Blockchain and Sustainability in Supply Chains

Introduction

In the business world, before the pandemic, the Supply Chain (SC) consisted of three subcategories: handling, storage, and transportation of products. These categories have been strengthened by ensuring the right product, in the right condition, is delivered at the right time, to the right place, for the right client, at the right cost, and in the right quantity. To achieve these, it is crucial to carefully manage the transactions involved in the SC process, from the delivery of goods through the flow of materials from production to the final client. The SC expanded into the global market, which increased complexity and required digitalization to improve the flow of information between SC partners. Digitalization has significantly improved income with the help of real-time information flow, which increases customer satisfaction (Muduli et al., 2022). However, the flow of information through digitization has increased the risk of cyberattacks and hackers can manipulate, steal, or delete information, posing a serious threat. In this regard, blockchain is a more advanced and sophisticated technology that can combat these risks by enhancing both the security and efficiency of the SC through transforming the entire process of product creation, marketing, and transportation for expediting purchase order execution, streamlined invoice processing and accelerated payment reconciliation (Mazumder & Bhaumik, 2022). The SC experts applied a range of transaction-related data to create distinctive and easily verifiable identities for purchase orders, inventory units, and bills of lading, which create loyalty and trust among end users towards brands and corporate leaders with the help of mitigating risks of documentation, errors, delays, and fraud, by improving supply chain performance (Ashcroft, 2022), (Mazumder & Bhaumik, 2022). Resultantly, the global market share of block chain in SC has approximately $253 million in 2020, out of which the global market share of blockchain in the food SC has up to $128.87 million in 2020 (Markets and Markets, 2023), (Science Soft, 2023). The COVID-19 pandemic has a detrimental impact, but the blockchain has the potential to mitigate its effects by presenting businesses with the opportunity to improve their processes and address inefficiencies (Sinistra, 2020), (Xiong et al., 2021). This situation highlights the importance of adapting and seizing change-related possibilities, and the significance of this function may vary for different companies based on how the pandemic has disrupted their supply networks. For example, Sonoco, the leading provider of temperature assurance packaging for pharmaceutical distribution, enhances supply chain transparency by utilizing blockchain technology. This involves tracking data throughout the entire journey of a package, integrating it with information from other commercial sources, and sharing it with SC partners. Notably, online retailers such as Alibaba and JD.com also rely on blockchain to ensure real-time product tracking in their operations (Xiong et al., 2021). Hence, the global coronavirus pandemic has brought about significant changes in the landscape of blockchain technology and its application to SC management (Mazumder & Bhaumik, 2022).