International Workshop on Successful Strategies in Supply Chain Management Sample Template Paper

Table 3. Perceived drawback of blockchain chain to supply chain 
Drawbacks of Blockchain 
to supply chain 
Explanation 
Confidence and the 
necessity issues 
 Many organisations are still unsure of blockchain’s technicalities, functions, 
or benefits. 
 Technology is still at its infancy.
 The concept of the technology is complex and difficult to grasp. 
 Many problems could simply be solved by normal databases and 
information systems.
The need to manage 
people, process and 
technology issues 
 Blockchain is a business issue, not just an IT matter.
 Changing people’ mind-sets and operational protocols is a big challenge. 
 Large amounts of stakeholders will be involved or affected.
 Clashing objectives between various stakeholders 
 Ethical issues on the removal of intermediating actors
 Cultural issue
 Regulatory uncertainties regarding the technology
Data collection issues 
 Ensuring that input data integrity is very difficult. 
 Convincing partners and customers to give out their data will be 
challenging. 
 Large amounts of data will be collected, sifting through them would also 
pose a challenge 
Network interoperability 
issues 
 The question on how one blockchain will be able to be used alongside other 
blockchains or other available systems should be addressed. 
 Otherwise, introducing a new system such as blockchain will only over-
complicate the work environment, and not help simplify processes. 
Cost and the dark side of 
blockchain: privacy, legal 
and security concerns
 High implementation cost 
 Some customers may not want to share information 
 Commercially sensitive information and privacy needs to be protected 
 Unethical behaviour (e.g. data manipulation) may still occur if data is 
entered manually 
 Regulatory uncertainties and illegal use of blockchain such as the case of 
Silkroad
 The potential damage to supply chains if the system was hacked 

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9 
Our interviewees acknowledge that despite the hype, the technology’s implementation into 
supply chain is becoming a reality. Its progress may be slow and uncertain at the current 
period, due to low levels of confidence and lack of demonstrable financial benefits “Will 
Blockchains have the same impact on logistics providers? My answer would be, not yet and 
probably not for a very long time because if blockchains do become popular with logistics 
providers, their own propriety systems will simply feed the blockchain systems with data. 
Blockchains will not replace a logistics provider’s own systems in the way they can replace a 
financial company’s system. There is just too much going on in a logistics provider’s internal 
system for them to be replaced by a Blockchain (Interviewee N)”.
The value of blockchain to supply chain management as perceived by participants lies in the 
areas of: a) extended visibility and traceability, b) simplification, digitalisation and 
optimisation of supply chain operations, and c) smart contract. Blockchain is seen of 
particular value to crucial supply chains as well. Smart contract receives the most attention 
from our interviewees than from the literature, “We have a lot of very big segregated 
customers. Basically the contracts are all sorts of KPIs and all that which we have to fulfil 
and they define when we get paid based on that sort of stuff. So I can imagine that linking that 
up would be having a system where we can commit to this and we both press the agree button, 
then it would execute automatically … So if you ship 3000boxes of trainers for whoever, then 
you get paid for it immediately rather than having to go around the loops of “is that done?”. I 
think smart contract is a big area. (Interviewee I). This stream of findings are summarised in 
Table 4.