PurposeThe paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) showing the benefits, challenges and future research of blockchain technology (BT) for the supply chain (SC), also suggesting how the features of BT can change the organizational aspects of the SC.Design/methodology/approachAn SLR has been conducted to detect papers that contained the word “Blockchain” in their titles, keywords or abstracts. Consequently, a second filter to analyze BT papers for the SC was applied.FindingsThis paper shows through 31 variables classified into positive, negative and future directions of technology for the SC. For instance, BT will reduce time consuming of operations management and payments using smart contracts. In addition, integrating BT with other technologies will allow product tracking and sustainable production management.Research limitations/implicationsThe selection of papers is limited to Scopus database and specifically to the Management Journal.Practical implicationsBT creates collaborative peer-to-peer and business-to-business markets. The technology automates several tasks such as order management, payment for goods, waste reduction and process control. Therefore, its use within the SCs will improve the productivity and profits of the participants.Originality/valueThis paper is focused on BT for the SC area with 60 articles analyzed. In addition, 13 variables on benefits, eight variables on challenges and 12 points on future research directions were analyzed. This work will help researchers and entrepreneurs to deepen about the changes that BT offers in SC.

The digital transformation of supply chains should revolutionize entire management processes and improve various aspects of sustainability. In particular, the plans of Industry 4.0 aim towards a digitization of several procedures by exploiting emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, RFID and blockchain. The purpose of this study is to highlight how order and disruption events processes can be improved with the adoption of emerging technologies and how this reflects on the improvement of sustainability aspects. The study is based on the comparison of two simulation scenarios between three actors in the cheese supply chain. In particular, a first traditional scenario “as is” is simulated without the use of new technologies and is compared to a second scenario “to be” that adopts IoT, RFID and blockchain. The results show an improvement in time performance for managing both perfect and non-compliant orders. The developed framework highlights the impact of new technologies on sustainability aspects, showing further managerial implications.

The growing attention to emerging technologies has raised several doubts regarding the sustainability aspects. Among the new technologies, blockchain has laid the foundations for a revolution in the financial field but also in the energy, tourism, medical, industrial and supply chains sectors. Through a systematic literature review, 37 documents were analyzed to describe the sustainable aspects generated using blockchain in supply chains. Therefore, the results achieved provide two levels of analysis. The former highlights the impact of the adoption of blockchain in supply chains based on the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. The latter shows the positive and negative impacts of each form of sustainability. The purpose of the work is to summarize the current state of the art in order to propose a future development agenda based on the need to simulate and define a measurability for each dimension of sustainability. Finally, the study provides a broad overview of practical and managerial implications for entrepreneurs and researchers. On the one hand, the work shows how the use of blockchain improves the profits and reputation of companies. On the other hand, it highlights several research gaps to be investigated and considered by researchers.

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PurposeThe paper presents a research methodology that could be used to carry out a systematic literature review on the current state of the art of the technological development in the field of the digitalization and unphysicalization of supply chains (SCs). A three-dimensional conceptual framework focusing on the relationship between Digital Technologies (DTs), business processes and SC performance is presented. The study identifies the emerging practices and areas of SC management that could be positively affected by the implementation of DTs. With this in mind, the emerging practices have a high probability to be considered future best practices.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was conducted on DTs in SC management. The methodology used aims to algorithmically and objectively standardize the information incorporated into thousands of scientific documents. Selected papers were analyzed to investigate the recent literature on SC digitalization and unphysicalization. A total of 87 DTs were selected to be analyzed and subsequently grouped into 11 macro-categories. 17 business processes linked to SC management are taken into account and 17 different impacts on SC management are presented. From a set of 1,585 papers, 5,060 emerging practices were collected and singularly summarized combining DT, business process and impact on SC performance.FindingsA unique analytical perspective provided represents an important evolution when trying to organize the current literature on SC management. The widely used DTs in the practices and the most considered business processes and impacts are highlighted and described. The three-dimensional conceptual framework is graphically represented to allow for the emergence of the best combinations of DT, business process and impact on SC performance. These combinations suggest the most promising areas for the implementation of the emerging practices for SC digitalization and unphysicalization. Additional findings identify and define the most important contexts in which Big Data contributes to SC performance.Originality/valueThe research methodology used is offering progress through which to systemize the current practices as well as detect the potential of digitalization and unphysicalization under the three-dimensional conceptual framework. The paper provides a structured proposal for promising future research directions, assuming that the five research gaps as findings of this research could be the basis for prescriptions, as well as a future research agenda and theory development. Moreover, this research contributes to current managerial issues concerning SC management, referred to data and information management, efficiency and productivity of SC processes, market performance, SC relationship management and risk management in SC.

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The aim of the research was to present the state of the art on the use of open and crowd-based platforms and the advantages in terms of business performance that emerging practices employing such technologies are able to provide. The analysis was performed by extracting information on emerging practices from the repository Business Process Framework for Emerging Technologies developed by the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Salerno (Italy). Contingency tables allowed analysis of the association of such practices with industry, business function, business process, and impact on performance. From the analysis of the results, many implementation opportunities emerge, mainly in manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation industries, providing benefits not only in terms of efficiency and productivity, cost reduction, and information management but also in product/service differentiation. Therefore, the research provides an overview of opportunities for organizations employing open and crowd-based platforms in order to improve market and organizational performance. Moreover, the article highlights in what specific business contexts these technologies can be mainly useful.