IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transe/v181y2024ics136655452300340x.html

Blockchain technology as a strategic weapon to bring procurement 4.0 truly alive: Literature review and future research agenda

Author

Listed:
  • Govindan, Kannan
  • Jain, Preeti
  • Kr. Singh, Rajesh
  • Mishra, Ruchi

Abstract

Balancing efficiency and resilience in any supply chain commences from its ability to secure supplier networks. Blockchain technology applications in procurement can work as a major enabler in this process. Despite the unquestionable relevance of Blockchain Technology (BCT)-integrated Procurement, no comprehensive review exists. Considering this significant research gap, the present study aims to provide a comprehensive literature review by deeply examining 95 highly relevant papers published from January 2012 to Sep 2023. Existing literature studies suggest BCT as the imitable enabler of the Procurement 4.0 era, yet the topic has not been fully explored and researched. This study identifies noteworthy deficits in theoretical underpinnings, technological contributions in generating new revenue models, radical impacts anticipated on the procurement organization restructuring, and so forth. The research is timely and importantly advantageous because it offers a holistic view of relevant literature-driven evidence about a range of existing dimensions on the subject. More specifically, this study provides exhaustive key recommendations for future research on BCT applications in procurement utilizing the Theory, Context, and Methodology (TCM) framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Govindan, Kannan & Jain, Preeti & Kr. Singh, Rajesh & Mishra, Ruchi, 2024. "Blockchain technology as a strategic weapon to bring procurement 4.0 truly alive: Literature review and future research agenda," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transe:v:181:y:2024:i:c:s136655452300340x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2023.103352
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136655452300340X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tre.2023.103352?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Syed Abdul Rehman Khan & Asif Razzaq & Zhang Yu & Sharon Miller, 2021. "Retracted: Industry 4.0 and circular economy practices: A new era business strategies for environmental sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 4001-4014, December.
    2. Justin Paul & Gurmeet Singh, 2017. "The 45 years of foreign direct investment research: Approaches, advances and analytical areas," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 2512-2527, November.
    3. Zhiyuan Wang & Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng & Wei Jiang & Shaojie Tang, 2021. "Blockchain‐Enabled Data Sharing in Supply Chains: Model, Operationalization, and Tutorial," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(7), pages 1965-1985, July.
    4. Sara Saberi & Mahtab Kouhizadeh & Joseph Sarkis & Lejia Shen, 2019. "Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain management," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(7), pages 2117-2135, April.
    5. 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).
    6. Ulpan Tokkozhina & Ana Lucia Martins & Joao C. Ferreira, 2023. "Multi-tier supply chain behavior with blockchain technology: evidence from a frozen fish supply chain," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 1562-1576, September.
    7. Jörg Weking & Michael Mandalenakis & Andreas Hein & Sebastian Hermes & Markus Böhm & Helmut Krcmar, 2020. "The impact of blockchain technology on business models – a taxonomy and archetypal patterns," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 30(2), pages 285-305, June.
    8. Canabal, Anne & White III, George O., 2008. "Entry mode research: Past and future," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 267-284, June.
    9. Choi, Tsan-Ming, 2019. "Blockchain-technology-supported platforms for diamond authentication and certification in luxury supply chains," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 17-29.
    10. Arunmozhi Manimuthu & V. G. Venkatesh & Yangyan Shi & V. Raja Sreedharan & S. C. Lenny Koh, 2022. "Design and development of automobile assembly model using federated artificial intelligence with smart contract," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 111-135, January.
    11. Aditya Chidepatil & Prabhleen Bindra & Devyani Kulkarni & Mustafa Qazi & Meghana Kshirsagar & Krishnaswamy Sankaran, 2020. "From Trash to Cash: How Blockchain and Multi-Sensor-Driven Artificial Intelligence Can Transform Circular Economy of Plastic Waste?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, April.
    12. Erik Hofmann & Joël Henri Brunner & Elmar Holschbach, 2020. "Research in business service purchasing: current status and directions for the future," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 421-460, August.
    13. Cecile Gerwel Proches & Shamim Bodhanya, 2015. "Exploring stakeholder interactions through the lens of complexity theory: lessons from the sugar industry," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 2507-2525, November.
    14. Ilyas Masudin & Bima Bagos Rahmatullah & Muhammad Armand Agung & Inka Amalia Dewanti & Dian Palupi Restuputri, 2022. "Traceability System in Halal Procurement: A Bibliometric Review," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-17, September.
    15. Malik Khalfan & Neda Azizi & Omid Haass & Tayyab Maqsood & Istiaq Ahmed, 2022. "Blockchain Technology: Potential Applications for Public Sector E-Procurement and Project Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    16. Vineet Jain & Puneeta Ajmera, 2020. "Modelling the enablers of industry 4.0 in the Indian manufacturing industry," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 70(6), pages 1233-1262, June.
    17. Dutta, Pankaj & Choi, Tsan-Ming & Somani, Surabhi & Butala, Richa, 2020. "Blockchain technology in supply chain operations: Applications, challenges and research opportunities," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    18. Wang, Yingli & Singgih, Meita & Wang, Jingyao & Rit, Mihaela, 2019. "Making sense of blockchain technology: How will it transform supply chains?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 221-236.
    19. Govindan, Kannan & Kannan, Devika & Jørgensen, Thomas Ballegård & Nielsen, Tim Straarup, 2022. "Supply Chain 4.0 performance measurement: A systematic literature review, framework development, and empirical evidence," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    20. Marjaneh Jahangiri Lahkani & Shouyang Wang & Mariusz Urbański & Mariya Egorova, 2020. "Sustainable B2B E-Commerce and Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Finance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-14, May.
    21. Tiwari, Sunil & Sharma, Pankaj & Choi, Tsan-Ming & Lim, Andrew, 2023. "Blockchain and third-party logistics for global supply chain operations: Stakeholders’ perspectives and decision roadmap," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    22. Hughes, Laurie & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Misra, Santosh K. & Rana, Nripendra P. & Raghavan, Vishnupriya & Akella, Viswanadh, 2019. "Blockchain research, practice and policy: Applications, benefits, limitations, emerging research themes and research agenda," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 114-129.
    23. Vivek Kumar Singh & Prashasti Singh & Mousumi Karmakar & Jacqueline Leta & Philipp Mayr, 2021. "The journal coverage of Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions: A comparative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 5113-5142, June.
    24. Abirami Raja Santhi & Padmakumar Muthuswamy, 2022. "Pandemic, War, Natural Calamities, and Sustainability: Industry 4.0 Technologies to Overcome Traditional and Contemporary Supply Chain Challenges," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-32, November.
    25. Paul, Justin & Criado, Alex Rialp, 2020. "The art of writing literature review: What do we know and what do we need to know?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    26. Kshetri, Nir, 2018. "1 Blockchain’s roles in meeting key supply chain management objectives," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 80-89.
    27. Tsan‐Ming Choi & Subodha Kumar & Xiaohang Yue & Hau‐Ling Chan, 2022. "Disruptive Technologies and Operations Management in the Industry 4.0 Era and Beyond," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 9-31, January.
    28. V.G. Venkatesh & K. Kang & B. Wang & R.Y. Zhong & A. Zhang, 2020. "System Architecture for Blockchain Based Transparency of Supply Chain Social Sustainability," Post-Print hal-04457147, HAL.
    29. Ernest Barceló & Katarina Dimić-Mišić & Monir Imani & Vesna Spasojević Brkić & Michael Hummel & Patrick Gane, 2023. "Regulatory Paradigm and Challenge for Blockchain Integration of Decentralized Systems: Example—Renewable Energy Grids," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-27, January.
    30. Jung-Yu Lai & Juite Wang & Yi-Hsuan Chiu, 2021. "Evaluating blockchain technology for reducing supply chain risks," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1089-1111, December.
    31. Salcedo, Eduardo & Gupta, Manjul, 2021. "The effects of individual-level espoused national cultural values on the willingness to use Bitcoin-like blockchain currencies," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    32. Seunghwan Myeong & Yuseok Jung, 2019. "Administrative Reforms in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Case of Blockchain Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    33. Choi, Tsan-Ming & Luo, Suyuan, 2019. "Data quality challenges for sustainable fashion supply chain operations in emerging markets: Roles of blockchain, government sponsors and environment taxes," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 139-152.
    34. Pam Manhart & James K. Summers & Jennifer Blackhurst, 2020. "A Meta‐Analytic Review of Supply Chain Risk Management: Assessing Buffering and Bridging Strategies and Firm Performance," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 56(3), pages 66-87, July.
    35. Santosh B. Rane & Prathamesh R. Potdar, 2021. "Blockchain-IoT-based risk management approach for project procurement process of asset propelled industries," International Journal of Procurement Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 14(5), pages 641-679.
    36. Miao Yu, 2022. "Design of Remote Fitting Platform Based on Virtual Clothing Sales," International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management (IJISSCM), IGI Global Scientific Publishing, vol. 15(3), pages 1-12, July.
    37. Bigerna, Simona & Micheli, Silvia & Polinori, Paolo, 2021. "New generation acceptability towards durability and repairability of products: Circular economy in the era of the 4th industrial revolution," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    38. Alessandro Liberati & Douglas G Altman & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Cynthia Mulrow & Peter C Gøtzsche & John P A Ioannidis & Mike Clarke & P J Devereaux & Jos Kleijnen & David Moher, 2009. "The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-28, July.
    39. Niu, Baozhuang & Dong, Jian & Liu, Yaoqi, 2021. "Incentive alignment for blockchain adoption in medicine supply chains," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    40. Santosh B. Rane & Yahya A. M. Narvel, 2021. "Leveraging the industry 4.0 technologies for improving agility of project procurement management processes," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 12(6), pages 1146-1172, December.
    41. Chu-Chi Kuo & Joseph Z. Shyu, 2021. "A Cross-National Comparative Policy Analysis of the Blockchain Technology between the USA and China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    42. Dabić, Marina & Vlačić, Bozidar & Paul, Justin & Dana, Leo-Paul & Sahasranamam, Sreevas & Glinka, Beata, 2020. "Immigrant entrepreneurship: A review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 25-38.
    43. 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.
    44. Kahiya, Eldrede T., 2018. "Five decades of research on export barriers: Review and future directions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1172-1188.
    45. Fu Jia & Yan Jiang, 2018. "Sustainable Global Sourcing: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qamar, Amir & Clegg, Ben & Bryson, John & Du, Bohan, 2025. "Risk mitigation, adaptability and sectoral resilience: Buffering in automotive supply chains prior & post disruption," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    2. Qian, Zishun & Yan, Tingting & Li, Jianbin & Zhang, Yicheng, 2026. "Unleashing resilience through digitalization: Do upstream and downstream firms differ?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    3. Davies, Jennifer & Sharifi, Hossein & Lyons, Andrew & Forster, Rick & Elsayed, Omar Khaled Shokry Mohamed, 2024. "Non-fungible tokens: The missing ingredient for sustainable supply chains in the metaverse age?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    4. Sarmistha Mishra & Dukhabandhu Sahoo & Souryabrata Mohapatra, 2025. "Barriers to Circular Economy Adoption in MSMEs: a WINGS Analysis of Challenges in Developing Economies," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 5(6), pages 4919-4944, November.
    5. Liu, Samuel Shuai & Ma, Benedict Jun & Zhang, Weijian & Cheng, Edwin T.C. & Li, Xiaowei & Ng, Chi-To, 2025. "Eliminating information asymmetry in supply chains: Blockchain-driven or not," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).

    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. Liu, Shuai & Hua, Guowei & Kang, Yuxuan & Edwin Cheng, T.C. & Xu, Yadong, 2022. "What value does blockchain bring to the imported fresh food supply chain?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    2. Davies, Jennifer & Sharifi, Hossein & Lyons, Andrew & Forster, Rick & Elsayed, Omar Khaled Shokry Mohamed, 2024. "Non-fungible tokens: The missing ingredient for sustainable supply chains in the metaverse age?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Pattanayak, Sirsha & Ramkumar, M. & Goswami, Mohit & Rana, Nripendra P., 2024. "Blockchain technology and supply chain performance: The role of trust and relational capabilities," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    4. Li, Zhiwen & Xu, Xianhao & Bai, Qingguo & Chen, Cheng & Wang, Hongwei & Xia, Peng, 2023. "Implications of information sharing on blockchain adoption in reducing carbon emissions: A mean–variance analysis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    5. Li, Qingying & Ma, Manqiong & Shi, Tianqin & Zhu, Chen, 2022. "Green investment in a sustainable supply chain: The role of blockchain and fairness," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    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. Choi, Tsan-Ming & Siqin, Tana, 2022. "Blockchain in logistics and production from Blockchain 1.0 to Blockchain 5.0: An intra-inter-organizational framework," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Dong, Ciwei & Huang, Qianzhi & Pan, Yuqing & Ng, Chi To & Liu, Renjun, 2023. "Logistics outsourcing: Effects of greenwashing and blockchain technology," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. Dou, Guowei & Wei, Kun & Sun, Tingting & Ma, Lijun, 2024. "Blockchain technology adoption in a supply chain: Channel leaderships and environmental implications," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    10. Sun, Xuting & Kuo, Yong-Hong & Xue, Weili & Li, Yanzhi, 2024. "Technology-driven logistics and supply chain management for societal impacts," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    11. Cao, Yu & Yi, Chaoqun & Wan, Guangyu & Hu, Hanli & Li, Qingsong & Wang, Shouyang, 2022. "An analysis on the role of blockchain-based platforms in agricultural supply chains," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. Gupta, Shivam & Modgil, Sachin & Choi, Tsan-Ming & Kumar, Ajay & Antony, Jiju, 2023. "Influences of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology on financial resilience of supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    13. Zhang, Tianyu & Dong, Peiwu & Chen, Xiangfeng & Gong, Yu, 2023. "The impacts of blockchain adoption on a dual-channel supply chain with risk-averse members," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    14. Niu, Baozhuang & Xu, Haotao & Chen, Lei, 2022. "Creating all-win by blockchain in a remanufacturing supply chain with consumer risk-aversion and quality untrust," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    15. Vincenzo Varriale & Antonello Cammarano & Francesca Michelino & Mauro Caputo, 2020. "The Unknown Potential of Blockchain for Sustainable Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-16, November.
    16. Lim, Weng Marc & Yap, Sheau-Fen & Makkar, Marian, 2021. "Home sharing in marketing and tourism at a tipping point: What do we know, how do we know, and where should we be heading?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 534-566.
    17. Khlystova, Olena & Kalyuzhnova, Yelena & Belitski, Maksim, 2022. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries: A literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1192-1210.
    18. Soumyadeb Chowdhury & Oscar Rodriguez-Espindola & Prasanta Dey & Pawan Budhwar, 2023. "Blockchain technology adoption for managing risks in operations and supply chain management: evidence from the UK," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 327(1), pages 539-574, August.
    19. Cao, Yifan & Shen, Bin, 2022. "Adopting blockchain technology to block less sustainable products’ entry in global trade," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    20. Tueanrat, Yanika & Papagiannidis, Savvas & Alamanos, Eleftherios, 2021. "Going on a journey: A review of the customer journey literature," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 336-353.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:transe:v:181:y:2024:i:c:s136655452300340x. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600244/description#description .

    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.