IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i11p3926-d178991.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Blockchain Can Shape Sustainable Global Value Chains: An Evidence, Verifiability, and Enforceability (EVE) Framework

Author

Listed:
  • William Nikolakis

    (Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada)

  • Lijo John

    (Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode 673570, India
    Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada)

  • Harish Krishnan

    (Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada)

Abstract

Law, regulation, and private standards have evolved to enhance sustainability in value chains. However, the volume of hard and soft laws has created complexity and fragmentation for consumers and firms. In addition, global value chains are increasingly disaggregated, making it difficult for consumers to enforce breaches of sustainability representations. Blockchain, as an immutable and digital record keeping system, is a tool that can deal with this growing complexity in global value chains. Documents verifying sustainability that were once in the private domain and stored in paper copy can now be made accessible in a secure and transparent blockchain platform. Despite a growing interest in the potential of blockchain to transform businesses, there are few concrete examples or scholarly literature showing how blockchain is operationalized in practice. Using a “conceptual framework analysis” approach, we develop an Evidence, Verifiability, and Enforceability (EVE) framework to illustrate how blockchain can enhance sustainability by providing information to consumers on the origin of products, assurances as to the veracity of the information, and a mechanism to enforce representations through the blockchain smart contract function. However, there need to be safeguards put in place for blockchain technology to meet its promise and we discuss some of these challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • William Nikolakis & Lijo John & Harish Krishnan, 2018. "How Blockchain Can Shape Sustainable Global Value Chains: An Evidence, Verifiability, and Enforceability (EVE) Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:3926-:d:178991
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/3926/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/3926/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krishnan, Harish & Winter, Ralph A., 2012. "The Economic Foundations of Supply Chain Contracting," Foundations and Trends(R) in Technology, Information and Operations Management, now publishers, vol. 5(3–4), pages 147-309, September.
    2. Guillaume Chapron, 2017. "The environment needs cryptogovernance," Nature, Nature, vol. 545(7655), pages 403-405, May.
    3. Hackius, Niels & Petersen, Moritz, 2017. "Blockchain in logistics and supply chain: Trick or treat?," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), Digitalization in Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Smart and Digital Solutions for an Industry 4.0 Environment. Proceedings of the Hamburg Inter, volume 23, pages 3-18, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    4. Clodia Vurro & Angeloantonio Russo & Francesco Perrini, 2009. "Shaping Sustainable Value Chains: Network Determinants of Supply Chain Governance Models," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(4), pages 607-621, December.
    5. Anne H. Gausdal & Karen V. Czachorowski & Marina Z. Solesvik, 2018. "Applying Blockchain Technology: Evidence from Norwegian Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    6. Pasquale Giungato & Roberto Rana & Angela Tarabella & Caterina Tricase, 2017. "Current Trends in Sustainability of Bitcoins and Related Blockchain Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-11, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xue Han & Pratibha Rani, 2022. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Evaluate the barriers of blockchain technology adoption in sustainable supply chain management in the manufacturing sector using a novel Pythagorean fuzzy-CRITIC-CoCoSo approach," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 725-742, December.
    2. Sharma, Mahak & Sehrawat, Rajat & Daim, Tugrul & Shaygan, Amir, 2021. "Technology assessment: Enabling Blockchain in hospitality and tourism sectors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. Yazıcı, Ali Fırat & Olcay, Ali Bahadır & Arkalı Olcay, Gökçen, 2023. "A framework for maintaining sustainable energy use in Bitcoin mining through switching efficient mining hardware," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Taab Ahmad Samad & Rohit Sharma & Kunal K Ganguly & Samuel Fosso Wamba & Geetika Jain, 2023. "Enablers to the adoption of blockchain technology in logistics supply chains: evidence from an emerging economy," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 327(1), pages 251-291, August.
    5. Gabriella M. Hastig & ManMohan S. Sodhi, 2020. "Blockchain for Supply Chain Traceability: Business Requirements and Critical Success Factors," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(4), pages 935-954, April.
    6. Vineet Paliwal & Shalini Chandra & Suneel Sharma, 2020. "Blockchain Technology for Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Literature Review and a Classification Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-39, September.
    7. Yi Wang & Yafei Yang & Zhaoxiang Qin & Yefei Yang & Jun Li, 2023. "A Literature Review on the Application of Digital Technology in Achieving Green Supply Chain Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, May.
    8. Qu, Zhan & Raff, Horst & Schmitt, Nicolas, 2018. "Incentives through inventory control in supply chains," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 486-513.
    9. Giuseppe Varavallo & Giuseppe Caragnano & Fabrizio Bertone & Luca Vernetti-Prot & Olivier Terzo, 2022. "Traceability Platform Based on Green Blockchain: An Application Case Study in Dairy Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-14, March.
    10. repec:pcz:journl:v:6:y:2012:i:1:p:33-44 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Fu Jia & Yan Jiang, 2018. "Sustainable Global Sourcing: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, February.
    12. Bianca Polenzani & Chiara Riganelli & Andrea Marchini, 2020. "Sustainability Perception of Local Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Consumers’ Attitude: A New Italian Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, January.
    13. M. Ángeles Sanfiel-Fumero & Yaiza Armas-Cruz & Olga González-Morales, 2017. "Sustainability of the tourist supply chain and governance in an insular biosphere reserve destination: the perspective of tourist accommodation," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(7), pages 1256-1274, July.
    14. Shuchih Ernest Chang & Hueimin Louis Luo & YiChian Chen, 2019. "Blockchain-Enabled Trade Finance Innovation: A Potential Paradigm Shift on Using Letter of Credit," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Sangsung Park & Sunghae Jun, 2020. "Sustainable Technology Analysis of Blockchain Using Generalized Additive Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Sachin Kumar Mangla & Yiğit Kazançoğlu & Abdullah Yıldızbaşı & Cihat Öztürk & Ahmet Çalık, 2022. "A conceptual framework for blockchain‐based sustainable supply chain and evaluating implementation barriers: A case of the tea supply chain," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(8), pages 3693-3716, December.
    17. Magdalena Rusch & Josef‐Peter Schöggl & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2023. "Application of digital technologies for sustainable product management in a circular economy: A review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1159-1174, March.
    18. Francesco Perrini & Angeloantonio Russo & Antonio Tencati & Clodia Vurro, 2011. "Deconstructing the Relationship Between Corporate Social and Financial Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 59-76, March.
    19. Marija Jović & Edvard Tijan & Doroteja Vidmar & Andreja Pucihar, 2022. "Factors of Digital Transformation in the Maritime Transport Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.
    20. Saeedeh Anvari & Metin Turkay, 2017. "The facility location problem from the perspective of triple bottom line accounting of sustainability," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(21), pages 6266-6287, November.
    21. Aditi S. Saha & Rakesh D. Raut & Vinay Surendra Yadav & Abhijit Majumdar, 2022. "Blockchain Changing the Outlook of the Sustainable Food Supply Chain to Achieve Net Zero?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-21, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:3926-:d:178991. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.