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The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of peer-to-peer (P2P) supply chain financing on companies' innovation efficiency.

This study takes the core companies that invest in the P2P platform as the research background and uses data for Chinese companies and the systematic Generalised Method of Moments (the systematic GMM) to explore the relationship between the improvement of supply chain efficiency, research and development (R&D) investment, and innovation efficiency.

This study indicates that core enterprise investment in P2P can cause a significant improvement in the efficiency of the supply chain and that this improvement can significantly motivate enterprises to increase R&D investment. Although the improvement of supply chain efficiency has no significant effect on improving companies' innovation efficiency, it can have a positive impact on innovation efficiency through the regulating role of R&D investment.

This research shows several limitations such as single industry and few companies involved, but it analyses the impact of P2P supply chain financing on R&D investment, and companies' innovation efficiency and broadens the research field of P2P supply chain financing.

This article provides a theoretical direction for listed companies to invest in P2P platforms and achieve supply chain management. The research on the regulating role of this article provides a new way of thinking for the study of enterprise innovation.

This paper analyses the impact of the core enterprise investment in P2P on R&D investment and its subsequent impact on the companies' innovation efficiency, thus broadening the research field of P2P supply chain financing.

Although supply chain finance (SCF) aims to optimize capital flows in the supply chain process, its effectiveness in improving cost performance remains controversial. From the perspective of efficiency motives, this study aims to explore how the combinations of SCF solutions and traditional financing instruments lead to supply chain cost reduction.

A mixed-method approach is used in this study. First, using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the authors analyze 405 survey data across four industries in China and identify the configurations of financing instruments for supply chain cost reduction. Second, to better understand the reasons behind each configuration, the authors conduct the content analysis on the interview data composed of 24 Chinese companies.

The authors find that the effectiveness of SCF solutions for supply chain cost reduction is related to the focal company's use of traditional financing instruments. Moreover, compared with guaranteed financing, companies that use credit financing are more likely to adopt SCF solutions to achieve supply chain cost reduction. Finally, the effectiveness of SCF solutions in reducing supply chain costs varies greatly across industries.

The study’s findings provide insights for policymakers and SCF practitioners in the aspects of simplifying the SCF application.

This study contributes to the current literature by addressing the theory–practice gap related to SCF. The study also provides new understandings of factors related to supply chain cost reduction, as well as factors that influence SCF adoption.

This paper examines how weak ties and strong ties in the supply chain network influence the financing performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the mediation of information sharing and innovation capability.

Questionnaires were administered to 208 financial managers responsible for supply chain finance in SMEs in China. Data analysis techniques used included multiple regression analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

The authors found that weak ties had a more substantial impact on the financing performance of SMEs than strong ties did. Information sharing and innovation capability played a mediating role between weak and strong ties and the financing performance of SMEs. In addition, information sharing and innovation capability complement each other and jointly influence the financing performance of SMEs.

SMEs are suggested to actively embed themselves in the supply chain network to increase financing opportunities and reduce financing costs. The authors also recommend SMEs to enhance the level of their information sharing in the supply chain network and take advantage of their network ties to access and adopt new technology from other organisations and conduct collaborative innovation with partner institutions.

The paper extends the authors’ understanding of supply chain finance by exploring the intrinsic mechanism of how various constructs (weak ties, strong ties, information sharing and innovation capability) in the supply chain network have an impact on the financing performance of SMEs. In particular, the authors explore the under-researched mediating effect of information sharing and innovation capability on the relationship between network ties and the financing performance of SMEs.

Despite their crucial role in sustaining national economies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are beset by the constraint of financing at better conditions. The purpose of this paper is to compare supply chain finance (SCF) solutions provided by commercial banks and financial service providers (FSPs) that help SMEs access financing.

This study looks at multiple case studies using in-depth interviews with focal firms (lenders) to answer the research questions. In-depth interviews were conducted with three Chinese FSPs and three commercial banks providing working capital to the same SMEs. The unit of analysis is SCF solutions that have made the companies competitive in the industry.

The case studies show that the acquisition of transaction information and business credit in SCF can reduce ex ante information asymmetry. SCF utilizing receivable transfers, closed-loop business, relational embeddedness, and a combination of outcome control and behavioral control can also reduce ex post information asymmetry. For these reasons, compared with commercial bank-dominated SCF, SCF adopted by FSPs in the supply chain can better reduce information asymmetry.

This study contributes to the emerging literature exploring the impact of SCF on SMEs accessing financing. In particular, this study provides supply chain management and operations insights on SCF and their consequent influence. Previous research has focused on the direct dyadic relationship between lenders and borrowers while neglecting supply chain effects. Uniquely, this study explores the different ways commercial banks and FSPs implement SCF solutions.

This paper aims to investigate small and medium-sized upstream suppliers' and downstream distributors' understandings of supply chain finance (SCF) arrangements and their decisions to adopt such schemes.

In this paper grounded theory-informed methods are employed, involving 56 in-depth interviews with informants from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), banks and subject experts in the United Kingdom (UK) and Thailand. A category structure for the data is developed. The findings are then examined systematically from both a transaction cost economics (TCE) and non-TCE perspective.

SME members made sense of SCF through a core distinction between dyadic and triadic SCF arrangements. The former maintains independence between physical and financial supply chains, whereas the latter causes them to be closely coupled or even entangled. The SCF adoption decisions of SMEs were based on a consideration of four related aspects: relationality, awareness, control and context. The authors demonstrate the limits of TCE in explaining the findings, leading to a proposed combined theory of the transactional and, importantly, non-transactional influences on how SMEs make decisions about SCF.

Focal firms wanting their SME suppliers and distributors to participate in triadic SCF (TSCF), i.e. reverse factoring and distributor finance, need to understand that transitioning to such schemes involves the unwinding of existing financing arrangements, which may be problematic for SMEs. Moreover, it is important to be aware of SMEs' concerns, such as about what accessing TSCF might signal to the focal firm about their financial health and about the potential loss of control that might result from entangling the physical and financial aspects of supply chains.

This paper unpack the perspectives of both SME suppliers and distributors of large focal firms in supply chains. These firms appear less concerned with the economic advantages (transaction costs) of SCF and more concerned with the relational consequences or non-transactional costs of participation in a TSCF arrangement. The dyadic-triadic distinction provides a new and meaningful way of categorising SCF mechanisms, which also broadens the service triads’ literature from a focus on outsourcing services for a focal firm's customers to outsourcing financing for its suppliers or distributors. The paper also addresses gaps identified by Gelsomino et al. (2016) regarding the need for a general theory of SCF, for empirically-based holistic studies of SCF applications, and a tool for selecting SCF mechanisms.

This paper aims to systematically expound the theory and development background of supply chain finance and blockchain, design a railway freight supply chain financial platform based on blockchain, determine the risk management system and business support system of supply chain finance business and analyze the value generated by the combination of supply chain finance business and blockchain.

Investigation and research method; Prototype method; Model method; Value analysis.

The business model integrating supply chain finance and blockchain technology will bring great changes to freight industry. The development of supply chain finance is beneficial to the healthy development of the core participants of railway freight transport business and its upstream and downstream ecosystems. It links commerce, logistics, warehousing and financial services together and builds an industry-integrated ecological service platform through information technology platform and supporting system, taking data as the basis and combining information technology such as blockchain as innovative means.

This paper will provide important reference value for related research. This paper innovatively designs the supply chain financial platform of freight transportation industry-integrating blockchain technology and analyzes its business model, technical system, risk management and control system and value system in detail, which will provide technical support for the innovative reform of freight information technology and realize the stable and high-speed development of freight logistics informationization.

Blockchain-driven supply chain finance (BCT-SCF) has recently been receiving increased global attention. A number of business programmes have been carried out using this approach, but existing research has rarely focussed on this novel SCF model. This paper aims to fill this gap by proposing a mathematical model to analyse the value of BCT-SCF.

First, this paper considers a multi-period two-echelon supply chain consisting of a capital-constrained supplier and a newsvendor-like retailer. Then, two financing channels are proposed. The supply chain actors can either factor accounts receivable (AR) from a bank or obtain financing through a BCT-SCF platform by which AR can be converted into a bill receivable and used to make payment. Further, to investigate the preferences of all actors between the two financing channels, this paper compares the two channels and examines how the degree of financial constraints and the cost of implementing the BCT-SCF model impact the financing preferences of all actors.

BCT-SCF model can help a supply chain realise its optimisation both in production and financing efficiency, the preference for the BCT-SCF model increases as the initial capital of supplier and the BCT-SCF platform usage fee rate decrease.

This research bridges the gap between theoretical analysis of BCT-SCF and its realistic application. The results demonstrate that with the BCT-SCF model, a win-win situation among supply chain actors is possible, which is helpful for the supply chain to choose a more efficient financing channel.

This research introduces a mathematical model based on the “receivable chain” of CZBank and the model is set in a multi-period supply chain, which is the first time BCT-SCF has been considered as part of a more complex but realistic background setting.

This paper aims to explore how innovation capability and market response capability of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) affect their supply chain financing performance (SCFP) through supply chain financing solutions (SCFS) adoption. At the same time, the mechanism by which supply chain financing reduces information asymmetry before (ex-ante) and after (ex-post) SCFS adoption to promote SCFP is also inquired.

Drawing on enterprise competence theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model and tests it using survey data from a sample of 218 SMEs in China. Multiple regression analysis is employed to test the hypothesis.

The study finds that: (1) SMEs' innovation capability and market response capability positively affect SCFP. (2) SMEs' innovation capability and market response capability exert significantly positive effects on SCFS adoption. (3) SCFS adoption plays a mediating role between SME capabilities and SCFP. (4) Supply chain integration (SCI) and information technology application have no moderating effects on the relationship between SME capabilities and SCFS adoption. Finally, (5) SCI and information technology application have positive moderating effects on the relationship between SCFS adoption and SCFP.

Based on enterprise competence theory, this study sheds light on the internal mechanism through which SMEs' capabilities affect SCFP by introducing SCFS adoption and explores the role of situational factors in SCF in reducing ex-ante and ex-post information asymmetry. This study provides an innovative theoretical perspective on supply chain financing and enriches the existing research.

Information asymmetry and poor solvency caused by uncertainties in supply chains are the root causes of supply chain financing risks (SCFR). The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of supply chain integration on reducing SCFR by incorporating the mechanisms of information sharing and controlling supply chain risks (SCR).

This paper proposes hypothesis to discuss the impact of integration on SCFR and the mediating roles of alleviating information asymmetry and mitigating SCR, aiming at discovering factors and mechanisms to reduce SCFR. The research model was validated by applying structural equation modeling on survey data from 321 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Integration significantly reduces SCFR by dual approaches of information sharing and mitigating SCR, confirming that alleviating information asymmetry to reach information transparency and controlling SCR to reduce uncertainties facilitate less SCFR.

SMEs should enhance integration capability to reduce SCFR as it greatly influences the evaluation of financial service providers on SMEs and the sustainable financing capacity of SMEs. Additionally, any other methods that can improve information sharing and reduce SCR should be attached if possible.

This study represents a pioneering attempt to analyze the impact of integration on reducing SCFR by exploring the specific mechanisms of alleviating information asymmetry and mitigating SCR. Meanwhile, few prior empirical studies have highlighted the importance of SCFR.

Although supply chain collaboration (SCC) theoretically boosts the adoption of supply chain finance (SCF) through information sharing and cost savings, many companies with good supply chain partnerships still hesitate to engage in SCF. To disentangle this puzzle, this study aims to explore how two dimensions of information transparency (i.e. information quantity and information quality) and two types of transaction dependence (i.e. dependence on suppliers and dependence on customers) influence the relationship between SCC and SCF adoption.

This study uses secondary survey data from a Chinese bank, including 464 Chinese companies that have adopted SCF to varying degrees. This study then performs the logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

This study empirically confirms that SCC shows a positive relationship with SCF adoption. More interestingly, information quantity negatively moderates this positive relationship, whereas information quality positively moderates this positive relationship. Most surprisingly, dependence on customers rather than dependence on suppliers strengthens this positive relationship.

This study makes theoretical contributions to the SCF literature by demonstrating the distinct moderating mechanisms regarding the relationship between SCC and SCF adoption. The findings also help companies reexamine their interactions with supply chain members.