International Journal of Production Research

VIEW JOURNAL & SUBMIT

 

Guest editors

• Joseph Sarkis, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA. Email: jsarkis@wpi.edu

• Chunguang Bai, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China. E-mail: cbai@uestc.edu.cn

• Yingli Wang, Cardiff University, UK. Email: WangY14@cardiff.ac.uk

 

Submission timeline and instructions

May 31st, 2024

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Please select the special issue option "Blockchain Technology Applications" on the submission form.

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Subject

• Blockchain Technology

• Information Technology

• Logistics and Transportation

• Production Management

• Supply Chain Management

• Sustainability

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About the issue

Blockchain Technology has become a staple for multiple stakeholder involvement in production, logistics, and supply chain management.  It has garnered significant interest as numerous literature reviews have shown exponential growth in these areas. Some literature reviews are even for specific industries such as pharmaceuticals (Ghadge et al., 2022) and food supply chains (Li et al., 2021).

 

The blockchain gained popular attention as a vehicle for cryptocurrency, but the distributed ledger technology undergirding blockchain technology has shown operational and strategic capabilities for organizations, their supply chains, and multiple stakeholders (Saberi et al., 2019).

 

Blockchain technology has been recognized as a transformative innovation in many areas of business and society, including supply chain and logistics management. The decentralized and secure nature of blockchain can enhance the transparency, traceability, and efficiency of supply chain operations, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved in the production and logistics processes.

 

While there has been increasing efforts examining the impact of distributed ledger technology, the field of blockchain technology is relatively new, and its use in logistics, production, and supply chain management is still in the early stages of development (Koh et al., 2020). While there have been some successful case studies, there is still much to learn about how blockchain can be effectively integrated into existing supply chain systems and processes.

 

This call for paper is timely. While blockchain technology experienced a period of hype and experimentation, it is now moving beyond the proof-of-concept phase and into the phase of large-scale adoption and implementation. Many organizations are now recognizing the potential benefits of blockchain technology, including increased transparency, security, and efficiency in operations and supply chain management. For instance, in a multistakeholder environment, different parties such as manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, and consumers need to collaborate and share information to ensure the quality and timeliness of product delivery. Blockchain technology can facilitate such collaboration by providing a shared, tamper-proof ledger that enables stakeholders to track the movement of goods, verify the authenticity and ownership of products, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

 

As a result, there has been an increase in the number of blockchain initiatives which are beginning to demonstrate real-world benefits, delivering economic, environmental, and social value. Along with the increasing adoption of blockchain technology arise a number of challenges. These include interoperability issues between different blockchain systems, scalability concerns for larger and more complex supply chain systems, questions surrounding governance and regulation to ensure ethical and responsible use, and the need to integrate blockchain with existing systems and processes, which can be time-consuming and costly.

 

Therefore, in this fast-moving technological environment, there is an urgent need for further research and exploration to fully understand the potential benefits and challenges of this technology in different supply chain contexts. Overall, a special issue on blockchain technology and multistakeholder production and logistics management can contribute to advancing the understanding and practice of blockchain in supply chain and logistics management, and ultimately, to improving the efficiency, accountability, and sustainability of local and global supply chains.

 

This special issue on blockchain technology and multistakeholder production and logistics management can provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to explore the opportunities and challenges of using blockchain in this context.

 

We invite papers that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

 

• Theoretical and conceptual frameworks for understanding the role of blockchain in multistakeholder supply chain and logistics management. The lack of theoretical foundations for much of blockchain research is a major issue and limitation (Zhu et al., 2022).

 

• Evaluation of performance bottlenecks, data storage, resource consumption, data governance, and standards development are some of these issues (Wang et al., 2021).

 

• Addressing barriers to large-scale commercial applications of blockchain relating to behavioral, cultural, legal, economic, and technological concerns (Mathivathanan, et al., 2021).

 

• Business models and governance models—within blockchain enabled production and logistics—can be further expanded with evidence from these applications supporting or interacting with traditional developments (Wang et al., 2019). Additional investigation on how these actions result in performance through analytical models such as simulation and predictive analytics represents an important research avenue (Bai and Sarkis, 2022).

 

• The design of production, operations, and logistics infrastructure and mechanisms that develop as technology evolves—this evolution is exemplified not only for blockchain technology but the whole industry 4.0 evolution (Dolgui and Ivanov, 2020).

 

• The tools necessary to help support new tangible and intangible infrastructural situations which can utilize a variety of analytical models for design, testing, and monitoring and use of maturity models (e.g. Caiado et al., 2021).

 

• The potential of blockchain to enhance trust, security, and privacy in multistakeholder supply chain and logistics management (Collier and Sarkis, 2021). The need and investigation of when trust, security, and privacy is supported or damaged with blockchain applications in these settings.

 

• The potential of blockchain to support sustainable development goals laid out by the United Nations (Sarkis and Ibrahim, 2022). Examples, could include empirical use case studies of blockchain, circular economy and circular supply chain practices (especially production and logistics in this environment); and how blockchain can support various social and environmental sustainability goals and efforts.

 

• The challenges of interoperability, scalability, and governance of blockchain in multistakeholder production and logistics management. These will include the impact of blockchain on the roles and relationships of different stakeholders in the supply chain ecosystem.

 

• The role of smart contracts and other blockchain-enabled tools in facilitating coordination and collaboration among stakeholders in the supply chain. There is a missing link of optimization models in these and other blockchain management situations (Bai and Sarkis, 2022).

 

• Finally, at the broadest and most strategic, global level, how do governmental policies, regulations, treaties, and international trade relate to barriers and enablers of production and logistics blockchain ecosystems (Chang et al., 2020).

 

References:

 

Bai, C., & Sarkis, J. (2022). A critical review of formal analytical modeling for blockchain technology in production, operations, and supply chains: Harnessing progress for future potential. International Journal of Production Economics, 108636.

 

Caiado, R. G. G., Scavarda, L. F., Gavião, L. O., Ivson, P., de Mattos Nascimento, D. L., & Garza-Reyes, J. A. (2021). A fuzzy rule-based industry 4.0 maturity model for operations and supply chain management. International Journal of Production Economics, 231, 107883.

 

Chang, Y., Iakovou, E., & Shi, W. (2020). Blockchain in global supply chains and cross border trade: a critical synthesis of the state-of-the-art, challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Production Research, 58(7), 2082-2099.

 

Collier, Z. A., & Sarkis, J. (2021). The zero-trust supply chain: Managing supply chain risk in the absence of trust. International Journal of Production Research, 59(11), 3430-3445.

 

Dolgui, A., & Ivanov, D. (2020). Exploring supply chain structural dynamics: New disruptive technologies and disruption risks. International journal of production economics, 229, 107886.

 

Ghadge, A., Bourlakis, M., Kamble, S., & Seuring, S. (2022). Blockchain implementation in pharmaceutical supply chains: A review and conceptual framework. International Journal of Production Research, 1-19.

 

Koh, L., Dolgui, A., & Sarkis, J. (2020). Blockchain in transport and logistics–paradigms and transitions. International Journal of Production Research, 58(7), 2054-2062.

 

Li, K., Lee, J. Y., & Gharehgozli, A. (2021). Blockchain in food supply chains: A literature review and synthesis analysis of platforms, benefits and challenges. International Journal of Production Research, 1-20.

 

Mathivathanan, D., Mathiyazhagan, K., Rana, N. P., Khorana, S., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2021). Barriers to the adoption of blockchain technology in business supply chains: a total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) approach. International Journal of Production Research, 59(11), 3338-3359.

 

Saberi, S., Kouhizadeh, M., Sarkis, J., & Shen, L. (2019). Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain management. International Journal of Production Research, 57(7), 2117-2135.

 

Sarkis, J., & Ibrahim, S. (2022). Building knowledge beyond our experience: integrating sustainable development goals into IJPR’s research future. International Journal of Production Research, 60(24), 7301-7318.

 

Wang, Y., Chen, C. H., & Zghari-Sales, A. (2021). Designing a blockchain enabled supply chain. International Journal of Production Research, 59(5), 1450-1475.

 

Wang, Y., Han, J. H., & Beynon-Davies, P. (2019). Understanding blockchain technology for future supply chains: a systematic literature review and research agenda. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 24(1), 62-84.

 

Zhu, Q., Bai, C., & Sarkis, J. (2022). Blockchain technology and supply chains: The paradox of the atheoretical research discourse. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 164, 102824.