Can blockchain help food supply chains with platform operations during the COVID-19 outbreak?

Abstract

Food selling platforms are facing both challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 outbreak as the enforcement of social distancing protocols has pushed consumers with serious health and safety concerns to shop online. Observing that platforms and their suppliers have adopted blockchain technologies and linked selected information nodes separately to foster consumers’ trust, we establish a game-theoretic model to study the operations decisions and blockchain adoption strategies for a food supply chain consisting of one platform and one supplier. We explore the values and impacts of blockchain on the retailing platform, supplier, and consumers, respectively. An all-win situation is achieved when both members of the supply chain adopt blockchain. We further propose that not all prevalent supply chain contracts can achieve supply chain coordination in the presence of blockchain. In extended studies, we examine the incentives of the supply chain members’ blockchain implementation with consideration of the fixed cost of such adoption, product infection, and tampered information.

Blockchain as the “trust-building machine” for supply chain management

“…For example, blockchain can help inform consumers regarding the origin of products’ components and the production process of the finished products in the fishery supply chain, which consequently helps solve the trust crisis issue in fish consumption which mainly stems from a deficiency of information (Probst, 2020 ). Similarly, blockchain deployment can foster consumers’ trust and help address the issue of serious health and safety concerns in food supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic through the reinforcement of information visibility (L. Yang et al, 2021a ).…”

Decisions for Blockchain Adoption and Information Sharing in a Low Carbon Supply Chain

“…Yang et al [15] price sensitivity, penalty costs, valuation and blockchain adoption cost food supply chain Li et al [16] the deployment cost of blockchain adoption combating counterfeits Fan et al [17] traceability awareness and costs ---This paper value-added service efficiency low-carbon supplychain Low carbon consumers consider not only the low carbon but also the value-added service when choosing products. As reported by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and AliResearch, there is a growing interest in value-added services among consumers [18].…”

“…Vafadarnikjoo et al [30] proposed an action plan framework for identifying barriers to the implementation of blockchain technology based on the neutrosophic analytic hierarchy process (N-AHP). Yang et al [15] explored the values and impacts of blockchain on food supply chains with platform operations. Liu et al [31] analyzed the pricing and coordination of the vaccine supply chain based on blockchain technology and reveal the positive impact of blockchain on the vaccine supply chain.…”

Can Blockchain Technology Support Agricultural Sustainability?

“…Blockchain technology can enable businesses to comply with legislation and consumer demands, which will create a positive social and environmental impact 50 and even transform food systems 53 . However for blockchain technologies to be functional, global development and agreement on suitable data standards and governance are needed.…”

“…However for blockchain technologies to be functional, global development and agreement on suitable data standards and governance are needed. Unless we have standard transparency norms for agribusinesses, we can have a situation in which they provide only limited information and even obscure data on commodity sourcing and yet claim to be sustainable or obtain third-party certification 53 .…”