Blockchain technology, popularized by Bitcoin cryptocurrency, is characterized as an open-source, decentralized, distributed database for storing transaction information. Rather than relying on centralized intermediaries (e.g., banks) this technology allows two parties to transact directly using duplicate, linked ledgers called blockchains. This makes transactions considerably more transparent than those provided by centralized systems. As a result, transactions are executed without relying on explicit trust [of a third party], but on the distributed trust based on the consensus of the network (i.e., other blockchain users). Applying this technology to improve supply chain transparency has many possibilities. Every product has a long and storied history. However, much of this history is presently obscured. Often, when negative practices are exposed, they quickly escalate to scandalous, and financially crippling proportions. There are many recent examples, such as the exposure of child labor upstream in the manufacturing process and the unethical use of rainforest resources. Blockchain may bring supply chain transparency to a new level, but presently academic and managerial adoption of blockchain technologies is limited by our understanding. To address this issue, this research uses the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the concept of technology innovation adoption as a foundational framework for supply chain traceability. A conceptual model is developed and the research culminates with supply chain implications of blockchain that are inspired by theory and literature review.

Purpose: This paper aims to review logistics and supply chain management topics where theories have been applied to better understand the supply chain management (SCM) discipline identity. The purpose is threefold: to identify research topics in logistics and supply chain management where one or more theories have been examined; provide commentary on the theories that have been applied to the various logistics and SCM research topics; and to provide reference material and direction for future research. Design/methodology/approach: This structured literature review (SLR) examines research papers in logistics and SCM from 1991 to 2015 published in eight leading academic journals. Papers in the data set are grouped by topic and further analyzed in terms of research method, purpose, year and journal. Findings: This research categorizes papers by the topics that were studied to understand important insights about how these topics have been examined by researchers. Within each topic area, theories that researchers have used to investigate the topics are identified. This method exposes insights such as: how topics have evolved over time, which topics have lost prominence, which topics may be particularly promising for future research and how topics are treated in the literature. Originality/value: Despite multiple calls for clarification regarding how theory has been used in logistics and SCM, the logistics and SCM disciplines continue to grow without adequate research on how theory has been used to examine SCM topics. This SLR therefore provides a broad compilation of logistics and SCM research that uses named theories and that is organized by SCM topic to better understand the SCM discipline.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediators that occupy the gap between information processing theory and supply chain agility. In today’s Mach speed business environment, managers often install new technology and expect an agile supply chain when they press. This study reveals the naivety of such an approach, which has allowed new technology to be governed by old processes.Design/methodology/approach: This work takes a qualitative approach to the dynamic conditions surrounding information processing and its connection to supply chain agility through the assessment of 60 exemplar cases. The situational conditions that have created the divide between information processing and supply chain agility are studied.Findings: The agility adaptation typology (AAT) defining three types of adaptations and their mediating constructs is presented. Type 1: information processing, is generally an exercise in synchronization that can be used to support assimilation. Type 2: demand sensing, is where companies are able to incorporate real-time data into everyday processes to better understand demand and move toward a real-time environment. Type 3: supply chain agility, requires fundamentally new thinking in the areas of transformation, mindset and culture.Originality/value: This work describes the reality of today’s struggle to achieve supply chain agility, providing guidelines and testable propositions, and at the same time, avoids “ivory tower prescriptions,” which exclude the real world details from the research process (Meredith, 1993). By including the messy real world details, while difficult to understand and explain, the authors are able to make strides in the AAT toward theory that explains and guides the manager’s everyday reality with all of its messy real world details.

In early 2020, COVID-19 infected people throughout the world and brought world commerce to a standstill. Many believe that governments and global businesses were not as prepared as they should have been. While academics have occasionally predicted the economic problems that could result from pandemics, until 2020, there had been scant research that addresses supply chain management issues during pandemics. Eighty-four percent of all pandemic supply chain research was published in the first ten months of 2020. Since the world now finds itself operating supply chains in response to the pandemic, this literature needs to be summarized and articulated for understanding and future research. This literature review addresses that need by summarizing the research which has been generated since 1997, focusing primarily on the bulk of the research that has been published since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Research tools are used to summarize the literature citations, and the articles are coded according to some important variables to further delineate their details. This research also includes a bibliometric co-citation analysis, which clusters the pandemic supply chain literature by author, journal, and article. The findings are that pre-COVID-19 research on pandemic supply chains was primarily about influenza and the healthcare supply chain, whereas post-COVID-19 research provides more analysis of the food supply chain and uses a wider variety of research methods, including simulation, modeling, and empirical methods.