The dynamic and uncertain demand forces organizations to provide flexible services in order to fulfill customer demands. Freight transportation, being the key component of the businesses, requires adoption of efficient Information and Communication Technologies which can induce transparent and flexible services. Blockchain Technology (BT) is an emerging technology which has great potential to cater solutions to freight transportation issues. This study identifies different critical success factors of BT adoption in freight transportation. An integrated Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) is applied to prioritize identified success factors. Further, modified Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (mTISM) is used to represent the interrelationship among different sub-factors. The findings of the study revealed Development Aspects, Customer Services and Technological Aspects as well as Data Transparency, Reliability and Organizational Culture as the most significant factors and sub-factors, respectively. The proposed model will guide freight transport managers to formulate their strategies regarding BT adoption.

Purpose Block chain technology (BCT) has emerged as a promising solution for the co-ordination and aid mechanism issues in the context of humanitarian supply chain (HSC). However, implementation of BCT in HSC discerns several barriers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and model the block chain implementation barriers in the context of HSC. Design/methodology/approach In the present study, 14 potential barriers to BCT adoption in HSC have been identified through literature survey. The survey comprises white papers, pilot studies, conference proceedings and journal articles. Further, the identified barriers were finalised in consultation with a team of experts. The team comprised experienced stakeholders working in the humanitarian domain and BCT development. The barriers were categorised into four (technological, organisational, exogenous and economic) perspectives adopting the kappa statistics. Further, the barriers were prioritised using fuzzy best worst method (FBWM) approach. Later, sensitivity analysis was performed to check the robustness and viability of the model. Findings The findings from the study indicate that the barriers, such as “data privacy, ownership, and security issues” (B1), “funding issues and cost complexity” (B3) and “technological complexities” (B8), are relatively more influential. The HSC stakeholders and BCT developers are required to identify the safety mechanism against the misuse of victim’s data. The funding issues and technological complexities are interrelated and need synergetic cooperation between blockchain developers, donors, humanitarian organisations (HOs) and other HSC stakeholders. Further, “lack of awareness and understanding among stakeholders” (B6) and “interoperability, collaboration and cross-pollination among HOs” (B5) were identified as least influential barriers to BCT adoption in HSC. Research limitations/implications In literature, limited study has been observed on determining barriers to BCT implementation. A more systematic method and statistical confirmation is necessary to establish further new confronting barriers. This study is limited to Indian context. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is first of its kind to use an FBWM approach for prioritising the barriers to BCT adoption in the context of HSC. The study provides potential barriers to BCT and categorises them into four different perspectives, along with their degree of influence.

PurposeHumanitarian supply chain (HSC) has been constantly challenged with multiple issues due to the complex dynamics of the disaster. These issues are inevitable and interrelated. The issues produce undesirable cascading effects that make performance measurement complicated. This paper aims to identify and model the critical barriers in the HSC.Design/methodology/approachThe study identifies 17 barriers through the relevant literature and interviews with the stakeholders related to humanitarian organization (HO) in the developing economy. The barriers have been identified from strategic, technological, organizational, economic and operational point of view. Further, the barriers were ranked based on the degree of influence using the grey analytic network process (ANP) approach. The interrelationship among the influential barriers is established through modified total interpretive structural modelling (mTISM). To analyse and demonstrate the iterative consensus among the stakeholders, kappa statistics was adopted.FindingsThe barriers have been ranked to determine their extent of influence and modelled to reveal the interrelationship among them. The issues concerned with skills of personnel are the most influential barrier. Other three critical barriers identified are: chaotic operative environment, conflicting objectives of HO and lack of funding for information technology (IT) infrastructure. Appropriate funds need to be allocated towards IT infrastructure and personnel training.Originality/valueBoth quantitative and qualitative performance measurement frameworks had been proposed earlier for HSC. However, limited literature addresses the implementation issues with the available frameworks. This study advances the knowledge on performance measurement barriers of HSC and develops a functional description to identify the critical role of performance measurement in HOs. The study proposes a new version of the interpretive structure modelling, using mTISM technique, to determine the contextual interactions between various HSC performance measurement barriers.

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PurposePharmaceutical donations are a practical approach to increase medicine availability during disasters such as disease outbreaks. However, often donated pharmaceuticals are inappropriate and unsuitable. This convergence of inappropriate pharmaceuticals is a severe operational challenge and results in environmental hazards. This study explores the pharmaceutical supply chains (PSCs) during a disease outbreak to relieve the negative impact of the material convergence problem (MCP).Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a situation-actors-process learning-action-performance (SAP-LAP) linkage framework to understand the PSC dynamics. The problem-solving component of the SAP-LAP analysis provides the strategies catering to MCP. The findings from the SAP-LAP helped to develop the causal loop diagram (CLD). This study conducts several experiments on the proposed strategies by integrating CLD into a stock and flow diagram. Later, a disease outbreak case study accessed the pharmaceutical donations effect on PSC performance.FindingsThe study synthesises and evaluates propositions and strategies to incorporate circular economy (CE) principles in PSC. This study proposed two strategies; one to sort and supply and the other to sort, supply and resell. The reuse policy improves humanitarian organisations' finances in the simulation study. This study verified the operational improvement of PSC by reducing the transport and storage burden due to MCP.Originality/valueThis study comprehensively approaches the issue of drug donation and uniquely produced several propositions for incorporating a CE perspective in PSC. The study also proposed a unique simulation approach to model the donation arrivals in response to a disease outbreak using susceptible, exposed, infectious and recovered modelling.