The use of blockchain in the luxury industry: supply chains and the traceability of goods

A triple helix model for the diffusion of Industry 4.0 technologies in firms in the Marche Region

Background

Firms in the Marche Region, Italy, seem to struggle with understanding the importance of Industry 4.0 technologies, including blockchain technology, and delay the adoption of these innovative technologies.

Methods

This paper is based on findings of three levels of qualitative analysis: the first one is a literature review; the second uses secondary sources about the diffusion of Industry 4.0 in the Marche Region and the local institutions and policies favouring it, retrieved from institutional websites and web searches; the third uses primary data which has been collected through an explorative survey conducted by sending a questionnaire to local innovative firms between 25th and the 27th of October 2022.

Results

The literature review shows that collaboration between triple helix actors can foster innovation in firms. Secondary data about firms in the Marche Region describes an economy made prevalently of micro enterprises not capable of adopting Industry 4.0 technologies, and individuates some institutions located in the region having the role of innovation intermediaries that help firms innovate. Among the secondary sources, the new Smart Specialisation Strategy 2021-2027 of the Marche Region emphasises the role of Industry 4.0 for economic development which requires the involvement of the research and innovation actors present in the region. The survey conducted for this study shows that the firms that adopted Industry 4.0 technologies have strong ties and collaboration with triple helix institutions.

Conclusions

Based on the findings, a triple helix model is proposed to foster the diffusion of Industry 4.0 technologies in the Marche Region, where innovation intermediaries are called to manage knowledge flows both among them and between academia, government, and industry, to activate a virtuous cycle of innovation adoption and valorisation.

A bibliometric study on blockchain-based supply chain: a theme analysis, adopted methodologies, and future research agenda

The emergence of the underlying blockchain technology of bitcoin has gained extensive attention from researchers and practitioners. As distributed ledger technology, blockchain widely finds its applications in the supply chain to mitigate issues related to transparency, information sharing, process efficiency, and traceability. This study employed a knowledge-based visualization technique to create a vision beyond other review studies on the blockchain-based supply chain. We used bibliometric and network analysis to synthesize the previous literature. In total, 431 articles in the timespan of 2017 to April 2022 from Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases were analyzed after applying search string, inclusion, and exclusion criteria. Basic information was extracted from initial data screening; then, data was analyzed on the grounds of co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling, citation, co-authorship, and co-citation analysis. In addition, thematic analysis was performed to analyze the content of the previous studies, adopted research methods, and dynamic industries in the literature. Besides all these, we identified various research gaps and proposed research directions for future study. We believe that this study provides adequate knowledge to academic scholars and supply chain practitioners to fast-track the current research in the supply chain domain using blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology in supply chain management: an organizational theoretic overview and research agenda

Blockchain technology is touted as a game-changer. Many experts consider blockchain technology as one of the disruptive innovations. Following significant success in the banking and finance sector, blockchain technology has found significant success in all fields, including health, manufacturing, transportation, disaster relief operations, and many others. Recently, the academician has contributed significantly towards understanding blockchain technology and its application in the management field. To understand how the literature on blockchain technology in the supply chain has progressed, we undertook an extensive review of the literature published in peer-reviewed journals using databases such as SCOPUS. We have further classified our literature into four stages (pre-adoption, adoption, implementation, and application). Finally, we synthesized the findings of the study and proposed a research framework to explain how an organization can build supply chain resilience and enhance supply chain performance with the help of blockchain technology. Finally, we have noted the limitations of the study and future research directions.

Blockchain as the "trust-building machine" for supply chain management

This paper aims to investigate the impact of blockchain application on trust levels in supply chains. Through the systematic review of the relevant literature, three dimensions of trust, i.e., the trustor-trustee perspective, forms of trust, and time orientation, are investigated. Our findings show that, first, there are three pairs of trustors and trustees involved in blockchain implementation: (a) the user and the blockchain, (b) two supply chain partners, and (c) the consumer/public and a supply chain unit. Second, the two forms of trust, namely cognition-based and institution-based trust, are likely to be enhanced by blockchain execution, while affect-based trust may not be directly impacted by the technology. Third, the presence of blockchain technology would facilitate swift trust-building between unknown supply chain partners under specific circumstances. Moreover, we also find contradicting assertions among scholars on the implications of blockchain for trust in supply chains. While some studies pointed out that blockchain will enable a trustless trusted scheme, others expected the reinforcement of interorganizational trust. To test these assertions, we develop the blockchain-entrusted supply chain models to present the three-step process of how trust is developed through the blockchain and diffused to supply chain partners and external stakeholders.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10479-022-04868-0.

Blockchain Technology for Renewable Energy: Principles, Applications and Prospects

Blockchain, or distributed ledger, is an innovative technology that is emerging in various sectors and industries across the globe. It has attracted the attention of different interest groups such as energy companies, SMEs and start-ups, information technology developers, financial institutions, national authorities, and the university community. Through, for example, the decentralization of authority in transactions, Internet of Things (IoT) implementation, and smart contracting, the improvement of the daily business operations is firmly forecasted. In the energy sector, digitalization is already present in solutions such as smart grids, smart meters, electric vehicles, etc. Moreover, a new concept of the Internet of Energy (IoE) has been introduced in the academic literature. In this article, the level of trust and maturity of Blockchain technology implementation is investigated through the Blockchain Maturity Questionnaire, developed by the authors. The database consists of responses from upper management professionals from the renewable energy industry. The analysis reveals the state of know-how about Blockchain, the main benefits and bottlenecks associated with its implementation as well as willingness to integrate this technology in the case companies’ future operations. The insight from the industry experts helped to provide a “Roadmap for Blockchain Adoption” in future energy systems. This curiosity study yields numerous applications not only for the renewable energy industry experts but also for the interest groups coming from different industries, as well as public authorities and researchers scrutinizing the fields taken into its scope.