Blockchain is not a silver bullet for agro-food supply chain sustainability: Insights from a coffee case study

Bager, Simon; Singh, Christina; Persson, Ulf

doi:10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100163

Cited by 39 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…This paper investigates the adoption of technology by involving prospective users through mixed-method research. Furthermore, we formulate questions in a way that made participants aware of 'blockchain' since the opinion of the system might lie in the digitized supply chain rather than the blockchain [40]. We discuss how our findings conform or vary from other works in Section VII.…”

Section: Technology Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…In addition to Bager et al [40], we found only one work that studied the adoption of blockchain-based coffee traceability systems in business. Thiruchelvam et al [41] analyzed comments from stakeholders and proposed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of blockchain technology in the Burundi coffee industry.…”

Section: Technology Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Recently, Bager et al [39,40] implemented an eventbased modeling framework for the coffee supply chain, using blockchain to increase traceability and transparency. Their work was based on fieldwork involving stakeholders, and they reported barriers and opportunities for technology adoption.…”

Section: Coffee Traceabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Blockchain-Based Traceability System From the Users’ Perspective: A Case Study of Thai Coffee Supply Chain

et al. 2022

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We explored the use of blockchain technology for traceability to improve the safety and value of food, focusing on the coffee supply chain as a case study. The main goal was to evaluate the feasibility in terms of design, perceived benefits, and challenges of applying blockchain and traceability from the users' perspective. We implemented a prototype using a user-centered iterative interface design. Then we used the prototype to answer our research questions in mixed-method research, including in-depth interviews (10 participants) and a survey (350 participants) with stakeholders in the coffee supply chain in Thailand. The results showed that timeline-based design was preferred over map-based or text-based design for the visualization of traceability information and that blockchain was a promising technology, as 67% of the survey participants saw a positive influence of blockchain on the adoption of applications. The most notable benefits were origin checking and increasing product trustworthiness. The most notable challenges were inaccurate or incomplete information and the disclosure of trade secrets. More work is required to address the challenges for everyone in the supply chain ecosystem to adopt the proposed traceability system, including (1) providing trustworthiness and completeness of information by cross-checking with third parties or other users, (2) protecting sensitive information by aligning users' interests or allowing control of information disclosure, and (3) educating and giving producers the motivation for the difficulty and the extra work.

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Section: Technology Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Technology Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Blockchain-Based Traceability System From the Users’ Perspective: A Case Study of Thai Coffee Supply Chain

et al. 2022

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“…The various supply chain and casespecific characteristics affecting implementation, e.g., digitization, governance structure, ownership, logistics, etc. are thoroughly discussed by Bager et al (2022), who analyze the Good Coffee implementation from a sustainability point of view. Finally, the current prohibitively high costs of development and implementation and the numerous adjustments and modifications required across supply chains as part of the implementation, e.g., logistics, digitization, recording, etc., make both blockchain-as-aservice and cloud-hosted solutions ineffective from an economic perspective.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stakeholders and responsibilities. Full supply chain with all stakeholders and their corresponding processing procedures(Bager et al, 2022).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Event-Based Supply Chain Network Modeling: Blockchain for Good Coffee

et al. 2022

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Blockchain and distributed ledger technology (BC/DLT) provides distributed databases with decentralized governance, tamper-proof recording, high availability and non-copyable digital assets, which have made it a natural technological basis for supply chain management. In this paper, we introduce REALISTIC, a novel event-based modeling framework for supply chain networks (SCNs) that includes production processes. It extends McCarty’s Resources-Events-Agents (REA) accounting model with secure transformations, which, across the entire SCN, guarantee that certified output resources cannot be digitally produced ex nihilo, but require certified input resources of at least the same amount as what is produced. This generalizes the no-double-spend guarantee of current BC/DLT to (digital twins of) physical resources and their production. Authenticated human or robotic Internet of Things (IoT) actors digitally sign and cryptographically commit to the veracity of real-world events on an immutable database, without having to take responsibility for their aggregate consequences. User-specifiable interpretations, corresponding to queries and analytical functions in database systems, provide auditable aggregate information computed from recorded events across the entire SCN. This includes fine-grained and trustworthy tracing of final products through multiple stages of production processes, semi-finished products, quality certifications and transportation all the way back to their raw materials. We present a case study for an end-to-end coffee supply chain that tracks fine-grained and detailed information from a farmer’s coffee cherries to retail coffee bags, involving all its actors. Our model handles product provenance; auditable sustainability, quality and trade information; production processes from parchment via green to roasted coffee; product quality tests; farmer certifications; and transportation across the entire coffee supply chain. It is based on field work involving farmers, cooperatives, processors, traders, importers, and a major roasting company stretching from Colombia to Scandinavia. Its REALISTIC-based modeling is the foundation for the design of our prototype implementation, which includes Ethereum blockchain code, RDBMS-based server code and a web app client. Their source code is publicly available on GitHub.

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Uncovering Industry 4.0 technology attributes in sustainable supply chain 4.0: A systematic literature review

2023

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Industry 4.0 technologies are transforming supply chain management from a linear model to what is known as supply chain 4.0, where operations are integrated, and flows stream in multiple directions. The study aims to explore the attributes of Industry 4.0 technologies and their impact to drive sustainability values. The findings were generated after a systematic literature review of 71 articles on various sustainability dimensions and multiple Industry 4.0 technologies. The study provides a review of the most studied technologies in the sustainable supply chain context and categorizes their attributes as well as their relevance to sustainability. The results show that advances in technologies such as Blockchain and Internet of Things have increased the potential for supply chains to reach sustainability values.The study expands the existing literature and encourages businesses and the scientific community to investigate the power of Industry 4.0 technologies for sustainability.It presents limitations and directions for future research.

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Blockchain is not a silver bullet for agro-food supply chain sustainability: Insights from a coffee case study

Cited by 39 publications

References 42 publications

Blockchain-Based Traceability System From the Users’ Perspective: A Case Study of Thai Coffee Supply Chain

Blockchain-Based Traceability System From the Users’ Perspective: A Case Study of Thai Coffee Supply Chain

Event-Based Supply Chain Network Modeling: Blockchain for Good Coffee

Uncovering Industry 4.0 technology attributes in sustainable supply chain 4.0: A systematic literature review

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