Distribution
Other Industries General Supply chain
Graph 6 Classification of the selected articles in various industries

(The author,2020)
5.2 Topic Areas of the Applications

The arrival of blockchain is set as a noteworthy and emerging technology that has the
ability to transform the supply chain and its processes. In this chapter, we identified the
topic areas of the objectives varied from representing pilot projects or proofs-of-concept
with an existence in the real world. We categorized these papers according to what areas
the implementation of a blockchain solution would affect advantageously the supply
chain. Based on the existing literature review and the final selected papers, it is evident
that blockchain technology can play a significant role in some specific applications of
the supply chain and answer why blockchain technology could be really useful for the
supply chain. Table 8 summarizes the authors that were referred to each one of the
application areas.
5.2.1 Improve Product Traceability

The applicability and deployment of blockchain in the supply chain can provide the
realization of a product traceability information scheme (Kshetri, 2018; dos Santos,
Torrisi, Yamada, & Pantoni, 2019; Ding, Gao, Zhu, & Yuan, 2020;). (Tsang, Choy,
Wu, Ho, & Lam , 2019; Sander, Semeijn, & Mahr, 2018; Behnke & Janssen, 2020;
Hayrutdinov, Saeed, & Rajapov, 2020);Sund, Lööf, Nadjm-Tehrani, & Asplund, 2020)
have the public opinion that the utilization of this technology seems very suitable and
beneficial to be used for reliable traceability of supply chain products.
(Behnke & Janssen, 2020) presented a conceptual framework for the improvement of
traceability in the food industry for the dairy food supply chains through sharing
assurance information with the use of blockchain technology. In their research, the
supply chain consists of multiple layers of external and internal actors and presents the
process from the source until the end product in the store purchased by the consumers,
from raw milk to baby milk powder. Traceability in the supply chain among the actors
is achieved via internal traceability within and external traceability between the actors’
internal systems. This architecture can provide transparency for supply chain partners,
regulators, and customers and create more trust in the food supply chain. Quality
assurance information can be stored in the network and presented to the customers
about the origin and source of the ingredients by all actors through the supply chain in
order to verify them or data among all the stakeholders in the chain leading to the
enhancement of the supply chain's traceability. While (Ding, Gao, Zhu, & Yuan, 2020)
designed a simulated double-layer framework system based on the Hyperledger
platform and the deployment of smart contracts to propose a product traceability
scheme optimizing the transparency of it, solving problems related to the anti-
counterfeiting of the data and their privacy protection. This framework allows
consumers to have direct access to a product's traceability information from an
enterprise through an API. This information could be for example the raw material
purchasing, production, sales, transportation in a manufacturing company.
(Hao, Zhang, Mao, Zuo, & Zhao, 2020) introduced a novel data storage and
management platform of food sampling combining blockchain technology with
visualization techniques using Hyperledger to improve the food traceability analysis
and prevent food safety risks while ensuring quality. The distributed nature of the
blockchain provides a non-tampering of the stored data, guarantying the reliability and
integrity of them. In their model, the storage data are about the classification of food
categories, name of the food sub-categories, the transport time. The users in the system
can update or acquire information through smart contracts. When a participant initiates
81
a request, the model use the smart contract to verify the data, the digital signature and
the case of duplication of the data. If the data are confirmed, the data can be uploaded
to the blockchain platform. The digital signature provides the assurance that the
identities of the involved parties will not be revealed, and the data will remain tamper-
proof and well-rounded. As stated by (Kamble, Gunasekaran, & Sharma, 2020), it is
observed by the existing literature that blockchain can offer benefits and enhance the
sustainability of agricultural supply chains. Thus, the blockchain adoption should be
fundamental for this domain. In their research, they tried to identify the variables that
actuate the blockchain implementation in this industry combined Interpretive Structural
Modelling (ISM) and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) decision-making techniques
and to establish the causal relationship between them. They ended up to the conclusion
that traceability of the agricultural products is the key enabler for the adoption of
blockchain technology in the supply chain. Their findings suggested that blockchain
technology can store real-time data of agricultural produce, processing, storage, food
distribution, and retailing. It can, also, gives the ability to capture all the agricultural
events that have an effect on the farmers, such as the seed quality, soil moisture, climate,
payments, demand and sale price, etc. in a trusted and transparent single platform
without intermediaries.
(Cui, Dixon, & Dimase, 2019) provided a novel blockchain-based framework to

enhance the traceability for the electronic parts in the supply chain using Hyperledger
Fabric. The use of blockchain can ensure the security and authenticity of these parts
with the track of the provenance of them through the supply chain network by trusted
suppliers. These could be by the monitor and the verification of the origin, the trace of
travel, and its bill of materials. This blockchain-based framework can help to improve
the traceability of the parts by the verification of product ownership. The sender should
send the ownership transfer transaction and, the receiver, in turn, is required to send an
additional confirmation transaction. This procedure will automatically update the
network, providing elimination to the paper records, human errors, and delivery
failures. Wrong electronic parts are unable to be delivered, transportation or logistics
procedures cannot be failed due to the causes such as the transport conditions of a
product- temperature, location, humidity. Furthermore, (George, Harsh, Ray, & Babu,
2019) added that stakeholders of food production or a restaurant firm place food safety
and quality as their major priority. They suggested a restaurant prototype using
82
blockchain and some product identifiers to capture storage time data from the
stakeholders and applying the Food Quality Index algorithm (FQI) to determine if the
food is appropriate for human consumption. Therefore, food product traceability can
strengthen the quality and safety in the food supply chain. It can track the products from
post-harvest and food distribution across nodes with its involved stakeholders in the
value chain for the quality assurance of the products through specified standards of
storage and handling as per regulatory authorities. In their prototype they needed only
a few minutes for the digital tracking of individual pork items. Blockchain offers the
opportunity to the involved stakeholders to check the authenticity of the data, because
it can capture storage time data during the various stages of food storage. The
intermediaries in the process of receiving or delivering an item should add the real-time
dates to the network. If there is any disagreement on the quantities of the products or
the dates of the receiving and delivering can be defined from the network.
This technology has the potential also to be applied and interact with emerging
technologies such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) to improve the domain of agri-food supply chain (Mondal, et al., 2019). They
proposed a food supply chain system based on IoT and blockchain technologies to
monitor the quality of the food products improving and providing a transparent and
visible food supply chain. Also, an RFID- based sensor completed the system and was
combined with the other two technologies to supply a unique identity attachment of
each product assisting in visibility and real-time quality monitoring. The
implementation of blockchain could provide a non-modifiable digital trace of the
products during their lifetime, visible to the involved stakeholders. In their architecture
every food package is scanned within the supply chain and updated on the blockchain.
Thus, every consumer or retailer can check the digital history of the food package in
the public ledger to obtain the information they want, such as the temperature for any
deviations in environmental conditions during storage or transportation. This is a way
to enable a traceability system with real time shelf life data that provided by blockchain
technology. The improvement of the electronic surveillance and traceability in this field
along the whole chain from the time that the tree is in its natural position form to the
final product has been introduced because of blockchain use (Figorill, et al., 2018).
They provided the first work that implemented blockchain combined with RFID to
design an info tracing system that keeps records related to the quality of the product
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and digital transactions in an accessible and visible way while keeping them secure.
This architecture can provide real-time monitoring, conducted by forestry
administrators. The infotracing system is based on RFID sensors and open source
technology and the items that have high-quality are marked with QR code stickers for
the certification of the timber and the origin. When they have reached the production
and selling process, tags are applied to the final products and the final consumer is
responsible to read them. Through blockchain and info tracing, those related to the
quality and those related to the traceability of the product, are integrated while keeping
them secure.
(Gausdal, Czachorowski, & Solesvik, 2018) provided a survey about blockchain

application within the maritime industry. For this aim, they applied a case study in the
Norwegian offshore industry collecting data through interviews and reports to identify
the main drivers as well as the barriers of digital innovation and blockchain in the
maritime industry. The results of the qualitative study showed that blockchain
technology can improve the traceability system of the whole supply chain, enabling
visibility and giving the opportunity to customers to track and monitor the state of the
products that should be delivered in real-time.
(George, Harsh, Ray, & Babu, 2019) added that stakeholders of food production or a
restaurant firm place food safety and quality as their major priority. They suggested a
restaurant prototype using blockchain and some product identifiers to capture storage
time data from the stakeholders and applying the Food Quality Index algorithm (FQI)
to determine if the food is appropriate for human consumption. Therefore, food product
traceability can strengthen the quality and safety in the food supply chain. It can track
the products from post-harvest and food distribution across nodes with its involved
stakeholders in the value chain for the quality assurance of the products through
specified standards of storage and handling as per regulatory authorities. In their
prototype they needed only a few minutes for the digital tracking of individual pork
items. Blockchain offers the opportunity to the involved stakeholders to check the
authenticity of the data, because it can capture storage time data during the various
stages of food storage. The intermediaries in the process of receiving or delivering an
item should add the real-time dates to the network. If there is any disagreement on the
quantities of the products or the dates of the receiving and delivering can be defined
from the network.
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(Lin, Wang Huaizhen , Pei , & Wang, 2019) proposed a prototype food safety
traceability system based on the Electronic Product Code Information Services and the
Ethereum blockchain to fulfill the traceability requirements for reliability and enhance
food safety. Thus, they combined them to design "the enterprise-level smart contract"
for non-disclosure sensitive information, prevention of data tampering, and trust
transfer. The system consists of 6 modules, which are about the upload of traceability
information, the tracing of traceability information, the resolution of food identity code,
the verification of the event, the registration of smart contract, and the maintenance of
blockchain. The use of the cryptographic algorithm, SHA-256 hash, in the blockchain
serves the purpose of identity verification. Thus, the system is more reliable, and the
authenticity of the information is guaranteed. Blockchain can improve the traceability
system in the food supply chain industry because of the smart contracts and the single
consensus-based source of truth that is provided.
(Mandolla, Petruzzelli, Percoco, & Urbinati, 2019) presented a proof that Blockchain
technology is a tamper-proof method to build a digital twin of the supply chain for the
additive manufacturing infrastructure in the whole process of each product component
number. They surveyed a practical case study of a company in the aircraft supply chain
industry to technically suggest a model using blockchain and supporting the digital twin
because this sector uses the additive manufacturing to produce a prototype of each
component. In doing so, the implementation of blockchain can lead to monitoring the
entire history of the component production procedure, providing useful traceability
applications and transparency of every transaction. Every process data that is carried
out in the chain can be tracked in a secure way, hence making the entire history of each
component clear, decentralized and distributed among stakeholders. For the
construction, all the important data of the process can be stored phase to phase in a
block so the entire building process can be tracked. These data are authentic and
accurate, ensuring the safety conditions of all the components because blockchain
proposes a cryptographic validation of each transaction to protect against trustless
environments. Also, has the ability to provide a single source of truth, a way to unitize
stakeholders on a single platform.
(Salah, Nizamuddin , Jayaraman, & Omar, 2019) are concerned, also, with the
traceability of the agricultural and food supply chain because it is an important
requirement for the products' safety guarantee in this industry. They suggested a system
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based on Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts, which offers high levels of
traceability, visibility, and disintermediation for soybean into the agricultural supply
chain ecosystem. Disruptive technologies, such as blockchain, can guarantee high
levels of product traceability in agriculture and food supply chains because all the
transactions and interactions of the involved stakeholders within the supply chain
ecosystem are recorded and stored to the blockchain immutable ledger with links to a
decentralized file system. All the data are digitally signed and attributed to a certain
actor which is the owner of them and responsible for their accuracy. The smart contracts
are in charge of impose penalties in a fraudulent case in an automated way. (Sander,
Semeijn, & Mahr, 2018) investigated the potential adoption of blockchain technology
in the food supply chain and especially in the meat supply chain as a system that
provides transparency and traceability (TTS). They made a survey with 141
questionnaires of consumers and 12 semi-structured interviews of retail managers,
government officials, and blockchain service provider to mention their aspects about
the TTS. The results showed that this technology can have an important effect on the
purchasing decisions of the consumers and simplify the existing certification system.
Because of the peer-to-peer nature and the consumer-friendly accessibility to the
traceability that offers, blockchain can facilitate any type of transaction, such as
physical assets, money and the ability to the consumers to learn about the origin
information of a product.
(Shahid, et al., 2020) proposed a complete traceability solution for secure and reliable
tracking of the Agri-Food products from the origin until the final consumers using
Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts along with their algorithms providing also,
simulations of them. For the delivery mechanism of the products, it is able to track and
trace the delivery process because it can keep an auditable record with all the necessary
information, ensuring the success of the transfer. They introduced a trading and delivery
mechanism to allow secure trading between stakeholders through supply chain in the
food industry. Smart contracts can facilitate digital transactions in an immutable and
secure way because if they created, they cannot be altered.
(Sund, Lööf, Nadjm-Tehrani, & Asplund, 2020) presented a traceability prototype

event model using the Ethereum-based Quorum blockchain platform enabling event
processing by a multiplicity of actors as well as relying on the data of an international
retail company aiming at the verification ability of the products' origin by the consumers
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and the way that they transported. Blockchain is a technology that can optimize the
transfer of ownership through a smart contract because every information should have
an owner. This system with the use of blockchain can record and trace all the events
that take place from creation of a product till the final ownership transfer from a retail
company. Multiple organizations are involved through this journey. Therefore, the use
of blockchain has the potential to document all these data without any possibility of
manipulation by the entities.
According to (Tsang, Choy, Wu, Ho, & Lam , 2019) blockchain can create a novel
ontology for traceability in supply chain. They added to the application list one more
architecture system for food traceability because they were of the opinion that the
preexisting systems were not reliable and accurate. So, they proposed a blockchain-
IoT-based food traceability system (BIFTS) to achieve traceability for perishable food
through integrated consensus mechanisms. When a batch of food is supplied from the
farmers to the processors, an ID is assigned to them and it can be stored to the
blockchain. All the environmental conditions and the tracking data along the supply
chain journey of the food items can be monitored in real-time and recorded in the
blockchain. This is an efficient and effective traceability process provided by
blockchain. As maintained by (Wang, Li, Zhang, & Chen, 2019), product traceability
in supply chain domain can be promoted by new ideas and solutions with the
development of blockchain technology. They proposed a prototype product traceability
system using smart contracts to establish a reliable and event response mechanism to
guarantee the validity of every transaction with the verification of parties' identities, the
source of products, and the agreement of all the involved entities that stored in a
distributed ledger. Every entity in the system can access it and query product source
data.
5.2.2 Automated Execution and Simplification of the Payments and Processes

(deliver)
The use of blockchain technology is an effective and efficient way to develop practices
achieving the automation of supply chain management and processes (Yadav & Singh,
2020). In 2019, (Philipp, Prause, & Gerlitz, 2019) implemented blockchain technology
and smart contracts in the frame of port logistics to present a digitalized and more secure
process management of the documents and result in simplified and automized port
logistics processes with increased efficiency and decreases the total supply chain costs,
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supporting the entrepreneurial collaborations in port industry and as well as along the
supply chain. Smart contracts in the ecosystem of port logistics could create and
distribute important documents, such as bill of lading, charter-party contract,
automatically. Also, processes, such as the audit of documents or the billing process, as
well as data that is provided by the support of IoT devices, sensors and trackers can be
automated and simplified and the entire cargo flow in the port area becomes trackable.
This could be regarded as a step of the development and transformation of a smart port.
(Reddy B, Reddy, & Rekha, 2019) mentioned that with the use of blockchain
technology to the agricultural economy a food transparent security is provided. For this
reason, they proposed a system to enhance the scalability of economic efficiency,
eliminate the intermediaries, and provide authentic data in real-time. Additionally, it
can increase the profits in supply chain and regulate the price variations. Blockchain
technology make the trace of the product details possible in real time back and forth
through the supply chain. Also, it offers automation to the payments, suppliers are able
to make direct payments through a mobile to the buyers, eliminating intermediaries and
brokers. The economic standard of producers could be improved with the ability to
eliminate the price gap between them and the retailer with the disintermediation and the
negotiation for reasonable prices of their products through the open platform.
(Behnke & Janssen, 2020) in their framework mentioned that a smart contract can lead
to the automated execution of the payments of a delivered product to a supplier. If the
conditions are met, a signal is sent that the order has been shipped and that the billing
process should begin. Additionally, (Mistry, Tanwar, Tyagi, & Kumar, 2020)
mentioned that blockchain technology and especially smart contracts can enable an
automation in the payments of goods without the need of intermediaries and their
confirmation. IoT technology combined with blockchain industrial automation could
provide a simplification of machine-to-machine integration with an efficient
decentralized access control.
5.2.3 Reputation of the Sellers

(Shahid, et al., 2020) integrated, also, a reputation system in their architecture to
maintain the trust between trading stakeholders, such as consumer, retailer, distributor,
etc. Whenever a party purchases a product from the owner of it, the seller, it can provide
a trust value with the form of rating as well as a review for the seller, stored in the
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blockchain-based supply chain system. The higher the ratings for an entity, the highest
the trustworthiness. The buyer has a knowledge for the reputation of the seller within
the network before buying a product with the "trigger" of the smart contract reputation
that provides the reviews and ratings. When the buyer receives the products, it is his/her
turn for conducting a review.
5.2.4 Manage Regulatory

(Mackey , et al., 2019) mentioned that blockchain can facilitate the regulatory
requirements of the policy instruments in the global pharmaceutical supply chain
industry. The first one, the FDA’s Drug Supply Chain Security Act in the US,
concerned with the online trace and identification of prescription drugs, protecting
consumers from counterfeiting or contaminated drugs. The second one, the Drug
Supply Chain Security Act in European Union, tries to prevent falsified drugs in the
supply chain through the imposition of measures by demanding safety features, such as
anti-tampering devices on the packaging. Both of the policies need a serialization
unique id number for the verification of the data. Blockchain technology could enable
a possible solution for the integrity of serialization data, all the traceable data, and the
provenance of the drugs. They recommended that this technology could allow the drugs'
manufacturers to share their serialization data number on the network where the
stakeholders, wholesalers, clinics, and prescribers can verify the authenticity and the
provenance of the medicines, preventing counterfeiting.
(Behnke & Janssen, 2020) defined in their survey that blockchain technology should
comply and integrate the requirements of standard supply chain processes and be
adaptable to deal with various types of regulations. The regulations in the food industry
are transitory and so, the technology should be flexible to the needs of the supply chain.
For example, there are specific requirements with respect to a country or a customer or
for products in the medical sector. While (Mao, Wang, Hao, & Li, 2018) referred that
a blockchain- based credit evaluation system could assist in a more effectiveness
supervision and management of the credit evaluation by the government regulators that
engaged in food safety. They could accomplish a better management and access in the
information, transaction and credit evaluation, of the traders. They could, also, through
blockchain, to query a transaction or collate the credit evaluation text of traders.
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(Mistry, Tanwar, Tyagi, & Kumar, 2020) are the only ones who surveyed the ability of
blockchain to revolutionize preexisting industrial applications of this technology in 5G-
enabled IoT devices, which included areas such as the agricultural and food industry.
They presented an in-depth survey of proposals about blockchain for 5G-enabled IoT.
Among the applications that identified by them was the ability to manage easier the
regulatory control, since every movement of a product in the supply chain can be traced
and recorded on a blockchain. Moreover, (Wang, Li, Zhang, & Chen, 2019) provided
in their survey a way to integrate regulatory compliance requirements in supply chain
processes, since the data are transparent in the blockchain. They proposed a blockchain
node to be the regulatory department, which can monitor all the data in real-time and
when occurs safety or quality problems to recall them.
5.2.5 Prove Provenance

(Benčić , Skočir , & Žarko, 2019) proposed the DL-Tags solution based on the
Ethereum blockchain using as a case an open-source e-commerce platform. This store
obtains the products from the producer, after first checking and verifying their
authenticity, and offers it to the potential consumers. The last ones can carry out an
online purchase. Every product has its owner. Each party in the supply chain should
transfer their product ownership when shipping it to the following party in the product
item lifecycle. Thus, every potential owner can check the previous owners and should
confirm and verify the receipt of the product with the use of the description kept in its
Smart Tag in the form of voting. By reaching a consensus single source of truth on the
product's description by all the relevant stakeholders without revealing their identity,
the product's authenticity is valid. Stakeholders share product-related data solely
directly without the need for an intermediary. The product that is delivered with damage
or there is no correspondence with the description provided in its Smart Tag is not
accepted by the receiving stakeholder. This is a business rule. They DL-Tags solution
can enhance the process of a product's provenance verification while providing its
overall journey in the entire supply chain before the completion of its purchase. This is
a way to prevent counterfeiting and duplication of the products.
(dos Santos, Torrisi, Yamada, & Pantoni, 2019) implemented a food ingredient
certification using blockchain-based smart contracts- the IGR token methodology-to
propose a solution of full-chain traceability, starting from the farmer stage and allowing
the consumer to have knowledge about the provenance of the raw materials without
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exposing the business-sensitive information of the recipe owner. Successful
implementation of the framework was deployed to prove the true provenance of an
ingredient or a number of ingredients within a recipe from the source- farmer to the
consumer, providing certification of a specific ingredient by means of a mobile
application. For the certification of ingredients, they created an Ethereum token — the
Ingredient Token (IGR). The certifying authority uses a smart contract to create the IGR
tokens based on the initiative of a farmer and confirms his evidence about the quality,
quantity, time, and location of the ingredient. The certification is made public through
an URL. Thus, a consumer, could scan the stock-keeping unit (SKU) code to confirm
the certification URL claimed in the label of the baked good or processed food.
(Kshetri, 2018) surveyed and approached a theory-building from some case studies of
blockchain-based applications and solutions in supply chains in order to realize its full
potentials and how blockchain can be an effective way for corporations to satisfy supply
chain management objectives. Among the applications identified by the author was the
authentication and provenance certifications of diamonds. The end consumer can verify
the entire transaction history of a specific diamond because of the connection with its
certificate of authenticity. (Kim & Laskowski, 2018) presented a case study to
investigate a traceability ontology and introduced a proof‐of‐concept implementation
into smart contracts using the Ethereum- blockchain technology to prove that some
traceability ontologies can contribute to the employment of blockchain in supply chain
provenance applications. They highlighted that supply chain provenance tracking
knowledge of physical goods is becoming better with the adoption of the Internet of
Things and blockchain. All provenance data is collected, validated, and stored into
blocks on the network by all Ethereum clients, providing a single consensus source of
the truth. The ability of blockchain to validate data and identities can be used to verify
the provenance of the items.
5.2.6 Supply Chain Partnership Growth and Efficiency (sE2)

(Kim & Shin, 2019) provided the empirical confirmation of measurement and structural
equation model from various industries in Korean aiming to prove that blockchain
features have a positive influence on supply chain partnership growth and efficiency.
Blockchain-enabled information transparency and smart contracts applicability can
contribute to the improvement of partnership growth and efficiency among the
stakeholders in the supply chain. Information transparency can show the speed and
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reliability of the information delivery to all the stakeholders through the blockchain
network. This a way not only to contribute to a better supply chain partnership
performance but also an effective way to solve the bullwhip effect problem of the
supply chain with the improvement of supply chain performance measures such as
revenues, fill rates, and inventory levels. Furthermore, a smart contract can lead to an
enhancement of supply chain partnership performance and growth because it provides
a better way to manage contracts. They contain the details and the terms, providing and
sharing them to all the involved stakeholders and reducing, also, possible disputes
among parties.
5.2.7 Anti-counterfeiting
(Mackey & Nayyar, 2017) emphasizes that blockchain technology can be applied in the
pharmaceutical and drug supply chain to combat drug counterfeiters, reducing diversion
or theft, and providing transparency. Thus, they conducted a review on the existing
applications of various digital technologies and especially of blockchain as an
innovative technology that can contribute to the digitalization of the drug supply chain
protecting against counterfeiting. Blockchain characteristics are responsible fot the
solutions that this technology can give in the drug industry. The immutable and
encrypted transaction ledger and the execution of smart contracts could be used to
record, track and trace pharmaceutical raw materials and finished medicines from the
manufacturer to the final consumer, offering greater transparency. Furthermore, a way
to detect counterfeit drugs in the supply chain is the ability of data verification that the
blockchain provide by the stakeholders. Also, the ability to integrate Internet-of-Things
technology could offer greater detection. (Sylim , Liu, Marcelo, & Fontelo, 2018)
presented, also, a pharmaceutical surveillance blockchain system to abolish the drug
counterfeiting problem enabling trust, traceability, and verification along the
pharmaceutical supply chain. In a drug supply chain, there are several participants in
the distribution, such as manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers. This blockchain-based
supply chain system in the drug industry can trace the distribution journey of drugs
along the supply chain and generate a timeline for each chain. Thus, the consumers will
check the authenticity and the history of the medicines with a scan code that will be on
their receipt. Furthermore, (Mackey , et al., 2019) mentioned that blockchain can
facilitate the prevention of counterfeiting and contaminated drugs in the global
pharmaceutical supply chain industry. Blockchain technology could solve this problem
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with a blockchain system that could let manufacturers share the serialization number of
each drug with all the information about the provenance and the journey of them, on
the network where the stakeholders, wholesalers, clinics, and prescribers could verify
and confirm the authenticity of the medicines. (Tseng, Liao, Chong, & Liao, 2018),
developed a Gcoin, Global Governance Coin, blockchain system to provide transparent
transaction data for the drugs moving from the manufacturers to the receivers to prevent
counterfeiting. The manufacturers can store their transactional data to the blockchain
system to inspect and track the data flow of drugs, such as the digital signatures of the
drug seller and buyer, information of the drugs and the number of drugs. These data
should be verified on the chain.
To prevent counterfeiting in the post supply chain, (Toyoda, Mathiopoulos, Sasase, &
Ohtsuki, 2017) proposed a new product ownership management system (POMS) of
RFID-attached products by leveraging the blockchain avoiding or rejecting a purchase
like this. This novel system is an attempt for the preclusion of anti-counterfeiting in the
post supply chain. If the seller does not possess product's ownership, then with the use
of blockchain and the transparency that provides, the consumer can check it and has the
ability to reject the purchase. (Kshetri, 2018) also provided a contribution of blockchain
in the anti-counterfeiting of the supply chain. This time, blockchain technology
combined with tamper-evident RFID-tags to apply an authenticity prove of fine bottles
of wine. If someone tries to refill the bottles with a lower quality product, the RFID-
tags enabled to the cork will notice this tamper and sent it to the blockchain.
(Benčić , Skočir , & Žarko, 2019), also, aimed in their study that Blockchain technology
in combination with the DL-Tags solution used to prove the authenticity without
showing the identities of the involved stakeholders. The DL-Tags are attached to the
products to notice any attempts of propagating fraudulent products or products with
damage. Any effort to do this should be documented on the blockchain, as would the
overall journey of the products. The products that are delivered with damage or there is
no correspondence with the description provided in its Smart Tag are not accepted by
the receiving stakeholder. (Ding, Gao, Zhu, & Yuan, 2020) used in their framework the
government regulatory department node, which can get information about the product
traceability using the API, checking the authenticity of these data. These data in a
private, permissioned blockchain cannot be tampered by the companies or by hackers
and the government department can access the enterprise to inspect production. The
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owner of the private blockchain cannot produce illegitimate product traceability
information because a hash pointer connects the double-layer framework and it can
provide anti-counterfeiting operations.
5.2.8 Reduce Paperwork

Another application that (Kshetri, 2018) described in his research is proposed by
Maersk and IBM. They observed that a container needs to manage almost 30 paperwork
approvals in its journey from East Africa to Europe. Deployment of blockchain in the
supply chain can transform this activity and provides a digitalization to the documents,
allowing actors to digitally sign them. The journey of the container can be faster without
any risk of product spoilage fraud and in an immutable way. Once a block has been
created and the input data have been inserted on the blockchain ledger, it is impossible
to be altered or be deleted.
5.2.9 Improve Information Sharing

( Engelenburg, Janssen, & Klievink, 2019) developed a software blockchain-based
architecture based on literature and a case study for sharing reliable information from
businesses in supply chain and customs to governments that will protect safety and
security and meets business requirements for confidential and reliable information and
lawful sharing of them. This gives the opportunity for decreasing the intercept or
manipulation of the data. The businesses in the supply chain are linked by a flow of
goods, information, and funds. These are stored in a distributed ledger with the form of
events, such as the stuffing, departure, or arrival of a container. They first introduced a
case between businesses in a supply chain and customs. Businesses should provide
customs with the necessary information in the form of documents. For example,
customs are in charge of monitoring the flow of the goods, so they can have access to
the blockchain to the network and take the description of the goods in a container to
determine the correctness of the information and to decide whether they should perform
a physical inspection. This enables government organizations to receive more
information that can be used for better and more focused inspections.
(Hayrutdinov, Saeed, & Rajapov, 2020) proposed the establishment of a supply chain
contractual coordination model for the information-sharing effort of the product
lifecycle under the blockchain system This means that blockchain can store all the
necessary information of the product lifecycle, passes from the stage of origin to the
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stage of consumption. They mentioned in their research that blockchain technology is
a way to lessen the information sharing risks among all supply chain members and bring
more security to the information flow among them while building long-term
relationships. While (Hackius & Petersen, 2020) provided a qualitative interview study
and ended up that Blockchain technology could be a game-changer for the improvement
of information sharing with immutable and confirmed transaction data because of its
decentralized nature. A critical step is to create a blockchain consortium, a single source
of truth where all the stakeholders can read or write to its ledger, providing transparency
to the supply chain.
(Jamil, Hang, Kim, & Kim, 2019) focused their research on one of the most dangerous
and important problems for public health, the counterfeit drugs. They suggested a novel
drug supply chain system to ensure data safety and "fight" drug counterfeiting. This
system allows doctors, patients, and chemists to enter data and keep track of them in
the chain enhancing data integrity management in a smart hospital. If a stakeholder
wants to register and participate in the blockchain network should be valid. A user
identity manager is responsible to check the authentication of the stakeholder and if it
is valid, a certificate is provided to the confirmed participant. This a way to provide and
maintain data safety. They designed a smart hospital where the individual drug records
are tracked through blockchain technology. Doctors, nurses, patients, and pharmacists
are allowed to access the network and share personal medical records among them and
also a complete individual drug lifecycle with the use of smart contracts, a proof-of-
concept application. This is a way to ensure and improve the transparency and security
of the stored drug supply chain records.
(Sidorov , et al., 2019) underlined that the visibility and traceability provided from the
current supply chain approaches are limited. For the creation of a blockchain-based
supply chain management system, they proposed a secure ultra-lightweight RFID
protocol combined with a decentralized database to enhance the traceability and
visibility in every step of the products in the chain from the supplier to the end-user.
Blockchain can provide, also, a consensus source of truth where different businesses
agrees on a key set of data. The data in the network are updated for every stakeholder
participating on it which is useful for the tracking of the current state or location of the
product. Furthermore, this technology can enhance the transparency of a supply chain
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because it can offer data for the provenance of the items and if they comply with all the
stated regulations.
(Zhang, et al., 2020) suggested the architecture of a novel blockchain-based system and
designed a multimode storage mechanism to guarantee food quality and safety- process
traceability. This paper reviews the literature on food supply chain management and
proposes a new system architecture based on blockchain (Hyperledger Fabric) to
achieve information security management in the entire grain supply chain. The
information-sharing supervision could be enhanced in the whole supply chain with
secure reliable storage and transmission of the data with access rights to protect
sensitive data that cannot be disclosed. The phenomenon of artificial tampering can be
prevented with the blockchain’s consensus mechanism and the complete information
about the supply chain that every node has. Since effectively blockchain can integrate
resources and endorse the collaboration and verification among stakeholders, it is a
technology that maximizes information-sharing.
(Behnke & Janssen, 2020) mentioned that this technology provides an open shared
ecosystem that can track data, visible to the stakeholders in the supply chain while
safeguarding the confidentiality and integrity of this information at the same time. Thus,
in their research, they realized that the management of these data is important to be
defined to those that can be shared and which not. Blockchain can create a publicly
accessible historical record, enabling effective monitoring and auditing by actors.
However, because of the different relationships that the stakeholders have, for example,
they can have a customer-supplier relationship or they can be competitors depend on
the marketplace segment, the governance about the standardization of data has to be
specified before automating of processes can be started.
(Wu, et al., 2017) introduced a system with an online shipment tracking framework that
applied the emergent blockchain technology to provide real-time visibility during the
physical distribution phase of the products from the suppliers to the customers in the
supply chain. The proposed framework can prove that blockchain provides a secure,
peer-to-peer communication platform in order to deliver independently validated
shipment tracking information to all stakeholders. Privacy and supply chain visibility
can be offered through this technology. Furthermore, because of the ability to monitor
and trace the geographical location of a shipment using blockchain technology,
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information sharing is improved. Furthermore, (Mackey & Nayyar, 2017) highlighted
in their review that improves information sharing in the blockchain-enabled drug supply
chain. Blockchain is an open, shared standard technology that can provide data across
multiple supply chain actors and unrelated databases in a transparent way.
5.2.10 Carbon footprint documentation

(Wu, et al., 2017), in their research, leverage one more possibility that blockchain has,
the ability to document the carbon footprint of a given organization during the physical
distribution phase in the supply chain.
5.2.11 Decrease of the Supply Chain Risks

While (Fu & Zhu, 2019) provided a supply chain endogenous risk management
mechanism based on blockchain, using a case analysis of the pharmaceutical industry
to decrease the supply chain information asymmetry. Furthermore, the fraud problem
in the operation process of a supply chain and business subjects is an aftereffect of the
information asymmetry and decisions' integrity (Fu & Zhu, 2019). This can be tackled
with the application of blockchain technology. They gave a description of a system and
an intelligent contract operation mechanism in big production enterprise implementing
the blockchain to eliminate the supply chain risks, enhance the accuracy and the speed
of the information and decisions, and improve the economic profit and the objectivity
in the supply chain of big production enterprises.
The food supply chain is a complex system with the involvement of many stakeholders,
in which the application of the blockchain technology can assist in the reassurance of
food safety (Mao, Wang, Hao, & Li, 2018). For this reason, they built a blockchain-
based credit evaluation system via smart contracts to provide more credible and
authentic information for stakeholders in food supply chain and strengthen the
effectiveness of supervision and food safety. Supply chain suffers from the asymmetric
information problem across multiple stakeholders. Blockchain can avoid this risk
because of the cryptography security of this technology and the ability to public of all
the information that cannot be modified. (Hao, Zhang, Mao, Zuo, & Zhao, 2020), in
their research, identified and assessed a potential supply chain risk in the food industry
about the possibility the data are not authenticity. They use blockchain technology to
offer a new traceability system that can solve trust issues and guarantee their safety and
security.
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Customs can identify and assess potential risks in the supply chain, developing a plan
to mitigate these threats to operating the supply chain. ( Engelenburg, Janssen, &
Klievink, 2019) mentioned that with blockchain technology customs can have the
ability to lessen the safety and security risks. If the customs are permitted to access the
data of the businesses, such as the description of a product in the event, a key is sent to
them to decrypt all the necessary data.
5.2.12 Provide Secure Business Rules

Another application of blockchain technology according to ( Engelenburg, Janssen, &
Klievink) is the management of supply chain business rules. Blockchain is employed
to provide a digital shared ledger of events and sharing reliable information with the
customs that are accessible. Business rules are used to specify the accessibility in these
data, who does and who does not. In the architecture of ( Engelenburg, Janssen, &
Klievink, 2019), business rules "are provided and specified by the owners of the data
and by the parties that own any data that the owners’ data are based upon". If a good
that shipped is a high value and the freight forwarder should keep its description secret
from the other involved stakeholders other than the customs they should encrypt it
before adding it to the network and define a business role to control the access of the
information.
5.2.13 Manage Supply and Demand Issues

(Leng, Bi, Jing, Fu, & Van Nieuwenhuyse, 2018) suggested a public blockchain supply
chain system based on double chain architecture, as a solution to the current Chinese
public service platform and its problems, resulting in a mechanism that can adapt rent-
seeking and matching of agricultural business resources to their demand and supply,
providing transparency, security, and privacy of the transaction information and
enhancing the reliability and efficiency of the system. In this system, the agricultural
business resources are provided and aggregated to the platform by the supply and
demand stakeholders and also, their quantity, their types, their ID, and the conditions
of rent-seeking. The blockchain is responsible for the privacy and security of these data
sharing. Also, all the parties in the chain have the ability to view the resources without
comprehending the company's private information. Thus, the results showed that this
technology can offer a matching mechanism for supply and demand and plays a key
role in making on-demand scheduling.
98
The mechanism of (Fu & Zhu, 2019) can solve the problem of “bullwhip effect”
because especially in big production enterprise supply chain the downstream enterprise
cannot transmit in real-time the demands in the upstream enterprise. Thus, the last one
cannot provide efficient services to the downstream enterprises. In the blockchain
technology the necessary information about the business section's demand and supply
is broadcast through the entire supply chain network, providing more objectivity and
reliability. (Kamble, Gunasekaran, & Sharma, 2020) mentioned that a blockchain-based
supply chain has the ability to a more effective and efficient management of the supply
and demand of the available supply chain resources while reducing the inventory costs.
(Perboli, Musso, & Rosano, 2018) emphasized that the implementation of a blockchain
can increase the efficiency and reduce the logistics costs, as well as decrease the
inventory levels. To give a better understanding of knowledge of blockchain and show
how it can optimize the warehouse management and the visibility of the entire supply
chain they designed a use case in the fresh food company implementing a blockchain
solution based on Hyperledger Fabric network. The medium and long-term use of the
blockchain for the visibility of the entire supply chain combined with trustworthy
information giving the possibility to improve the forecast and optimize warehouse
management. Thus, the provided visibility by blockchain can eliminate or reduce the
bullwhip effect on the supply chain without causing the need for the companies to
increase their inventory levels for meeting the new demand. The producers could be
able to optimize the production and planning processes, reduce the inventory levels,
update demand forecasting and manage better the demand variability amplification in
the supply chain.
5.2.14 Manage Logistics Resources

(Li, Shen, & Huang, 2019) proposed a workflow operating system using blockchain for
the E-commerce logistics real estate to accomplish the central management of logistics
resources to support and serve heterogeneous demanders. Blockchain has the ability to
track all the shipments, the provenance, and the authentication of them in a secure way.
Their findings highlighted that blockchain can provide a secure platform with accurate
and reliable front-line resource execution data, such as in warehousing for different
customers to balance logistics resources with logistics requirements. For example, it
can consolidate existing and potential logistics resources to meet the specific
requirements of different customers.
99
5.2.15 Manage Supply Chain Assets
(Gausdal, Czachorowski, & Solesvik, 2018) were of the opinion in their survey that the
integration of blockchain in the supply chain can help to the management of the assets
developed for supply chain execution, such as the track of the assets' state in real-time
like vessel parts that require changing or maintenance.
5.2.16 Monitor Transport Conditions

(Mistry, Tanwar, Tyagi, & Kumar, 2020) presented an in-depth survey of proposals
about blockchain for 5G-enabled IoT. Among the applications that identified by them
was the ability to trace the transport conditions of the trucks carrying medical products,
such as the temperature of every item during shipment, in the pharmaceutical supply
chain to comply with the regulations. They referred to an application, modum.io, where
loggers are added to the packages with the medicines and measure the temperature and
a mobile application sent the recorder data on the blockchain network, where a smart
contract is responsible for the evaluation of them while checking for anomalies.
In his research, (Kshetri, 2018) presented the case of cold-chain transportation of

medicines, a pilot project by the Swiss start-up Modum. Deployment of blockchain
gives the ability to comply with the standard regulations in the supply chain
pharmaceutical industry where all shipments should be done by expensive refrigeration
trucks. Thus, it is necessary for the visibility of the temperatures that the pharmaceutical
exposed to prove that they are not exposed to temperatures lower or higher than the
required. The use of trusted sensors that can store and report the temperature to the
blockchain can provide transparency and trustworthiness.
100
2020)
Zhao, 2020)
References
Rajapov, 2020)
(Zhang, et al., 2020)
(Shahid, et al., 2020)

(Sund, Lööf, Nadjm-
(Hayrutdinov, Saeed, &

(Behnke & Janssen, 2020)
(Ding, Gao, Zhu, & Yuan,
(Hao, Zhang, Mao, Zuo, &

Tehrani, & Asplund, 2020)
(Hackius & Petersen, 2020)

Automated Execution and
✓
Simplification of the Payments and
Processes
Manage Regulatory
✓
Improve Product Traceability
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Prove Provenance
Anti-counterfeiting
✓
Provide Secure Business Rules
Decrease of the Supply Chain

✓ Risks
Improve Information Sharing

✓
✓
✓
✓
Manage Supply and Demand

Issues
Manage Supply Chain Assets
Monitor Transport Conditions
Supply Chain Partnership Growth

and Efficiency
Manage Logistics Resources
Reduce Paperwork
Reputation of the Sellers

✓
Carbon Footprint Documentation

(Kamble, Gunasekaran, &

✓ ✓
Sharma, 2020)
(Mistry, Tanwar, Tyagi, &
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Kumar, 2020)
(Philipp, Prause, & Gerlitz,
✓
2019)
(Kim & Shin, 2019) ✓
(Jamil, Hang, Kim, & Kim) ✓
(Li, Shen, & Huang, 2019) ✓

(Reddy B , Reddy, &
✓
Rekha, 2019)
( Engelenburg, Janssen, &
✓ ✓ ✓
Klievink, 2019)
(Mackey , et al., 2019) ✓ ✓

(dos Santos, Torrisi,
✓
Yamada, & Pantoni, 2019)
(Sidorov , et al., 2019) ✓

(Benčić , Skočir , & Žarko,
✓ ✓
2019)
(Fu & Zhu, 2019) ✓ ✓
(Mondal, et al., 2019) ✓
102
(Mandolla, Petruzzelli,
✓
Percoco, & Urbinati, 2019)
(Tsang, Choy, Wu, Ho, &
✓
Lam , 2019)
(Lin, Wang Huaizhen , Pei ,
✓
& Wang, 2019)
(George, Harsh, Ray, &
✓
Babu, 2019)
(Salah, Nizamuddin ,
✓
Jayaraman, & Omar, 2019)
(Cui, Dixon, & Dimase,
✓
2019)
(Wang, Li, Zhang, & Chen,
✓ ✓
2019)
(Kshetri, 2018) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Figorill, et al., 2018) ✓

(Leng, Bi, Jing, Fu, & Van
✓
Nieuwenhuyse, 2018)
(Sander, Semeijn, & Mahr,
✓
2018)
(Sylim , Liu, Marcelo, &
✓
Fontelo, 2018)
(Mao, Wang, Hao, & Li,
✓ ✓
2018)
103
(Gausdal, Czachorowski, &

✓ ✓
Solesvik, 2018)
(Tseng, Liao, Chong, &
✓
Liao, 2018)
(Perboli, Musso, & Rosano,
✓
2018)
(Kim & Laskowski, 2018) ✓
(Wu, et al., 2017) ✓ ✓

(Toyoda, Mathiopoulos,
✓
Sasase, & Ohtsuki, 2017)
(Mackey & Nayyar, 2017) ✓ ✓
Table 8. Categorization of Blockchain Application Areas in Supply Chain provided by the authors of the selected articles
(The author, 2020)
104
6. Blockchain on Supply Chain Operations Reference

(SCOR) Model
The digitalization of supply chain through blockchain technology has emerged in recent
years and it is expected to be used extensively to optimize and transform the processes
in this field. While having examined in the previous chapter the wide range of
blockchain-based supply chain applications in various industries in order to improve
their efficiency and effectiveness as well as the application areas of blockchain
technology in the supply chain, this research should highlight upcoming research paths
and some gaps that need to be overcome as for supply chain processes.
This chapter aims to give a general overview of the description and definitions of the
Supply Chain Operations Reference model and its processes. As a detailed description
of the processes is beyond the scope of this research, they are presented with fewer
details. Furthermore, this chapter will in turn present noteworthy insights into the
influence blockchain technology has on the processes of the supply chain operations
reference model (SCOR) in combination with the applications areas that have arisen in
the previous chapter. This approach is a framework that can assist in discovering those
supply chain processes listed in SCOR 12.0 where greater effectiveness can be obtained
by using the capabilities of blockchain technology. This framework ensures that
relevant areas are covered and structures the results of the study. Furthermore, it
provides a commonly used language for readers of the study and in doing so reduces
the risk of misunderstandings. The outline of this chapter is as illustrates in Figure 6.1.
6.1 Definition of SCOR Model
6.2 Processes of SCOR Model
Overview
6.3 Research Gap
6.4 Synthesis of the SCOR

Framework

(The author,2020)
6.1 Definition of the SCOR Model

In 1996, the Supply Chain Council, a nonprofit organization, developed the Supply
Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, which implemented widely both in
academic and business research. This model can be used to describe, measure and
evaluate a supply chain. It is a process-oriented supply chain model that integrates six
distinct business processes of an organization. Thus, every supply chain is a "chain" of
these six major processes- plan, source, make, deliver, return and enable (Huang,
Sheoran, & Wang, 2004). The use of these six building blocks it is easier to describe
supply chains that are more complex, presenting also standard metrics that can be
utilized for benchmarking, as well. Figure 6.2 illustrates the organization of the model.
The traditional supply chain can be modernized through technological innovation, in
particular blockchain technology, and according to (Huang, Sheoran, & Keskar, 2005)
the SCOR model could be a representative model that contributes to the next-generation
supply chain management.
106
Figure 6.2 SCOR model around 6 major process

(Minculete & Olar, 2018)
SCOR is designed to support the analysis of supply chain at multiple levels, describing
the business activities to satisfy customer demand and providing a basis for supply
chain improvement. According to (APICS, 2017), SCOR model includes:
• all the customer interactions, from the time that the order is entered to paid
invoice
• all the physical transactions, from supplier’s supplier to customer’s customer
• all the market interactions, from the understanding of the aggregate demand to
the accomplishment of the orders
Product development, research, marketing and sales are not covered by SCOR, but this
model enables companies with a set of pre-defined processes to examine the
configuration and hoe effectively execute their supply chains.
SCOR model is created to offer an analysis of the supply chain at multiple levels. Level
1, the major processes level, is about to set the major processes that the SCOR model
distinguishes, which are the Plan process, the Source process, the Make process, the
Deliver process, the Return process, and the Enable process. Level 2, the process
categories level, contains the major operations strategies with its individual
configuration as defined by SCOR, which are make-to-stock, make-to-order, engineer-
to-order, and retail. Level 3, the process elements level, is about the company's unique
configuration that each in one of the processes has.
107
6.2 Processes of the SCOR Model

“A process is a unique activity performed to meet pre-defined outcomes” (APICS,
2017). One representation exists for each one process. Throughout this chapter, we will
adhere to the definitions and descriptions of the SCOR model. For readers who are not
familiar with the model, we encourage them to download the latest version of the SCOR
model, at the time of writing version 12.0 is provided from the APICS website, to gain
a more detailed description of the six different processes as an extensive description is
beyond the scope of this research.
All the processes are unique in the supply chain and aim to support their primary
objective to meet customers' demand. SCOR identifies 6 major processes:
6.2.1 Plan Process

SCOR defines the Plan process as the processes that are related to the development of
plans and determination of requirements to operate the supply chain and achieve its
objectives (APICS, 2017). For this, demand and supply are aggregated for a specific
time horizon and the data should be accurate and in real-time. It is a process that
establishes plans for the other SCOR processes, except for the Enable execution
process, and it is vital for their successful execution. Plan process codification is
represented by “sP”.
Thus, on the first level, the Plan process is an overarching process of achieving a
balance between supply and demand to meet the requirements of sourcing,
manufacturing, delivery, and return. However, on the second level, five separate
planning processes are defined: the Plan supply chain, the Plan source, the Plan make,
the Plan deliver, and the Plan Return. For example, a Plan Deliver fulfills the forecast
of the estimated demand and considers the available transportation and storage
capacities. Moreover, each one of the processes consists of a set of sub-processes in
level three. For a full overview of these three processes, Appendix B provides more
detailed descriptions of them. In the following
Table 9, the summarized description of the Plan processes is provided.
108
sP-Plan Name Description
The process of the development and
aggregation of all source’s demand/supply
for the integrated supply chain of a product
or service that are required over an
sP1 Plan Supply Chain
appropriate time period, representing a
projected use of the supply chain resources
to meet supply chain requirements and
objectives
establishment of all sources/resources of
demand/supply of a product or services in
sP2 Plan Source
the supply chain that commits resources to
meet supply chain requirements or
establishes sourcing plan requirements
establishment of all sources of the demand
in the supply chain in the creation of a
sP3 Plan Make product/service over a specified period of
time that represents a projected use of
production resources to meet production
requirements
establishment of all sources of the demand
in the supply chain in the creation of a
sP4 Plan Deliver product/service over a specified period of
time that represents a projected use of
delivery resources to meet delivery
requirements
Table 9. Description of the Plan processes

(The author,2020)
109
6.2.2 Source Process
SCOR defines the Source process as the process that is responsible for the scheduling
and managing of the execution of ordering, receiving, and transferring raw materials,
sub-assemblies, products, and services based on planned or actual demand requirements
to maintain inventory ordered. In particular, these processes are related to the ordering
(purchasing), delivery (scheduling), taking receipt of goods and services, and
transferring of raw materials, sub-assemblies, goods, or services from suppliers
(receiving, validation and storage) (APICS, 2017). Source process codification is
represented by “sS”.
SCOR 12.0 model structures the Source process hierarchy around the concept of the
customer order decoupling point Figure 6.3 and defines three different types of Source
processes based on different product categories: the source Stocked product, the source
Make-to-order product, and the source Engineer-to-order product. Moreover, the sub-
processes for each type of product are similar and they include the supplier selection,
receiving and verifying the product, as well as transferring the product, scheduling the
product deliveries, authorizing supplier payment. For a full overview of these three
processes, Table 10 provides more detailed descriptions of them.
Figure 6.3 Customer Order Decoupling Point
(Vyas, Beije, & Krishnamachari, 2019)
110
sS-Source Name Description
The process of scheduling and
managing the execution of
ordering, receiving, and
transferring raw materials, sub-
assemblies, products, and services
sS1 Source Stocked Product based on aggregated demand
requirements to maintain a pre-
certain level of inventory. No
customer references or customer
order details. Example:
replenishment inventory
The process of scheduling and
managing the execution of ordering
and receiving raw materials, sub-
assemblies, and products
(conformance to requirements and
Source Make-to-Order criteria) based on required specific
sS2
Product customer order details to maintain
inventory ordered. The confirmed
customer order triggers the flow of
materials in the supply chain.
Examples: purchase-to-order,
special ordering (retail industry)
The process of identifying,
negotiating and selecting sources of
supply, potential suppliers,
Source Engineer-to-Order scheduling and managing the
sS3 execution of ordering and receiving
Product
products (parts, assemblies,
specialized products/services) that
meet the requirements and criteria
of a specific customer order
Table 10. Description of the Source processes

(The author,2020)
6.2.3 Make Process

SCOR defines the Make process as the processes that are related to the value-added to
a deliverable through the conversion of materials or creation of a product
111
(manufacturing) or creation of the content for services (APICS, 2017) in order to meet
the demand. The Make process can represent various forms of conversion, such as
blending, repair, assembly. Make process codification is represented by “sM”.
SCOR 12.0 defines three different types of Make processes based on different product
categories: the Make-to-stock product, the Make-to-order product, and the Engineer-
to-order product. These different kinds of products based on the categorization in the
sourcing process and centered around the already mentioned customer order decoupling
point. More specifically, some of the sub-processes of each type of product are the
schedule production and logistics activities, product design, testing, packaging, and
waste disposal, also. For a full overview of these three processes, Table 11 provides
more detailed descriptions of them.
sM-Make Name Description

The process of value-add
to a deliverable either as
manufacturing or creation
of a product/ deliverable/
service. These products
sM1 Make-to-Stock can be completed prior to
the receipt of a customer
order and there are not
products from a customer
order detail but from a
planned schedule based on
the sales forecast
to a deliverable through
sM2 Make-to-Order manufacturing or creation
of a product/ deliverable/
service in response to a
specific customer order
to a deliverable through
manufacturing or creation
sM3 Engineer-to-Order of a product/ deliverable/
service in case of the
delivery object is not
clearly marked at the start
112
of the process and requires
a considerable amount of
design, engineering
analysis and testing time
based on the requirements
of a specific customer
Table 11. Description of the Make processes

(The author,2020)
6.2.4 Deliver Process
SCOR defines the Deliver process as the processes that are related to the customer-
facing order management and order fulfillment activities (creation, maintenance,
validation, and fulfillment of the customer orders, scheduling order delivery, shipment)
(APICS, 2017). Deliver process codification is represented by “sD”.
In SCOR 12.0, the Deliver process hierarchy includes not only the Make-to stock,
Make-to-order, Engineer-to-order but also the sub-activity Retail. The prior three
processes are relatively similar in that they have sub-processes, in the third level, related
to receiving customer orders, picking, packing, shipping, and, invoicing. On the other
hand, Deliver Retail's sub-processes can be explained like those on a typical retail store,
such as a stocking schedule, receiving of the product, pick the product, stocking to the
shelf, filling shopping cart, checkout and deliver or install. For a full overview of these
four processes,
Table 12 provides more detailed descriptions of them.
sD-Deliver Name Description

The process of delivering a product that is
sourced or made based on aggregated
sD1 Deliver Stocked Product demand requirements, projected demand,
and inventory replenishment. The target
of this process is to provide immediate
availability of the product without delays
The process of delivering a product or
Deliver Make-to-Order service, that is sourced and customized
sD2
Product from raw materials, sub-assemblies, and
products based on customers' specific
113
order. This means the assignation of a
serial/lot/batch number to a customer
order received from either Make or
Source, processes that generate a bill-of-
materials for the associated Make
process, and the 'special order' process in
the retail industry. Examples: sorting /
combining the products, packing / kitting
the products
The process of selecting, approving and
allocating the planned resources for
specific customer order unique
Deliver Engineer-to- requirements and delivering a
sD3 product/service that is partially or fully
Order Product
designed, redesigned, manufactured,
and/or assembled in a customized was.
All the processes start if only the firm
customer order is validated
The processes used to obtain,
merchandise and sell finished products in
sD4 Deliver Retail Product a retail store (direct sale to a customer. It
is a simplified view of Source and Deliver
processes which is run in a Make-to-
Stock retail operation
Table 12. Description of the Deliver processes

(The author,2020)
6.2.5 Return Process

SCOR defines the Return process as the processes that are related to the reverse flow
of goods (return products from a customer to the supply chain network) (APICS, 2017).
These processes associated with the identification and the scheduling of return need,
the shipment of the returned products to address defective products. Return process
codification is represented by “sR”. In this study, the Return process will not be defined
further.
6.2.6 Enable Process

SCOR defines the Enable process as the processes that are related to the management
and operation of the supply chain, activities that embody establishing and monitoring
114
of business rules, performance management, risk management, data, and information
management (APICS, 2017). In general, these processes are responsible for the
management of the overall performance of the supply chain and act as a supporting
process for the other five processes at the first level. Enable process codification is
represented by “sE”.
In the following Table 13, a summarized description of the Enable processes is

provided. There are more sub-processes in the Enable process, but this study will
examine 8 of them because according to the author the other lacks the necessary level
of detail for the application in the blockchain. Each one of these processes has sub-
processes at level three that are particular according to their field and aim.
sE-Enable Name Description

The process of establishing, documenting,
communicating and publishing supply
Manage Supply Chain chain business rules influencing the
sE1 outcomes of operating the supply chain and
Business Rules
having an application to people, processes,
corporate behavior and computing systems
in an organization
The process of compiling, maintaining and
Manage Supply Chain publishing data and information in order to
sE3
Data and Information plan, operate, assess and manage the supply
chain
The process of scheduling, sustaining, and
Manage Supply Chain final settlement of supply chain assets
sE5
Assets developed for supply chain execution, such
as repair, installation, alteration
The process of the management and
communication of contractual or non-
Manage Supply Chain contractual agreements in support of supply
sE6 chain goals and objectives and agreements
Contracts/Agreements
related to supply chain operations, such as
planning and decision making, logistics and
delivery
115
The process of defining and managing the

Manage Supply Chain geographic and activity footprint of the
sE7
Network supply chain, such as facilities' location,
assignment of resources, materials
The process of identifying, collecting,
assessing and integrating regulatory
Manage Regulatory compliance requirements, in standard
sE8 and Voluntary supply chain processes, such as policies and
processes that ensure that they comply with
Compliance laws, rules, and regulations by governments
as well as voluntary compliance standards,
such as ISO standards
The process of determining and assessing

the potential risks in the supply chain and
sE9 Manage Supply Chain
developing a plan to lessen or avoiding
Risks
these disruptions to operating the supply
chain
The process of defining key steps when

procuring goods or services, such as
Procurement
supplier selection
Table 13. Description of the Enable processes
(The author,2020)
6.3 Determination of the Research Gap

Despite the number of papers concerning the application of blockchain technology in
supply chain management, there is no integral framework that synthesizes the influence
of all supply chain processes after blockchain technology adaptation in one single
inclusive analysis. In the detailed systematic literature review of this study, there is a
clear lack of an accurate and transparent reference to the applications of blockchain
technology in supply chain management and its processes based on the Supply Chain
Reference Model. Through the examination and assessment of the final articles
extracted from the literature review, it has obtained that the articles referred to specific
116
issues in supply chain management or focused on technological questions of design and
features.
To bridge that gap, this study has developed a framework based on the Supply Chain
Operations Reference model (SCOR), having as the main contribution to propose the
linkage of the blockchain role to supply chain management objectives. It is focused on
five of the six primary integrated management processes of Plan, Source, Make,
Deliver, and Enable to successfully describe and provide a basis for the digitalization
and improvement of the supply chain through blockchain technology. A future
extension could define the influence of blockchain technology in Return processes, but
in this research, it is omitted because there is a limited detailed account. Also, it should
be determined that this analysis has focused on the major processes level (level 1 on the
SCOR model) and not in the potential role of blockchain technology in terms of
operations strategy.
6.4 Synthesis of the SCOR Framework

Having introduced the SCOR model at a conceptual level in the previous paragraphs,
this section illustrates the taxonomy of blockchain application areas within these
processes. In addition, we will discuss the application areas that defined based on the
literature of this study and develop a SCOR framework based on the outcomes from the
application areas that links blockchain roles to the supply chain management objectives.
6.4.1 Connection between Application Areas and SCOR Processes

Applications are easier to connect directly to processes of the SCOR model, in terms of
which process they affect. In the first step, we tried to depict and categorize the
applications of blockchain in the supply chain area that they affect, in chapter 5.2. In
addition to this, we make an attempt to connect directly these areas to the SCOR model,
where the relevant applications affect the supply chain processes. This linkage can be
seen in Table 14, where each application is displayed above each first level process,
except the Enable process where the applications are classified also all the way down
to the second level, Table 15. It was not possible to distinguish a relevant second-level
process for the other processes because some of the articles were not specified the
category of the products or the major operation strategies as defined by SCOR. To avoid
mistakes in the taxonomy of the articles, a rigorous analysis of each paper was
performed. Moreover, we have to mention that no one of the application areas is defined
117
to be linked directly to the Return process. Also, we will not further describe and discuss
extensively this taxonomy because we will present it in a more detailed way in the next
section.
APPLICATION
PLAN SOURCE MAKE DELIVER ENABLE
AREAS
Automated
Execution and
Simplification of the ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Payments and
Processes
Manage Regulatory ✓
Improve Product
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Traceability
Prove Provenance ✓
Anti-Counterfeiting ✓ ✓ ✓
Provide Secure
✓
Business Rules
Decrease of the
✓
Supply Chain Risks
Improve Information
✓
Sharing
Manage Supply and
✓
Demand Issues
Manage Supply
✓
Chain Assets
Monitor Transport
✓ ✓ ✓
Conditions
Supply Chain
Partnership Growth ✓
and Efficiency
Manage Logistics
✓
Resources
Reduce Paperwork ✓ ✓
118
Reputation of the
✓
Sellers
Carbon Footprint
✓
Documentation
Table 14. Connection between Application Areas and SCOR processes, in a first-level
processes
(The author,2020)
APPLICATION AREAS ENABLE SUB-PROCESSES

Automated Execution and
Simplification of the Payments and
Contracts/Agreements
Processes
sE8 Manage Regulatory and Voluntary
Manage Regulatory
Compliance
sE3 Manage Data and Information
Improve Product Traceability sE9 Manage Supply Chain Risks
sE10 Manage Supply Chain Procurement
Prove Provenance sE9 Manage Supply Chain Risks
Anti-Counterfeiting sE9 Manage Supply Chain Risks
Provide Secure Business Rules sE1 Manage Supply Chain Business Rules
Decrease of the Supply Chain Risks sE9 Manage Supply Chain Risks
Improve Information Sharing sE3 Manage Data and Information
Manage Supply Chain Assets sE5 Manage Supply Chain Assets
sE8 Manage Regulatory and Voluntary
Monitor Transport Conditions
Compliance
Carbon Footprint Documentation sE7 Manage Supply Chain Network
Table 15. Classification of Application Areas, relevant to the Enable Process, in a

second-level processes
(The author,2020)
119
6.4.2 SCOR Processes affected by Blockchain Technology
This section illustrates an extensive presentation of blockchain application areas within
these processes and their effects on them, providing a detailed description of their
outcomes. We will develop a framework based on the Supply Chain Operational
Reference model of version 12.0, that links blockchain roles to the supply chain
processes and where greater efficiency and effectiveness can be realized to those
processes with the use of blockchain technology. This framework tries to evidence that
this technology is a way to digitally transform the traditional processes and transactions
in the supply chain. Our framework for analysis has focused on the major processes
level (level 1) as the unit analysis for as far as the Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and
Enable processes are concerned. As already mentioned, it was not possible to
distinguish a relevant second-level process for the processes-Plan, Source, Make,
Deliver-because some of the articles were not specified the major operations strategies
as defined by SCOR- the process categories level (level 2). For the Enable process, the
unit of analysis was the process categories level because it is about all these processes
that operate the supply chain and its overall performance. As a result, the framework
for analysis is less precise. A future extension of the model could be to define the
process categories of the major processes (level 2)-Plan, Source, Make, Deliver- as well
as the metrics of all the processes at the process elements level (level 3).
6.4.2.1 Plan Processes

SCOR defines the Plan process as the processes associated with operating a supply
chain, determining requirements, and corrective actions to accomplish supply chain
objectives (APICS). Real-time and end-to-end visibility through the supply chain
processes and assets can strengthen this process. Blockchain can stand out as a way to
improve the information sharing about warehousing, delivery, and procurement of the
products in suppliers and companies, delivering greater value to their customers. For
example, during the physical distribution phase, a blockchain-based supply chain
application can support supply chain visibility from the suppliers to the customers,
providing real-time validation (Wu, et al., 2017). The outcomes of the analysis have
summarized in Table 16.
The "bullwhip effect" is a common problem in the supply chain. In many instances, the
downstream enterprise cannot transmit in real-time the demands in the upstream
enterprise. The improvement of supply chain performance measures, such as revenues,
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fill rates, and inventory levels can solve this problem. In the blockchain network, the
necessary information about demand and supply is broadcast through the entire supply
chain network, providing more objectivity and reliability while reducing inventory
costs and decreasing inventory levels. This technology can offer a matching mechanism
for supply and demand and plays a key role in making on-demand scheduling without
causing the need for companies to increase their inventory levels for meeting new
demand. Enabling blockchain technology only the accepted stakeholders in the network
can be involved in the transactions through the validation of their identities, providing
the necessary sources of aggregate demand and supply requirements for a product or
service in the supply chain. Furthermore, visibility, security, and transparency offered
in a blockchain-based supply chain network yield to forecast accuracy and update
demand forecasting to meet supply chain needs without involving centralized
authorities and intermediaries.
Blockchain features have a positive influence on supply chain partnership growth and
efficiency among the stakeholders in the supply chain. The distributed nature of
blockchain and information transparency that this technology provides can show the
speed and reliability of the information delivery to all the stakeholders through the
blockchain network. The internal efficiency and the partnership collaboration will be
increased through complete and real-time visibility of the supply chain in the Plan
process. That is why, blockchain can help companies to share information about
warehousing and delivery of products with suppliers and vendors. Furthermore,
blockchain can provide a secure platform with accurate and reliable front-line resource
execution data, such as in warehousing for different customers to balance logistics
resources with logistics requirements. For example, it can consolidate existing and
potential logistics resources to meet the specific requirements of different customers.
BLOCKCHAIN’S INFLUENCE IN THE PLAN PROCESS

Only the accepted stakeholders in the network can be involved in the
transactions with the validation of their identities, providing the
1.
necessary sources of aggregate demand and supply requirements for a
product or service in supply chain
121
Data sharing is providing in a secure, immutable way and
cryptographically sealed, enabling a distributed, peer-to-peer demand
2.
planning and forecasting platform without involving centralized
authorities and intermediaries
Visibility, transparency and security of the entire supply chain provide

3.
forecast accuracy to meet supply chain requirements and objectives
Possibility of the assessment, measurement, and tracking of the

4. inventory levels to eliminate the imbalances between demand and
supply
The accepted supply chain partners have access to the single version
of the truth to establish the supply chain plan to meet supply chain
5.
requirements because of the immutable record of the transactions in
the ledger
The distributed nature of blockchain and information transparency that

6. provides can improve the supply chain partnership growth and
efficiency
Blockchain can provide a secure platform with accurate and reliable

7. front-line resource execution data to balance logistics resources with
logistics requirements
Table 16. Blockchain’s role in Plan process

(The author,2020)
6.4.2.2 Source Processes

Blockchain can transform procurement and supplier management by improving the
traceability and security of products in the supply chain, particularly where layers of
suppliers are multiple. The use of blockchain can ensure the authenticity of products by
the monitor and verification of the origin, the trace of travel, and its bill of materials
through a single product-specific tracking key and validation of the integrity of
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transactions by trusted suppliers. As all stakeholders are registered to the distributed
ledger of blockchain, transactions are stored and a tamper‑proof audit trail is
maintained. Furthermore, the saved documentation of the history of transactions would
also help build trust and transparency among stakeholders. This type of end-to-end
visibility into procurement is a well-established practice in the tracking of physical
goods.
Smart contracts can provide real-time payment settlements and enhanced purchase
order management. Also, blockchain could assist in the identification of the nearest and
most "value for money" vendor in the network. this would help in the reduction of lead
time and workload related to vendor searches and the management of purchase orders.
Real-time payment settlements would be accelerated because of transparency and real-
time access to the open shared blockchain database.
As well, blockchain can provide a fully automated processing to the ownership transfer
and payments in the Source processes. A smart contract can assist in the automated
execution of the payment of a delivered product to a supplier. If the product conforms
to requirements and criteria, a signal can be sent that has been shipped and is confirmed
and the billing process will begin automatically. Also, suppliers are able to make direct
payments through mobile to the buyers, eliminating intermediaries and brokers. An
automatic settlement of financial flows between two or more parties is achieved.
Moreover, this technology can optimize the transfer of ownership through a smart
contract because every information should have an owner. Therefore, it can enable fully
automated processing of transfer of ownership. For example, the sender sends a
product, the receiver should verify the product if it conforms to the requirements and
criteria. When the verification of the product is applied, the transfer of ownership will
become automatically in the new owner of the product. This procedure will
automatically update the network, providing human errors and delivery failures.
Blockchain can provide a tamper-proof transaction ledger that can facilitate the
prevention of counterfeiting products. A blockchain can track and trace the provenance
and the journey of a product on the network providing the ability of data verification
among stakeholders. If the products do not conform to the requirements and criteria,
they are not accepted by the receiving stakeholder. The fast distribution of
authentication rights along a blockchain-based chain, thereby preventing fraud and
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improve security. A provenance-tracking blockchain application can provide
knowledge to the suppliers about the provenance of raw materials without exposing the
business-sensitive information of a company. Therefore, it can provide incontestable
proof of the origins of a product or subassembly.
Also, the supplier delivery performance analysis is provided through the blockchain's
traceability ability that can allow the stakeholders of the chain to gauge the reputation
of vendors within the network. For example, whenever a party purchases a product from
the owner can provide a trust value with the form of rating as well as review for the
seller, stored in the blockchain-based supply chain system. The higher the ratings for
an entity, the highest trustworthiness. The buyer has a knowledge for the reputation of
the seller within the network before buying a product with the "trigger" of a smart
contract reputation. This can be useful for the selection of the final supplier.
The impact of better data quality on supply chain transactions should not be
underestimated. Product quality is one of those components that can be much affected
during transportation. Blockchain can monitor the transport conditions of products. It
has the ability to provide real-time and regular data for the track of transport conditions,
related to temperature, humidity, light condition, chemical composition. These data can
be verified on the blockchain to prove that they comply with the regulations. When
verifying a product, all the necessary data can be documented and stored digitally by
secure and verified digital identities, replacing and eliminating paper records and
human interactions as well as allowing actors to digitally sign them. The outcomes of
the analysis have summarized in Table 17.
BLOCKCHAIN’S INFLUENCE IN THE SOURCE PROCESS

Provide traceability, security, end-to-end visibility and, authenticity of
1. the products with registered identities and tamper-proof audit trail of the
stored transactions
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Real-time payment settlements and enhancement of purchase order
2.
management
3. Automation in the processing of ownership transfer and the payments
Monitoring of the transactions and elimination of paper history records

4.
reducing human errors and interaction
Provide real time, immutable and quality transport conditions data, such
5.
as temperature, location, humidity, light conditions
6. An incontestable proof of origins of a product/subassembly/raw material
7. Prevention of counterfeiting products
Provide suppliers' delivery performance analysis based on the stored

8.
transaction data and gauge of the vendors’ reputation
9. Elimination of the paper records and human interactions
Table 17. Blockchain’s role in Source process

(The author,2020)
6.4.2.3 Make Processes

Blockchain's actual applications in the Make process are very limited. In the Make
process, there is no need for trusted third parties because the processes (manufacturing,
production) occur inside the "four walls" of the company. The implementation of
blockchain can lead to monitoring the entire history of the product production procedure
with the original manufacturing date and location, providing thus useful traceability
applications of every transaction. As well, it can provide automation and
decentralization for waste/surplus management for collecting and managing those
materials (unused resources, scrap materials) without human communication or
interaction The outcomes of the analysis have summarized in Table 18.
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BLOCKCHAIN’S INFLUENCE IN THE MAKE PROCESS
Monitor the entire history of the product production procedure with the
1.
original manufacturing date and location
2. Automation and decentralization for waste/surplus management
Table 18. Blockchain’s role in Make process

(The author,2020)
6.4.2.4 Deliver Processes

Blockchain technology can provide a network that is end-to-end visible in freight
transportation of all documents and transactions. During the distribution phase, it can
support the visibility from the suppliers to the customers, providing affirmation and
real-time validation of the data - bills of lading, invoices, proof of delivery. The ability
of this technology is pretty effective in the management of all the logistics resources.
The outcomes of the analysis have summarized in
Table 19.
In the Deliver process, technology can lead to the automated processing of the billing
process, including authorization of payments. A signal is sent to the financial
organization that the shipment is received by the customer, the customer is verified that
the order was shipped and there was no damage or other problems and that the product
meets delivery requirements. After this signal of the complete shipment, the billing
process can start, and payment is received. Also, it can provide automation and
simplification to a company’s order processing system with validated identities of
entities and objects without human interaction. For example, the orders received from
the customer have entered into the processing system automatically. As well, processes,
such as the receiving of a shipment by the customer and the verifying that the order was
shipped complete and that the product meets delivery terms, can be documented and
stored digitally while the transfer of the ownership can be automatically through the
blockchain network.
Blockchain can improve traceability with real-time validated data, enabling visibility
and giving the opportunity to customers to monitor the state of the products that should
be delivered in real-time. Activities, like receiving and verifying a product's
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authenticity, when receiving a product form the Source or Make processes can identify
and record all the necessary data, such as the recording of the put-away location that a
company performs at its own warehouses. Moreover, this technology can improve the
traceability of the order management process, such as optimization in the processing
time, traceability of orders placed/amended, open and detailed traceability available for
all its transactions in the past, the real-time detection, measurement, and tracking of the
inventories. This is due to the secure and decentralized database that keep an auditable
and immutable record of all the transactions and processes.
during transportation. Blockchain can monitor the transport conditions of products. It
has the ability to provide real-time and regular data for the track of transport conditions,
related to temperature, humidity, light condition, chemical composition. These data can
be verified on the blockchain to prove that they comply with the regulations.
Furthermore, a blockchain-enabled supply chain system is responsible for the real-time,
immutable, and confirmed data without the presence of a central authority. These data
cannot tamper and provide anti-counterfeiting operations because of the immutable and
encrypted transaction ledger of the blockchain. A product can be received and verified
by a customer only if the authenticity of the data is confirmed. Once a block has been
created and the input data has been verified and inserted on the blockchain ledger, it is
impossible to be altered or be deleted. This is a way to prevent data tampering and fraud
in the Deliver process.
When receiving and verifying a product, all the necessary data can be documented and
stored digitally by secure and verified digital identities, replacing and eliminating paper
records and human interactions as well as allowing actors to digitally sign them. For
example, the journey of a container needs many paperwork approvals in a traditional
supply chain, however, with blockchain technology the papers replaced by digital
documents empowering faster processing.
BLOCKCHAIN’S INFLUENCE IN THE DELIVER PROCESS

Provide real-time, immutable, and confirmed data that can be used to
1.
monitor transport conditions of a product, such as temperature, humidity.
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Automation and simplification to a company's order processing system

2. (orders received from the customer and entered into the order processing
system)
3. Improvement of the traceability in order management process
4. Automation and simplification of payments and the transfer of ownership
5. Replacing and eliminating paper records and human interactions
Recording immutable and verified transaction data, preventing fraud and

6.
counterfeiting
Improve traceability with real-time, validated data and monitoring of

7.
products’ state
Table 19. Blockchain’s role in Deliver process
The author,2020)
6.4.2.5 Enable Processes

The use of blockchain technology also affects the Enable process. By incorporating
blockchain into supply chain processes and implementing it in the Plan, Source, and
Deliver processes also, some of the sub-processes of Enable are influenced. In this
research, it is observed that blockchain expected to impact business rules, providing
visibility and automation as well as the management of the supply chain performance.
Also, blockchain can have a transformation role in the management of the supply chain
data and information, enabling a trustworthy and tamper-proof audit trail of them. One
more sub-process that can be affected is the management of supply chain risk through
a reduction in the overall supply chain risk, establishing information security an
authenticity information sharing, and verified involved identities. The outcomes of the
analysis have summarized in Table 20.
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6.4.2.5.1 Manage Supply Chain Business Rules (sE1)
Another application of blockchain technology is the management of supply chain
business rules. Blockchain is employed to provide a digital shared ledger of events and
sharing reliable information with the involved stakeholders that are accessible. An
organization through blockchain can provide and specify the business rules
automatically. A business rule can be for example about the accessibility of the data. If
a good that shipped is a high value and the freight forwarder should keep its description
secret from other involved stakeholders other, the company can encrypt it before adding
it to the network and define a business role to control the access of the information.
Furthermore, a company's business rule can determine the definition of defective and
counterfeit products. This specific rule can be stored in the blockchain and this kind of
products will not be accepted automatically if there is no proof of authenticity.
6.4.2.5.2 Manage Data and Information (sE3)

The blockchain serves as a single consensus-based source of truth because all the data
before being permanent and added to the blockchain network should be validated. This
guarantees the authenticity of the information. Therefore, the traceability system in the
supply chain can be improved through this blockchain ability. Also, this innovative
technology can combine data about transactions from a secure and peer to peer
collaborative platform with a decentralized database. Thus, it can improve the
traceability of the items within seconds rather than weeks, generating secure digital
records. Enabling a Traceability scheme can provide the monitoring and store of the
transactions that can reduce human errors and interaction as well as unwanted
behaviors, such as delays or inaccurate data to be identified in the supply chain.
Traceability in the data and information can provide transparency for supply chain
partners, regulators, and customers.
Information and data sharing are an essential part of supply chains. Blockchain is an
open, shared standard technology that can provide data across multiple supply chain
actors and unrelated databases in a transparent way. The data in a blockchain network
are updated for every stakeholder participating in it. The information-sharing
supervision could be enhanced in the whole supply chain with secure reliable storage
and transmission of the data with access rights to protect sensitive data that cannot be
disclosed. Since effectively blockchain can integrate resources and endorse the
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collaboration and verification among stakeholders, it is a technology that maximizes
information and data sharing management.
6.4.2.5.3 Manage Supply Chain Assets (sE5)

The integration of blockchain in the supply chain can help to the management of the
assets developed for supply chain execution, such as the track of the assets' state in real-
time like vessel parts that require changing or maintenance. Furthermore, only the assets
that accepted in the network can engage in transactions, facilitating the identification of
all assets in need of maintenance. Also, blockchain can eliminate the time needed for
the administrative processes related to the management of supply chain assets. For
example, the journey of a container needs many paperwork approvals in a traditional
supply chain, however, with blockchain technology the papers replaced by digital
documents empowering faster processing.
6.4.2.5.4 Manage Supply Chain Contracts/Agreements (sE6)

A blockchain-enabled supply chain can provide transparency to the chain, enabling
faster processing of documents. In the ecosystem of the port logistics, this technology
could create and distribute various smart contracts that consist of important documents,
such as the bill of lading or charter-party contracts automatically. Therefore, this
technology can assist in the management and communication of contractual and non-
contractual agreements, enabling fully automated processing of them. The entire cargo
flow in the port area can become trackable and the audit and the confirmation of
documents can be automatically with a direct access to the data. Also, IoT technology
combined with blockchain industrial automation could provide a simplification in a
virtual ecosystem and reducing the time for authorization with the elimination of the
paper records while preparing the scheduling documentation and automation of the
papers.
6.4.2.5.5 Manage Supply Chain Network (sE7)

Blockchain can leverage the ability to document the carbon footprint of a given
organization during the physical distribution phase in the supply chain. This a way to
manage better the supply chain network with a reduction in the carbon footprint. You
can check the carbon footprint of the ingredients of a product at every node. For
example, in the food industry, someone could be checked the carbon footprint of all the
ingredients that contribute to the final consumed food product. Furthermore, the
130
geographical location of a shipment using the blockchain technology can be monitored
and traced. The levels of credibility, trust, and authenticity that blockchain builds can
make an organization to be a part of a supply chain network, defining and managing
the activity and geographical footprint of the supply chain.
6.4.2.5.6 Manage Regulatory and Voluntary Compliance (sE8)

The blockchain should comply and integrate the requirements of standard supply chain
processes and be adaptable to deal with various types of regulations. Blockchain can
facilitate the regulatory requirements of the policy instruments through the supply
chain. It could enable a solution for the integrity of all traceable data on the network
where all the stakeholders can verify the authenticity of them considering that all the
transactions can only be executed if all conditions are met. Therefore, the ability to
manage better the regulatory control and integrate regulatory compliance requirements
easier is provided, since every movement of a product in the supply chain can be traced
in real-time and is transparent with the use of blockchain.
during transportation. With the use of blockchain, companies can monitor transport
conditions, such as humidity, temperature, or light conditions, and integrate the data on
a blockchain network. The smart contracts can automatically enforce rules to grade
products according to their quality assurance in a way that only those that meet the
highest levels could enter the market for consumption.
6.4.2.5.7 Manage Supply Chain Risks (sE9)

Authorities, such as customs, can identify and assess potential risks in the supply chain,
developing a plan to mitigate the threats to operating the supply chain. With blockchain
technology, they can have the ability to lessen safety and security risks while allowing
traceability through tracking and validation of the authenticity of transactions. Supply
chains suffer from the "asymmetric information problem" across multiple stakeholders.
Blockchain can avoid this risk because of the cryptography security of this technology,
the unmodified information when they are stored in the network, and the validation of
the identities, providing accurate and credible information.
Moreover, blockchain can provide the realization of a traceability data scheme.

Consumers can have direct access to a product's traceability information while keeping
131
them secure. The identification, collection, and the ability to store only the validate,
authentic data from the source to the end consumers is a way to identify and assess
potential disruptions in the supply chain to mitigate these risks along the supply chain.
As well, quality assurance information can be stored in the network and presented to
the customers. Blockchain can provide an immutable record of them to predict product
quality risks associated with the transport.
Furthermore, the ability of blockchain to validate identities and data can be used to
verify the provenance of the products. Data provenance is crucial for data accountability
and privacy. In the blockchain, all provenance data, as a part of the transactional data,
is collected, validated, and stored in a single immutable ledger on the network in a
consensus version of the truth. Blockchain's ability to validate identities can be used to
confirm the provenance of products leading to the prevention and assessment of
potential risks in the supply chain, such as counterfeiting, and duplication of the
products.
6.4.2.5.8 Manage Supply Chain Procurement (sE10)

Blockchain-based records don't need to be entered manually more than once, and they
are tamper-proof. In simple terms, when a company puts a record on the ledger, the
blockchain software replicates the record across the dashboards of all the peers in the
network. For example, one of blockchain's use cases in the supply chain is that the
procurement information like purchase orders and purchase agreements can be
converted to blockchain-powered digital formats. The integrity of the data throughout
the supply chain thus ensured reduces erroneous orders, improves just-in-time logistics,
and raises inventory turns. Therefore, blockchain-based innovations can transform
procurement and supplier management by improving the traceability of products.
THE ENABLE PROCESS

Processes Blockchain’s influence
Documents about business rules can be
transferred through the supply chain
sE1 Manage Supply Chain ecosystem directly from machine-to-machine
Business Rules interactions
Store business rules for information sharing in
the supply chain network, that are visible and
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immediately available to the validated
involved stakeholders, such as the
determination of defective products
Open-shared standard technology able to
provide data across multiple stakeholders
Direct access to real-time data and
information, ability to verify automatically
whether the actual transaction happened,
sE3 Manage Data and Information
distributed ledger for an end-to-end view of
the supply chain processes to all the
participants, providing a trustworthy and
tamperproof audit trail of all the supply chain
data and information
Accepted assets in the network can eliminate
sE5 Manage Supply Chain Assets the time needed for administrative processes
in the management of supply chain assets
sE6 Manage Supply Chain Fully automated processing of contractual
Contracts/Agreements and non-contractual agreements
High levels of credibility, trust and
authenticity can make an organization to be a
sE7 Manage Supply Chain Network part of a supply chain network
Defining and managing the activity and
geographical footprint of the supply chain
Facilitate the regulatory requirements of the
policy instruments through the supply chain
sE8 Manage Regulatory and
Easier and better management of the
Voluntary Compliance
regulatory compliance requirements and
regulatory control
Establish information security and
authenticity in the procedure of real-time
sE9 Manage Supply Chain Risks sharing and exchanging of data, preventing
data tampering, counterfeiting, manipulation
and fraud
133
Safety of the business-sensitive information
without allowing their leak
Solve of the “asymmetric information
problem”
Predict product quality risks with the
realization of a traceability data scheme
Transformation of the procurement and
supplier management by improving products’
Procurement
traceability
Table 20. Blockchain’s role in Enable process

(The author,2020)
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7. Implementation of a Blockchain Concept Using

Smart Contracts to Prove its Role in Supply Chain
In this chapter, the author proposes a blockchain concept in the Ethereum development
platform complemented with a smart contract to take a closer look at a more empirical
way at how the blockchain role in the SCOR model that identified in Chapter 6 covered
by the Source pilot. The outline of this chapter is as illustrates in Figure 7.1.
7.1 The Idea Behind the

Concept
7.2 Overview of the Concept
Overview
7.3 Development of the Smart
Contract
7.4 Validation of the Smart

Contract on the Ethereum
Blockchain Platform

(The author,2020)
7.1 The Idea Behind the Concept

The involvement and the presence of multiple entities in the supply chain necessitate
the improvement of information sharing and traceability of the transactions.
Blockchain, as it has already proved in the previous chapters, can underpin the risks of
supply chain creating a decentralized, trusted, and transparent marketplace and
providing flexibility and simplification in the processes of the supply chain. In this
135
thesis, what was observed is that most of the final articles of the systematic literature
review use blockchain technology complemented with smart contracts to improve
different application areas. This chapter explores how blockchain in combination with
smart contracts can be used to prove and validate some of the upsides that define in the
previous chapters after the implementation of this technology. All the information used
to execute supply chain logic on a blockchain, based on predefined conditions,
programmed in the smart contract. It has to be specified that the aim is not a
comprehensive overview of smart contracts but the built of a blockchain concept using
smart contracts as a computer protocol that digitally verifies, and enforces the contracts
among two or more parties on the Ethereum platform, a blockchain platform for
decentralized application development.
7.2 Overview of the Concept

As it was presented in the previous chapters, smart contracts play a critical role in many
of the blockchain-based supply chain application areas. Blockchain technology uses
smart contracts which capable to automate the execution and verification of the
processes when predetermined conditions are met. A concept was ushered with the use
and combination of blockchain and smart contracts to handle multiple executions of
transactions between stakeholders in the supply chain providing traceability,
transparency, and trustworthy verification through the chain with a stronger and
efficient partnership. The concept is proposed to show the tracking of products in a
simplified and generic supply chain for a basic consumer product. In this concept, there
is not such a thing as the whole process that take part in a supply chain but only an
instance at a given point in time. The description of the processes in the supply chain
flow and the role of multiple parties are identified and presented, as can be seen, also,
from the following Figure 7.2.
On the supply side, there is a supplier A and a supplier B. Supplier A is responsible for
the sourcing and the shipment of the raw material to supplier B. In turn, supplier B is
the manufacturer of the individual components, which are shipped to a focal company.
As it can be observed in Figure 7.2, the left part from the focal organization shows a
network with two tiers of suppliers. This part can provide valuable information
regarding how raw materials and components provided by suppliers reach the focal
organization and up to the buyer in general. The focal organization, in this case, is
responsible for the assembly of the individual components and the manufacture of the
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final product. After the assembly and manufacturing, the final product is delivered to
the distributor, who distributes it to the retailer. The retailer is in charge of selling it to
the final consumer. The right part in figure is responsible to provide knowledge to the
suppliers according to how their products, raw materials, and components reach
customers through the distribution channel and how they are used. Such a concept
provides a fully featured picture of how a focal organization purchases materials and
components from the suppliers, then manufactures the final product and distributes it.
The proposed concept will run on a blockchain where all the involved stakeholders in
the supply chain can have access to the tracking of the product.
Figure 7.2 The tracking of products flow in a supply chain for the proposed concept
(The author,2020)
In this concept, it is presented the Source process, the tracking of the goods from a
supplier A to supplier B and the automated payments from focal organization to
supplier A. The focal organization predetermines the exact location and the accurate,
acceptable lead time for every part of the shipment. It also holds all the cryptotokens.
Whether a stakeholder sends a shipment either receives a shipment all the details are
recorded and stored to the blockchain platform as a requirement. The details of the raw
material are kept tracked and stored on the blockchain when supplier A sends them to
supplier B. In turn, supplier B is responsible to store the details of the received
137
shipment. The smart contract is the one that confirms if everything is in order. If the
predetermined criteria are met as well as the delivered product reaches on time and the
location is accurate, then an automated payment is executed with cryptotokens directly
from the focal organization to supplier A. If the conditions are not met and the smart
contract finds a wrong in the details, an alert is set, and the shipment will be deleted as
well as the details from the database.
7.3 Development of the Smart Contract

A smart contract as a proof of concept has been designed to run on Ethereum. Ethereum
is an open-source, blockchain-based, decentralized software platform that can enable
smart contracts. The proof of concept that has been developed in this thesis is about the
traceability that blockchain technology in combination with smart contracts can
improve. The smart contract has written in Solidity, a contract-object-oriented
programming language designed by the core contributors of the Ethereum Blockchain
Platform. This programming language has widely used for the creation of smart
contracts and is designed to target the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). "Virtual
machines are essentially creating a level of abstraction between the executing code and
the executing machine” (www.https://solidity.readthedocs.io). Ethereum with the use
of Solidity and Ethereum Virtual Machine targets to develop a decentralized ecosystem
through smart contracts. For readers who are not familiar with the use of smart
contracts and Solidity programming language, this thesis encourages them to study
these definitions and their use in (www.https://solidity.readthedocs.io), because this
dissertation will not discuss further and extensively the technological terms.
In the traceability smart contract that was created, the stakeholders can track their
shipments in a transparent way with the confirmation of the shipments by smart
contracts and execute automatically the payments when the shipment successfully
completed and met the predetermined criteria. The contract has two components, the
management of the tokens for the payment and the management of the shipments.
Events are about to display messages and details for the execution of the transactions.
The logic of this smart contract is simple and can be understandable by anyone if read
the following description of the functions that are captured to the contract. Figure 7.3
provides an illustration of the blockchain- based supply chain application using smart
contract. Further, it is presented the exact functions that form the smart contract.
138
(Appendix B: A Traceability Smart Contract) is provided the complete smart contract
code.
Function 1: sendtoken
This function is responsible for sending tokens from one account to another in the
execution of the payment. Its logic is built to audit if the sender's account has the
necessary tokens to send. Messages are published to the blockchain network and sent
to the stakeholders to warn them about the execution of the transactions.
Function 2: contractconditions
The administrator of the contract with this function is capable to predetermine the
parameters of the contract, the location of the shipment, the limits of the lead time, and
the quantity of the payment, that have to be fulfilled for a successful and acceptable
shipment.
Function 3: shipmentdetails
The sender of the shipment can store details of it on the blockchain network after the
sending. The mapping is employed to map the tracking number, the unit, the amount,
and the destination data of the shipment. The location data are provided by smart
sensors for reliable and updated data. Also, the address of the sender and the time of
the block creation are documented and recorded. An event is published to all the parties
for the shipment of the unit.
Function 4: receiveshipment
When the shipment is delivered to its destination, the receiver should write down the
details of the shipment. This function has to check two parts. One is the unit and the
amount of the unit that is received. They should be similar to the unit and the amount
that has been shipped. For the successful shipment, an event is activated. The other part
is about to check if the predetermined conditions about lead time and the location are
me. If they match, the function that has already been specified concerning the payment
is activated and the execution of payment is started to the shipping party. Otherwise,
two events are activated, one for each part, to send messages about the unsuccessful
shipment.
Function 5: removeshipment
139
In this function, the contract's administrator can only remove the shipment from the
blockchain database for the prevention of tampering and counterfeiting.
Function 6: checkshipment
In this function, every party can check the shipment and its details, such as the unit, the
amount of the unit, the real-time location of the unit, the time of dispatch, and the
address of the sender by typing the tracking number of it.
Function 7: checksuccessshipment
This function is responsible for the tracing of the number of the successfully completed
shipments as well as the combined total of the shipments.
Function 8: reputationscore
This function is in charge of calculating the reputation score of every party in the supply
chain. It is calculated by the total number of successful shipments that a party
accomplished as compared with the total of the shipments that this party made,
expressed in a percentage between 0 and 100. If there is not any shipment, the score is
0.
140
Figure 7.3 An illustration of the blockchain-based supply chain application using
smart contract
(The author,2020)
7.4 Validation of the Smart Contract on the Ethereum Blockchain

Platform
For the validation of the thesis's designed smart contract, a powerful and open-source
tool is used, named Remix. It is a browser-based compiler and integrated development
environment (IDE) that assists in writing, building, and administrating smart contracts
for the Ethereum blockchain network with Solidity language, simulating in simple
words the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EMV). Remix provides a developer-friendly
environment to compile, deploy, debug, and quick and easy test smart contracts in a
similar way as the live network with real transactions without incurring a cost.
Therefore, it can also be used as a learning platform. Furthermore, it can offer the
capability to test smart contracts with more than one account to include different parties.
The smart contract and its functions work as intended and they have been tested
multiple times by using Remix. First of all, the initial amount of token should be
defined, and the smart contract is deployed (Figure 7.4). The scenario is the same that
was presented in previous chapter. Then, the conditions of the contract are
predetermined from the administrator for the shipment from supplier A to supplier B (
Figure 7.5). Supplier is responsible to record the details after the shipment of the unit (
Figure 7.6). Afterward, when supplier B take the shipment, it is his turn to store the
details of the shipping in the blockchain network an if the conditions are met the
payment is automatically started (Figure 7.7). There are two cases that lead to the failure
of the transaction execution. The first one is that the predetermined conditions by the
administrator are not met (Figure 7.8), and the other is that the unit or the amount of the
unit received by supplier B do not match them that sent by supplier A (Figure 7.9). The
other functions will not be discussed because of their easily execution, they only need
a data entry to be deployed.
141
Figure 7.4 Initial tokens and creation of smart contract

(The author,2020)
Figure 7.5 Set the conditions

(The author,2020)
142
Figure 7.6 Record the details

(The author,2020)
Figure 7.7 Record the details of the received shipment

(The author,2020)
143
Figure 7.8When predetermined conditions are not met

(The author,2020)
Figure 7.9 When an error defined in unit or amount of the unit

(The author,2020)
144
8. Conclusion, Limitations and Future Research

Agenda
The final chapter will conclude the research by summarizing the objective fulfilment,
the managerial implications, then the limitations and recommendations of future
research of this study will be discussed. The outline of this chapter is as illustrates in
Figure 8.1.
7.1 Objective Fulfilment and

Contributions
7.2 Managerial Implications
Overview
7.3 Limitations and Future

Research Agenda
7.4 Conclusions

(The author,2020)
8.1 Objective Fulfilment and Contributions

This research uses the systematic literature review method selected peer-reviewed
academic works to investigate the application of blockchain technology in supply chain
management provided a transparent process that could be available for future research
and replication. Further, figures and reading of several implementations based on
SCOR processes are depicted and combined. The following are the main key
145
contributions and findings from the current results that satisfy the research objectives
of this thesis.
• Objective One: The main industries of the supply chain that blockchain
technology has been currently approached
Early applications and approaches, based on the 42 selected articles, cover different
industries in the supply chain. The study identified a wide range of industries in
supply chains that could adopt this technology to increase their efficiency and
effectiveness. Also, it is revealed that the proposed implementations in agricultural
and food supply chains comprise the majority of this literature review. The other
industries that the blockchain can be applied, in sequence, based on the majority,
are the drug and pharmaceutical industry, logistics and distribution, maritime,
wood, construction, post supply chain, electronics, aircraft, and manufacturing
industry.
• Objective Two: The application areas of blockchain technology that affect

supply chain
Blockchain can be an emerging technology that allows suppliers, vendors, and

customers to efficiently manage the supply chain without the need for a trusted third
party. Disruptive technologies, such as blockchain, can guarantee high levels of
effectiveness in the supply chain. This research identified sixteen application areas
of implementation of blockchain technology in the supply chain. This study has
compiled all relevant studies on blockchain adoption, reviewed and synthesized the
literature to extract these areas. The findings suggest that this technology seems
very suitable to be used for improving the traceability of supply chain products
confirming the provenance knowledge of goods. Also, the efficient collaboration
and involvement of stakeholders and information sharing, the automated execution
and simplification of the payments and transactions as well as the prevention of
counterfeiting can provide effective and outcomes in the supply chain. In addition,
the ability to eliminate or reduce the bullwhip effect on the supply chain and better
manage supply and demands issues can give the possibility to improve the forecast
accuracy and generate cost reduction leading to the sustainability and efficiency of
the supply chain. Other application areas of blockchain is the management of
regulatory and assets, the provision of secure business rules, the decrease of the
146
supply chain risks are privileges that blockchain can offer to the network.
Blockchain technology holds huge potential in leveraging supply chain operations
if the applications are strengthened with approving strategies and policies.
• Objective Three: The main research gap regarding the use of blockchain
technology in supply chain management
This is the first study that developed a framework based on the Supply Chain
Operations Reference model (SCOR) having as the main contribution to propose
the linkage of blockchain role to supply chain management objectives. This
research synthesizes the influence of all supply chain processes after blockchain
technology adaptation in one single inclusive and extensive analysis.
• Objective Four: The way that blockchain technology can be implemented

in some of the areas in the supply chain to prove its role
From the concept that was created, it is defined that blockchain can shed light and
provide transparency and traceability of the transactions across the supply chain. It
is an innovative technology that can record all the transactions, their details, and
track the flow of goods through a supply chain according to the predetermined
criteria that integrated into a smart contract. Also, this concept is a way to
understand that blockchain can record, share, and offer access to information in a
secure way, preventing counterfeiting, for multiple parties in the network. Also, the
automation of payments and transactions including the calculation of the reputation
for each one of the suppliers is one more possibility that blockchain can provide.
Therefore, blockchain is an innovative technology that can ensure and assist in the
improvement of supply chains, generating an open-immutable record of
transactions and payments that is accessible for every involved party.
8.2 Managerial Implications

From a managerial perspective, blockchain could transform and revolutionize entire
industrial sectors. This study offers an overview of the suggested application areas of
blockchain technology in the supply chain, that can optimize it and its processes. The
strong potential of automated execution of payments and transactions and the
disintermediation that blockchain can provide to the supply chain in combination with
147
the traceability improvement, the assurance of authenticity and quality, and the control
of safety represent a radical change in marketplaces.
The insights of the thesis point out for managers how to implement blockchain
technology in their supply chains and which areas can be optimized for this technology.
The adoption of the proposed framework can, also, allow managers to judge if their
supply chains and preconditions are suitable for the implementation of blockchain
technology based on the major processes that they look at. The businesses in the supply
chain are linked by a flow of goods, information, and funds. One prerequisite is the
level of trust among the stakeholders involved in the chain. If the level of trust is low,
then the partnership among them cannot be efficient and the data provided to
blockchains applications cannot be reliable. Thus, the utility of blockchain could not
share reliable information that will protect safety and security and the ability to meet
business requirements for confidential and credible information and lawful sharing of
them because of the unreliability among the supply chain partners. Despite this, the
blockchain application could give the opportunity for decreasing the opportunistic
intercept or manipulation of the data and strengthen the trust in a supply chain where
this is deemed to be an issue. It is necessary, however, to evaluate first the capability of
the specific supply chain, based on its technology and information-sharing processes
that have, to share, collect, and store data that are reliable. If they are unable to manage
this, the benefits of the blockchain's application would be lessened.
8.3 Limitations and Future Research Agenda

Despite the important insights of this study, there are some limitations. Since the
adoption of blockchain is still in a nascent stage, there are might be different opinions
among firms about the added value that this technology offers. First, this systematic
literature review has focused on the current state of blockchain applications within the
supply chain management field and has used selecting search terms but in a general and
broad form. However, the author acknowledges that the choice of the searching terms
may have excluded a certain number of blockchain articles from this review. Second,
the data were acquired through a one-shot extraction, leading to the potential of some
bias. Third, application areas that lead to and support the adoption of this technology in
the supply chain field were defined from existing literature review, but they are not
validated for their suitability by experts from the field of supply chain and technology,
raising possible suspicions of subjectivity. Additionally, it is tried to depict the
148
applicability of blockchain technology using one macro-level of the SCOR model
focused only on the major processes (level 1) that are affected by blockchain technology
and without distinguishing the process elements (level 2) or assessing the performance
metrics (level 3) that associated with each one of the processes. This might be
unsatisfactory for an accurate and precise insight. It is suggested more research work
directed to overcome these limitations and advance this literature. The implementation
of the blockchain concept using smart contracts in the supply chain tested only in
Remix, a developer-friendly environment, requires investigating the possibility and
practicality of such an application on an actual Ethereum network.
Integrating the selected application areas of the blockchain adoption in the supply chain
in order to adapt a future model that can establish relationships among the identified
application areas and the suitability of them using decision- making techniques based
on the insights of supply chain practitioners. Despite the potentials, blockchain has a
number of challenges to overcome. Thus, the examination and assessment of the
challenges and barriers that associated with the blockchain implementation in supply
chain and the identification of main strategies to overcome these difficulties is a useful
future research and noteworthy addition to this study. Further, since the literature
related to blockchain-based supply chain applications a future extension could be to
investigate, define and categorize further these implementations regarding the
characteristics of this technology, such as the ledgers (permissioned or permissionless),
involved technologies, involved entities, their architecture.
Also, a future extension of the framework based on the SCOR model that links
blockchain roles to supply chain management objectives could be to define the Return
process. In turn, an important future adjunct that can enhance at a high level this thesis
could be to specify the sub-processes (process categories level 2 and the process
elements level 3) as well as the metrics for each process that affected by blockchain
technology. A further case study research and a more precise analysis with involved
case descriptions for every SCOR process with a high level of details are needed to
more accurately assess the exact relationship between the supply chain objectives and
blockchain roles.
Furthermore, the next step of the presented concept is to validate it in a real Ethereum
network with the estimation of the cost that is required for the execution of the
149
transactions and the integration with smart sensors that needed to further develop it in
a real, viable solution. Furthermore, the enrichment of the introduced blockchain-smart
contract concept with more processes that are accomplished in an actual supply chain
based on the SCOR model is in the future priorities of this thesis to provide a real
depiction of the blockchain role in supply chain management. In addition, another
improvement of the thesis's application could be the design and creation of a user
interface, such as a mobile application or a web browser, where the parties will interact
easier, more convenient and comprehensible with the applied smart contracts. The
proposed future research agenda represented an attempt to overcome the gaps of this
literature review is summarized and illustrated in Table 21.
150
Model creation to establish relationships and among

the identified application areas and the suitability of
them using decision- making techniques or
questionnaires based on the insights of supply chain
practitioners
Examination of the challenges and barriers associated

with the blockchain implementation in supply chain
and the identification of main challenges to overcome
them
Further investigation and categorization of the

blockchain-based supply chain applications regarding
technology's specific characteristics
Definition and analysis of the processes for the Return

process
Specification of the process categories level 2, the

process elements level 3 and metrics for each process
in the SCOR model that affected by blockchain
technology
Case study research with involved case descriptions

for every SCOR process
Validation of the proposed concept in a real Ethereum

network with the estimation of the transactions' cost
and the integration with smart sensors
The enrichment of the introduced blockchain-smart

contract concept with more processes based on SCOR
model
The design and creation of a user interface of the

proposed concept
Table 21. Agenda for Future Research

(The author,2020)
151
8.4 Conclusions
In this study, we have introduced the blockchain technology in supply chain
management through a deep understanding of empirical academic implications in
determining blockchain adoption in supply chain management. The aim is to build a
concept that will instigate future supply chain leaders to see how blockchain can
transform the supply chain, its processes, performance, and examine the configuration
of them as a catalyst for further research. Blockchain technology is an innovative tool
that assists in the insurance of an efficient and effective supply chain. Further, the
vision of this research is the general public to realize the full potential of this technology
and to bring it in everyday lives and closer to the acceptance of every stakeholder in the
supply chain ecosystem.
It can be stated that blockchain to be the enabling technology for peer-to-peer

collaboration, a technology that can remodel product standards and allow all the
involved parties to efficiently manage the supply chain as a single entity without the
need of a trusted intermediary. In this way, it will allow supply chains not only to reach
new levels of efficiency and effectiveness but also can create new business model
opportunities for new members, but also existing supply chain entities.
152
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Appendix / Appendices
Appendix A: Summary of the selected articles of the systematic literature review
Title References Journal Citation Year Summary

This paper presents a traceability prototype event model
based on Quorum using the created event model and the
Blockchain-based event
(Sund, Lööf, Nadjm- Robotics and data from an international retail company to enable event
processing in supply chains—A 0 2020
Tehrani, & Asplund) Computer-Integrated processing by a multiplicity of actors and to provide the
case study at IKEA
Manufacturing ability to a customer to verify the origin of a product and
how it has been transported and handled.
This paper is the first that investigates and sets 18

blockchain technology boundary conditions using
blockchain for enhancing traceability information
Boundary conditions for International Journal
exchange in the dairy food supply chains. The authors
traceability in food supply chains (Behnke & Janssen) of Information 12 2020
report four case studies in the food supply chain using a
using blockchain technology Management
template analysis of 16 interviews considering five
elements, namely business, supply chain process,
regulation, quality assurance, and role of traceability.
Permissioned Blockchain-Based This paper introduces a simulated double-layer

(Ding, Gao, Zhu, &
Double-Layer Framework for IEEE Access 0 2020 framework system based on the Hyperledger platform,
Yuan)
Product Traceability System and the deployment of smart contracts in it to address the
165
disadvantages of existing blockchain-based product

traceability systems in the entire supply chain. This paper
contributes to introducing the advantages of the
framework for product traceability.
This paper uses a qualitative Grounded Theory approach
with a total of 24 semi-structured expert interviews to
Translating High Hopes into take a comprehensive picture and to identify how
Tangible Benefits: How (Hackius & incumbent companies try to make use of Blockchain in
IEEE Access 0 2020
Incumbents in Supply Chain and Petersen) supply chain and logistics and also, to analyze the barriers
Logistics Approach Blockchain hampering them. The questions were derived from the
insights gained during previous studies and from the
current empirical literature.
This paper reviews the literature on food supply chain
management and proposes a new system architecture
based on blockchain (Hyperldger Fabric) to achieve
Blockchain-based safety
information security management in the entire grain
management system for the grain (Zhang, et al.) IEEE Access 0 2020
supply chain. Also, it proposes a multimode storage
supply chain
mechanism to improve system storage capacity and a
customized smart contract to manage the reading and
writing of business data.
This paper proposes a supply chain contractual
coordination model based on the product lifecycle
Coordination of Supply Chain
information-sharing effort and consumers' price
under Blockchain System-Based (Hayrutdinov, Saeed, Journal of Advanced
0 2020 sensitivity to a product with the Blockchain system. The
Product Lifecycle Information & Rajapov) Transportation
study uses the game theory reverse induction method to
Sharing Effort
compare the Nash equilibrium solutions under the
simulation of five different decision-making scenarios.
Blockchain-based agri-food This paper presents a complete solution for Ethereum
(Shahid, et al.) IEEE Access 0 2020
supply chain: A complete solution blockchain-based Agriculture and Food supply chain,
166
using a decentralized storage medium for the data and

providing smart contracts along with their algorithms to
present a traceability system for digitally tracking Agri-
Food products from origin to end consumers.
This paper introduces a novel data storage and
International Journal
A Novel Visual Analysis Method management platform of food sampling combining
(Hao, Zhang, Mao, of Environmental
of Food Safety Risk Traceability 0 2020 blockchain technology with visualization techniques
Zuo, & Zhao) Research and Public
Based on Blockchain using Hyperledger to improve the food traceability
Health
analysis and prevent food safety risks.
This paper suggests the first investigation that identifies

the variables that actuate the blockchain implementation
Modeling the blockchain enabled (Kamble, International Journal in this industry combined Interpretive Structural
traceability in agriculture supply Gunasekaran, & of Information 10 2020 Modelling (ISM) and Evaluation Laboratory
chain Sharma) Management (DEMATEL) decision-making techniques, establishing
the causal relationship between them in the context of
India.
Blockchain for 5G-enabled IoT This paper presents an in-depth survey of preexisting
Mechanical Systems
for industrial automation: A (Mistry, Tanwar, state-of-the-art proposals and industrial applications of
and Signal 6 2020
systematic review, solutions, and Tyagi, & Kumar) blockchain in 5G-enabled IoT devices. It shows that
Processing
challenges blockchain can revolutionize most of the current and
167
future industrial applications in different sectors by

providing fine-grained decentralized access control.
This paper uses expert interviews and case studies aiming
to facilitate the potentials of using blockchain smart
Blockchain and Smart Contracts contracting in the environment of transnational and
(Philipp, Prause, & Transport and
for Entrepreneurial Collaboration 2 2019 multimodal supply chains for the implementation of
Gerlitz) Telecommunication
in Maritime Supply Chains collaborative logistics structures, towards full automation
and optimization, and the integration of small and
medium-sized entrepreneurs in maritime supply chain.
This paper uses a measurement and structural equation

The impact of blockchain
model for empirical research and hypotheses with 306
technology application on supply Sustainability
(Kim & Shin) 2 2019 supply chain experts from various industries to
chain partnership and (Switzerland)
investigate how the use of blockchain in supply chain can
performance
influence supply chain partnership efficiency and growth.
This paper proposes a novel and secure drug supply chain

A Novel medical blockchain management system using Hyperledger Fabric based on
model for drug supply chain (Jamil, Hang, Kim, Electronics blockchain to ensure data safety and secure drug supply
11 2019
integrity management in a smart & Kim) (Switzerland) chain records and to counter drug counterfeiting. Also, it
hotel runs simulation experiments to demonstrate the
efficiency of the system.
This paper proposed a workflow operating system using
Blockchain-enabled workflow
Computers & blockchain for the E-commerce logistics real estate to
operating system for logistics
(Li, Shen, & Huang) Industrial 2 2019 accomplish the central management of logistics resources
resources sharing in E-commerce
Engineering to support and serve heterogeneous demanders while
logistics real estate service
designed also, a prototype system to implement in the
168
laboratory environment for conducting real-life case

studies.
This paper proposes a system to overcome the supply
Blockchain: To improvise of Innovative
(Reddy B , Reddy, & chain management barriers and increase the scalability of
economic efficiency and supply Technology and 0 2019
Rekha) the product and economic efficiency using blockchain in
chain management in agriculture Exploring
agriculture.
Engineering
Design of a software architecture
This paper develops a software blockchain-based
supporting business-to-
architecture for information sharing based on literature
government information sharing
( Engelenburg, Journal of Intelligent and a case study to store events and rules for sharing
to improve public safety and 12 2019
Janssen, & Klievink) Information Systems reliable information that are controlled by businesses in
security: Combining business
supply chain and customs to governments, contributing
rules, Events and blockchain
to public safety and security
technology
'Fit-for-purpose?' - Challenges This paper uses a survey based on the views from a
and opportunities for applications multidisciplinary group of practitioners to ensure that a
(Mackey , et al.) BMC Medicine 18 2019
of blockchain technology in the blockchain is pivotal in the healthcare supply chain
future of healthcare management and performance.
This paper implements a food ingredient certification
based on Ethereum live blockchain as the IGR token after
being coded as smart contracts, using the Solidity
IGR token-raw material and
(dos Santos, Torrisi, programming language. It focuses on food supply chain
ingredient certification of recipe- Informatics 1 2019
Yamada, & Pantoni) traceability, to make use of blockchain tokens and smart
based foods using smart contracts
contracts for proposing and establishing a consumer
trustworthy ingredient certification framework for
recipe-based foods.
169
This paper presents a secure ultra-lightweight RFID

protocol targeted for integration and implementation in
Ultralightweight mutual
supply chain systems that utilize the blockchain network
authentication RFID protocol for (Sidorov , et al.) IEEE Access 10 2019
to streamline supply chain activities. Also, this paper uses
blockchain enabled supply chain
the GNY logic and AVISPA simulation tool to formally
verify the security of the proposed protocol.
This paper presents a DL-Tags solution based on

DL-Tags: DLT and Smart Tags
Ethereum blockchain, implementing it on a food supply
for Decentralized, Privacy- (Benčić , Skočir , &
IEEE Access 3 2019 chain traceability system for the usage of blockchain in
Preserving, and Verifiable Supply Žarko)
supply chain management under the assumption of a
Chain Management
trustless environment.
This paper provides the construction of the supply chain

Big Production Enterprise Supply endogenous risk management mechanism and its
Chain Endogenous Risk economic value analysis and designs the intelligent
(Fu & Zhu) IEEE Access 12 2019
Management Based on contract for blockchain applying in endogenous risk
Blockchain management of big production enterprise supply chain
using the medicine industry as the case to analyze.
170
This paper proposes a food supply chain system based on

IoT and blockchain technologies to monitor the quality
Blockchain inspired RFID-based
IEEE Internet of and tracking of the food products and an RFID- based
information architecture for food (Mondal, et al.) 15 2019
Things Journal sensor is used to provide a unique identity attachment of
supply chain
each product assisting in visibility and real-time quality
monitoring.
Building a digital twin for

This paper investigates an insight into the blockchain
additive manufacturing through (Mandolla,
Computers in implementation through a case study in an aircraft
the exploitation of blockchain: A Petruzzelli, Percoco, 8 2019
Industry company creating a digital twin by the use of additive
case analysis of the aircraft & Urbinati)
manufacturing solutions.
industry
This paper proposes a blockchain-IoT-based food
traceability system (BIFTS) to achieve a total traceability
Blockchain-Driven IoT for Food shelf-life management system for perishable food
(Tsang, Choy, Wu,
Traceability with an Integrated IEEE Access 6 2019 through integrated consensus mechanisms. Also, the
Ho, & Lam )
Consensus Mechanism paper conducts a case study in a retail e-commerce
company to validate the performance of the proposed
system.
This paper proposes a prototype food safety traceability
system based on the Electronic Product Code Information
(Lin, Wang
Food Safety Traceability System Services and the Ethereum blockchain and designs a
Huaizhen , Pei , & IEEE Access 21 2019
Based on Blockchain and EPCIS smart contract module to prevent data tampering and non-
Wang)
disclosure sensitive information during information
interaction among participants.
171
Food quality traceability This paper proposes a restaurant prototype using

prototype for restaurants using (George, Harsh, Ray, Journal of Cleaner Blockchain and product identifiers for implementing
6 2019
blockchain and food quality data & Babu) Production more reliable food safety and food quality for human
index consumption via traceability.
This paper proposes an implementation of Ethereum
Blockchain-based Soybean blockchain-based approach for traceability and visibility
(Salah, Nizamuddin ,
traceability in agricultural supply IEEE Access 17 2019 in the soybean agricultural supply chain, including
Jayaraman, & Omar)
chain algorithms for soybean sale between various participants
in the supply chain using smart contracts.
This paper proposes a blockchain-based architecture
using Hyperledger Fabric by using a non-resource
A blockchain-based framework (Cui, Dixon, & intensive consensus algorithm to provide a
IEEE Access 0 2019
for supply chain provenance Dimase) comprehensive and reliable device tracking and
verification service to ensure the traceability and
provenance of electronic parts in the supply chain.
This paper proposes a prototype product traceability
Smart Contract-Based Product
(Wang, Li, Zhang, & system model based on blockchain technology using
traceability system in the supply IEEE Access 2 2019
Chen) smart contracts to establish a reliable and event response
chain scenario
mechanism to guarantee the validity of every transaction.
This paper investigates how blockchain can transform
supply chain activities, approaching a theory-building
1 Blockchain's role in meeting Internation Journal
from some case studies of blockchain-based applications
key supply chain management (Kshetri, 2018) of Information 177 2018
and solutions in supply chains to show that blockchain
objectives Management
can be an effective way for corporations to satisfy supply
chain management objectives.
A blockchain implementation
This paper provides the implementation of a prototype
prototype for the electronic open Sensors (Basel,
(Figorill, et al.) 24 2018 blockchain architecture system tracking down wood from
source traceability of wood along Switzerland)
its tree form in the forest to the end product via QR codes
the whole supply chain
172
and RFID tags as anchors to improve the wood chain

electronic traceability.
This paper proposes a public blockchain supply chain
Research on agricultural supply system based on double chain architecture using
(Leng, Bi, Jing, Fu,
chain system with double chain Future Generation blockchain to give a solution to the current Chinese
& Van 55 2018
architecture based on blockchain Computer Systems public service platform and its problems. Also, provides
Nieuwenhuyse)
technology a simulation experiment to verify the applicability of this
system.
This paper investigates the potential adoption of
The acceptance of blockchain blockchain technology in the food supply chain and
(Sander, Semeijn, &
technology in meat traceability British Food Journal 11 2018 especially in the meat supply chain as a system that
Mahr)
and transparency provides transparency and traceability (TTS) using a
questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews.
This paper develops a Distributed Application (DApp)
system that will run on smart contracts with a back-end
Blockchain technology for
distributed file system (DFS) supporting a private
detecting falsified and
(Sylim , Liu, Journal of Medical blockchain network based on Ethereum, Hyperledger
substandard drugs in distribution: 21 2018
Marcelo, & Fontelo) Internet Research Fabric, the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm,
Pharmaceutical supply chain
the proof-of-stake(DpoS) and practical Byzantine fault
intervention
tolerance (PBFT) to abolish the drug counterfeiting
problem.
This paper provides a blockchain-based credit evaluation
Credit evaluation system based on International Journal system via smart contracts to provide more credible
blockchain for multiple (Mao, Wang, Hao, & of Environmental information for stakeholders in food supply chain while
19 2018
stakeholders in the food supply Li) Research and Public strengthening the effectiveness of supervision and
chain Health management of food supply chain and the reassurance of
food safety.
173
This paper provides a qualitative study to explore the

general possibilities of blockchain applications within the
Applying Blockchain technology: (Gausdal, maritime industry. A case study of the Norwegian
Sustainability
Evidence from Norwegian Czachorowski, & 12 2018 offshore industry is applied, and primary data is collected
(Switzerland)
companies Solesvik) through seven semi-structured interviews, as well as the
insights from a literature review are provided to answer
the paper's questions.
This paper applies Gcoin blockchain's double-spending
prevention system, known for its governance design in
Governance on the drug supply (Tseng, Liao, Chong, of Environmental
33 2018 the blockchain technology, to inspect and track the data
chain via gcoin blockchain & Liao) Research and Public
flow of drugs to prevent counterfeit drugs and to create
Health
transparent drug transaction data.
This paper presents the results of a use case design with
Blockchain in Logistics and the use of the Guest methodology in the fresh food
Supply Chain: A Lean Approach (Perboli, Musso, & company, showing the critical aspects of implementing a
IEEE Access 42 2018
for Designing Real-World Use Rosano) blockchain solution based on the Hyperledger Fabric
Cases network to reduce the logistics costs and optimize the
operations.
This paper provides a case study to analyze a traceability
Intelligent Systems ontology and presents a proof‐of‐concept implementation
Toward an ontology-driven
in Accounting, into smart contracts that executed on the Ethereum-
blockchain design for supply- (Kim & Laskowski) 100 2018
Finance and blockchain application platform in the Solidity language
chain provenance
Management to execute and evaluate a supply chain provenance
tracking.
This paper introduces an independent, crowd-validated,
A distributed ledger for supply
Information online shipment tracking framework to achieve real-time
chain physical distribution (Wu, et al.) 47 2017
(Switzerland) visibility during the physical distribution of the products
visibility
in the supply chain.
174
A Novel Blockchain-Based This paper proposes a novel Ethereum blockchain-based

Product Ownership Management (Toyoda, product ownership management system (POMS) of RFID-
System (POMS) for Anti- Mathiopoulos, IEEE Access 99 2017 attached products for anti-counterfeits that can be used in
Counterfeits in the Post Supply Sasase, & Ohtsuki) the post supply chain to provide the traceability feature in the
Chain blockchain to avoid trading of counterfeit products.
(Mackey & Nayyar,
A review of existing This paper identifies five distinct categories of
A review of existing and
and emerging digital technology including mobile, radio frequency
emerging digital technologies to Expert Opinion on
technologies to 93 2017 identification, advanced computational methods, online
combat the global trade in fake Drug Safety
combat the global verification, and blockchain technology in the fight
medicines
trade in fake against the global trade in fake medicines.
medicines)
175
Appendix B: A Traceability Smart Contract
pragma solidity ^0.4.4;

contract Traceability {
address administrator;
uint[] locationcontract;
uint leadtimecontract;
uint autopaymentcontract;
mapping (string => shipment) shipments;
mapping (address => uint) tokenbalances;
mapping (address => uint) totalshipments;
mapping (address => uint) successshipments;
struct shipment {
string unit;
uint amount;
uint[] locationdata;
uint timestamp;
address sender;
}
event successship (string _message, string trackingnumber, uint[] _locationdata, uint _timestamp, address _sender);
event autopayment (string _message, address _from, address _to, uint _quantity);
event failureship (string _message);
function Traceability (uint _initialtokensupply) {

administrator = msg.sender;
tokenbalances[administrator] = _initialtokensupply;
}
176
modifier onlyadministrator () {
if (msg.sender != administrator) throw;
_;
}
function sendtoken (address _from, address _to, uint _quantity)
returns (bool success) {
if (tokenbalances [_from] < _quantity){
failureship ("The funds are deficient for the execution of the payment");
return false;
}
tokenbalances [_from] -= _quantity;
tokenbalances [_to] += _quantity;
autopayment ("The payment is executed", _from, _to, _quantity);
return true;
}
function contractconditions(uint[] _location, uint _leadtime, uint _tokenpayment) onlyadministrator
locationcontract = _location;
leadtimecontract = _leadtime;
autopaymentcontract = _autopayment;
return true;
}
function shipmentdetails (string trackingnumber, string _unit, uint _amount, uint[] _locationdata)
shipments[trackingnumber].unit = _unit;
shipments[trackingnumber].amount = _amount;
shipments[trackingnumber].locationdata = _locationdata;
shipments[trackingnumber].timestamp = block.timestamp;
shipments[trackingnumber].sender = msg.sender;
totalshipments [msg.sender] += 1;
177
successship ("Unit is shipped", trackingnumber, _locationdata, block.timestamp, msg.sender);

return true;
}
function receiveshipment (string trackingnumber, string _unit, uint _amount, uint[] _locationdata)
if (sha3(shipments[trackingnumber].unit) == sha3(_unit) && shipments[trackingnumber].amount == _amount) {
successshipments [shipments[trackingnumber].sender] += 1;
successship ("Unit is shipped", trackingnumber, _locationdata, block.timestamp, msg.sender);
if (block.timestamp <= shipments [trackingnumber] .timestamp + leadtimecontract
&& _locationdata [0] == locationcontract[0] && _locationdata [1] == locationcontract[1]){
sendtoken (administrator, shipments[trackingnumber].sender, autopaymentcontract);
}
else {
failureship ("Payment is not executed because of the unmet conditions");
}
return true;
}
else {
failureship ("an error defined in unit or amount");
return false;
}
}
function removeshipment (string trackingnumber) onlyadministrator returns (bool successship){
delete shipments [trackingnumber];
return true;
}
function checkshipment (string trackingnumber) constant
returns (string, uint, uint[], uint, address) {
return (shipments [trackingnumber].unit,
shipments[trackingnumber]. amount,
178
shipments[trackingnumber].locationdata,
shipments[trackingnumber].timestamp,
shipments[trackingnumber].sender);
}
function checksuccessshipments(address _sender) constant
returns (uint,uint) {
return (successshipments[_sender], totalshipments[_sender]);
}
function reputationscore(address _sender) constant returns(uint){
if (totalshipments[_sender] != 0 ) {
return (100 * successshipments[_sender] / totalshipments[_sender]);
}
else{
return 0;
}
}
}
179

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MSc in Logistics & Supply Chain Management

“The Influence of Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain: A Systematic Literature

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Keywords: Blockchain, Supply Chain, SCOR Model, Application Areas

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Figure 1.1 Structure of the Chapter.............................................................................. 13

Table 1. Review Panel of the study ............................................................................. 47

Graph 1 Distribution of the journal’s Quartile ............................................................. 60

1.2 Research Aim and

1.1 Overview of the

1.3 Overall Methodology

1.4 Outline of the Thesis

Figure 1.1 Structure of the Chapter

It is doubtless that blockchain can provide high expectations. In 2016, (Deloitte.)

1.3 Research Aim and Objectives

1.4 Overall Methodology Framework

1.5 Outline of the Thesis Structure

Chapter 1 • Introduction of the Topic

Chapter 3 • Description of the Methodology Process-

Chapter 4 • Presentation of the Descriptive Findings

Chapter 5 • Presentation of the Thematic Findings

Chapter 6 • Definition of the SCOR Model

Chapter 7 • The Idea Behind the Concept

• Discussion of the Research Objectives of

2. Theoretical and Technological Background of

2.1 Blockchain Overview

2.2 The Birth of Blockchain

2.3 Blockchain Technology

2.4 How Blockchain Works?

Figure 2.1 Structure of the Chapter

Figure 2.2 Blockchain Technology in Financial Sector (USD Million)

2.2 The Birth of Blockchain

2.3.1 What is the Blockchain Technology

It is concluded that blockchain is a distributed peer-to-peer database or public ledger

2.3.2 Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

2.3.3 Peer-to-Peer Network

Figure 2.3 An example of a Peer-to-Peer Network

Figure 2.4 Nodes (individual computers) in Blockchain

Figure 2.5 A simple transaction process in Blockchain

2.3.5 Types of Blockchain

2.3.5.1 Permissionless, Public Blockchain

Figure 2.6 Public/Permissionless Blockchain

Figure 2.7 Permissionless/Public blockchain network

2.3.5.2 Permissioned, Private Blockchain

For the creation of permissioned/private blockchains, the use of an external mechanism

Figure 2.8 Private/Permissioned Blockchain

Figure 2.9 Private/Permissioned Blockchain network

2.3.5.2.1 Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric, till 2018, has supported a wide variety of companies,

2.4.1 Public Key Cryptography

In essence, public key cryptography contains the following actions:

(a) Sign of a transaction/document/etc. + Private key ➔ Digital Signature (Hash)-

Figure 2.10 Creation of Digital Signature

Figure 2.11 Verification of a Transaction

"If a document is encrypted using a mathematical formula, it can be decrypted to

Figure 2.13 Digital Signature

Figure 2.14 Every block has its unique hash output

Figure 2.15 The procedure of the creation of the Hash Function

Figure 2.16 The difficulty to find a valid hash

2.4.3 The Mining Process

Figure 2.17 The memory pool of unconfirmed transactions

As detailed previously in the digital signature chapter, after the selection of a