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Some studies and reports have recently suggested using blockchain technology to improve transparency and trust in humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). However, evidence-based studies to display the utility and applicability of blockchains in HSCs are missing in the literature. This paper aims to investigate the key drivers and barriers of blockchain application to HSCs and explore whether evidence could support that the application of blockchain improves transparency and trust in HSCs.

This paper puts forward a two-stage approach to explore the blockchain application in HSCs: an initial exploration of humanitarian practitioners and academicians interested in blockchain through focus group discussions; semi-structured interviews with practitioners involved at the UK Department for International Development's Humanitarian Supply Blockchain pilot project.

First, we found that main drivers include accountability, visibility, traceability, trust, collaboration, time efficiency, reducing administrative work and cross-sector partnership. Main barriers, however, are composed of engagement issues, lack of technical skills and training, lack of resources, privacy concerns, regulatory problems, pilot scalability issues and governance challenges. Second, evidence from our case study revealed the blockchain application could have added value to improve visibility and traceability, thus contributing to improve transparency. Concerning trust, evidence supports that blockchain could enhance both commitment and swift trust in the pilot study.

Our study contributes to a more understanding of added values and challenges of blockchain application to HSCs and creates a perspective for humanitarian decision-makers.

This study provides the first evidence from the actual application of blockchain technology in HSCs. The study discovered that it is still less evident in many humanitarian organizations, including medium- and small-sized nongovernmental organizations, that they engage in a direct deployment of in-house or customized blockchain-based HSC. Instead, these actors are more likely to indirectly use blockchain in HSCs through a private commercial partner.

This paper aims to examine and overcome the barriers to the widespread adoption of blockchain technology, introducing a novel concept of sustainability in the fashion supply chain.

This work is an exploratory study of a well-known fashion company operating in the Veneto region (Italy). Data extracted from interviews and focus groups are coded using the (CAQDAS) software AQUAD. The outcome is then organized according to an adapted TOE view.

This exploration study's findings support the idea that the blockchain solution could be a valuable add-on in sustainable supply chains. However, a high understanding of technology and extensive communication with clients is required for successful integration.

Being the outcome of qualitative analysis, the findings require further investigation to be inferable at a broader scale. As the project is still incomplete, some managerial choices are always subject to change.

Focused on a practitioner approach, this paper should guide managers in the process of successfully implementing blockchain technology. Arguably, similar companies may opt for similar choices.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to contextualize and address the blockchain adoption barriers in the fashion supply chain. Furthermore, it offers an overview of how blockchain affects sustainable production.

This paper aims to contribute to the debate about the value of blockchain for supply chain management by assessing empirical evidence on the relationship between blockchain and supply chain performance.

The authors conducted a structured review of the academic literature to identify and assess papers providing empirical insight on operational blockchain applications. The authors complement the findings from this review with primary empirical data from 11 interviews with blockchain providers, users and experts involved in four recent projects.

The paper presents an integrated research framework that illustrates the impact of blockchain on supply chain performance. The findings highlight that blockchain can affect supply chain performance directly – via one of its core technological features – and indirectly via the broader business project through which blockchain technology is implemented.

Insights from this paper should provide managers with a more nuanced understanding of how blockchain technology can be leveraged to address important supply chain management challenges.

Prior research addressing the relationship between blockchain and supply chain performance mostly discusses potential performance effects of blockchain, presents individual blockchain applications and/or provides little explanation for how the core technological features of blockchain affect supply chain performance. This paper systematically assesses the ways in which blockchain can affect supply chain performance. In doing so, it goes beyond the initial hype around blockchain technology while countering some of the more recent critiques.

This paper examines the impact of a blockchain platform on the role and importance of trust in established buyer-supplier relationships.

A literature review provides insight into trust development in supply chains. Research uses a case study of two wine supply chains: the producers, importers, logistics companies and UK Government agencies. Semi-structured interviews determine how trust and trustworthiness develop in buyer-supplier relationships and the impact of a blockchain-based technology proof of concept on supply chain trust.

A blockchain-based platform introduces common trusted data, reducing data duplication and improving supply chain visibility. The platform supports trust building between parties but does not replace the requirements for organisations to establish a position of trust. Contrary to literature claims for blockchain trustless disintermediation, new intermediaries are introduced who need to be trusted.

The case study presents challenges specific to UK customs borders, and research needs to be repeated in different contexts to establish if findings are generalisable.

A blockchain-based platform can improve supply chain efficiency and trust development but does not remove the need for trust and trust-building processes. Blockchain platform providers need to build a position of trust with all participants.

Case study research shows how blockchain facilitates but does not remove trust, trustworthiness and trust relationships in established supply chains. The reduction in information asymmetry and improved supply chain visibility provided by blockchain does not change the importance of trust in established buyer-supplier relationships or the trust-based policy of the UK Government at the customs border.

The purpose of this study is to assess the barriers to the implementation of blockchain technology in construction supply chain management in Nigeria.

This study employed a quantitative research approach through a questionnaire survey that was conducted among professionals in the Nigerian construction industry using the snowball sampling method, which resulted in a selection of 155 respondents. The collected data were analysed using descriptive and exploratory factor analysis (EFA), while Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the reliability.

The analysis revealed that all barriers ranked above the average mean item score. It also revealed that all professionals have a convergent opinion on the barriers. EFA was used in clustering the identified barriers into two categories: technological and socio-political barrier.

This research was carried out in the Southwestern region which is one of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria using a cross-sectional survey method.

The findings provide valuable insights into the barriers to the implementation of blockchain in supply chain management for professionals and practitioners in the Nigerian construction industry.

The research categorised the barriers into technological and social-political barrier and identified that lack of digitalisation is the major barrier to the implementation of blockchain technology in construction supply chain.

Considering the growing interests in managerial and accounting issues related to blockchain technology (BT), the study aims at identifying the main research venues in this specific field. In particular, the purpose is to understand the spatial and temporal production and distribution of research documents, highlighting the most relevant topics, the most influential authors and research.

This research carries out a bibliometric analysis of 189 research documents in the business, management and accounting areas. Data collection and refining is carried out from the Scopus database. The data analysis is based on a hybrid literature review approach using a descriptive bibliometric method, data analysis visualization (through VOSViewer software) and thematic analysis.

Results indicate that research studies focused on BT and accounting have been growing exponentially over the last three years, with authors who previously focused on generalist themes, and are now facing more specific issues. Through cluster analysis, the authors propose the framework of accounting domain and blockchain technology (ADOB) to systematize and visualize the map of current studies about the BT in the accounting domain.

The analysis highlights some aspects less investigated at the first research stage in the field of BT and accounting, such as the growing need of new accounting and control processes to address the practical issues of BT implementation and the need for education and training to stimulate a proper use of BT by accountants and practitioners.

This study is the first to adopt a bibliometric and thematic analysis to investigate BT in the accounting domain. The authors provide significant insights that could guide and foster the use of BT for accountants and practitioners, defining future research lines and a research agenda for academic researchers.

The United Nations (UN) is globally acknowledged for its unique role as a convening platform to address humanitarian, peace, security and sustainable development challenges. However, it is not often associated with technological innovation. Blockchain technology, an innovation that emerged in the late 2000s, has generated animated discussions that are led, in the most part, by private sector institutions. A dearth of literature highlights the innovative blockchain projects supported by UN entities. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of blockchain innovations supported by UN entities and explore opportunities for future studies.

This paper used an exploratory case study approach with the purpose of providing a broad perspective of blockchain innovations undertaken by UN entities in the quest to meet sustainable and equitable development across the world.

This study found 25 blockchain projects by 13 UN entities in 19 countries. The geographical spread of the case studies revealed that two studies have global jurisdiction, five studies in Africa, three in Europe, four in Latin America and the Caribbean and 11 in Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. Of the 19 countries, three had two projects each. Two countries had three projects and the rest had one project each. Of the 13 UN entities, three dominated with UNICEF (part of six projects), UNDP (part of 10 projects) and WFP (part of four projects). Finally, the 25 projects were divided among three categories of blockchain use cases, as defined by UN guidance documents. Five case studies focused on immutable record keeping, five on transfer of value and 15 on smart contracts.

This study offers a unique overview of blockchain efforts within UN entities. It provides a platform for future studies to reveal implicit assumptions, contrasting explanations and casual connections.

This review aims to provide an overview of research from different academic disciplines to chart some of the key developments in retail cryptocurrency trading against the backdrop of the wider trading landscape, and how it has evolved in recent years. The purpose of this review is to provide researchers with a broad perspective to highlight the complex range of factors that drive cryptocurrency trading among retail investors.

Peer-reviewed literature from the social sciences, economics, marketing and branding disciplines is synthesised to explicate influential factors among retail cryptocurrency investors.

Online retail trading communities can create narratives that ascribe value to cryptocurrencies leading to consumer herding behaviours. The principles that underpin emotional branding and Fear of Missing Out can promote trading behaviour driven by heuristic processing and cognitive biases. Concurrently, the tenets of controversial marketing and the anti-establishment nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies serve to bolster in-group out-group categorisations fostering continued investment and market volatility. Consequently, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading more broadly offer a powerful combination of excitement from risk-taking akin to gambling buffered by the sanctity of social inclusion.

A broader, unique perspective on retail cryptocurrency trading which assists in better understanding the complexities that underpin its appeal to retail investors.

Blockchain technology enhances information management in healthcare supply chains by securing healthcare information and providing medical resource traceability. However, there is no decision framework to support blockchain implementation for managing information, especially in emerging economies’ healthcare supply chains. This paper develops a hierarchical decision model for implementing blockchain technology for information management in emerging economies’ healthcare supply chains.

This study uses 20 health supply chain experts in Ghana to rank 17 decision criteria for implementing blockchain for healthcare information management using the best-worst method (BWM) multi-criteria decision technique.

The results show that “security” and “privacy,” “infrastructural facility” and “presence of training facilities” are the top three critical factors impacting blockchain adoption in the health supply chain for healthcare information management. Other sub-factors are prioritized.

To implement blockchain effectively to enhance information management in the healthcare supply chain, health institutions, blockchain technology providers and state authorities should concentrate on the highly critical factors extracted from the study.

This is the first study that develops a hierarchical decision model for implementing blockchain technology in emerging economies' health supply chains.

The study aims to investigate the impact of technological innovation, such as blockchain, in the music field from a value co-creation perspective, highlighting how it is determining a radical change in the business model and value creation process.

To shed light on how blockchain adoption is reconfiguring the music industry, the authors adopted a qualitative-based approach based on a case study, allowing us to investigate value co-creation at three levels (macro, meso and micro) through exchange and integration of multi-actor resources.

The authors found that blockchain adoption in the music industry can singularly shape the business model, representing a powerful tool to enhance inter-organizational cooperation in value creation. It effectively deals with operational and business issues, besides financial transactions, profoundly impacting both the creation and distribution of value within the supply chain.

The research contributes to a better understanding of innovation adoption in a specific setting, the music industry, giving support and guidance for players working in this ecosystem. The blockchain-music link helps close the gap between music and society through technology, thus providing a foundation for future research.

The paper provides new insights into the antecedents and mechanisms of value co-creation, spanning macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of context. It also illustrates the factors underpinning Bitsong viability to embed the value co-creation perspective in designing the business model within a value network.