Blockchain Technologies in the Digital Supply Chain

The application of blockchain or, more generally, distributed ledger technology (DLT) in logistics and supply chain management (SCM) has created a huge amount of interest among academics and practitioners. The potential to create shared and immutable data records and deploy so-called smart contracts, which is program code that is executed automatically, has raised high hopes in relation to improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of supply chains. In this chapter, we clarify relevant terms of the blockchain ecosystem and present the results from a literature review in which we summarise current academic findings and identify various drivers (i.e., traceability, trust and transparency, supply chain integration, data security and privacy, sustainability) as well as technical, organisational, and regulatory barriers of blockchain adoption. Finally, we list industry projects and illustrate how they apply blockchain technology. This chapter equips scholars and practitioners with an understanding of how blockchain can provide value in modern supply chains.