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The present study aims to highlight the features of Connected Papers, a visual tool that can help researchers find and explore academic papers in their literature search. The authors describe how Connected Papers allow to create a network of all the literature available related to a chosen paper. One can use Connected Papers to pull together related papers on a chosen topic and see prior and derivative works based on that topic. Using the Connected Papers tool authors attempt to visualize the key literature on the topic "Blockchain in libraries." To date, most Blockchain technology applications in libraries are still in the conceptual stage. However, sooner or later, the development and implementation of the technology are expected to facilitate the transformation of how libraries provide services and organize information. This study contributes to examining the research being done to explore the potential of Blockchain technology in libraries through mapping and visualization. The paper is original in terms of the Visual tool used "Connected Papers." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clear legal content of white papers provides certainty, stability and trust in the relations between all the participants in initial coins offering (ICO) procedures and contributes to the successful introduction of blockchain technologies in business. A white paper defines the relationship and interaction between a regulated social reality and program code, which is by itself not susceptible to legal regulation. This article investigates the legal conditions of the white papers that describe the projects of ICO. The author provides a legal analysis of numerous white papers published during ICO implementation around the world. Based on extensive data on implemented ICO projects, the correlation between the legal content of a white paper and the amount of funds collected as a result of the ICO is considered. Having analysed the determinants of the white paper legal content, the author suggests the legal provisions that any ICO white paper should have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of ecommerce and digital technologies, we have witnessed a boom of platform operations. Amid their strong growth prospects, it is observed that platforms have created controversial issues and challenges, which could be potentially solved by the combination of blockchain features. More and more studies exploring the implementation of blockchain in platform operations have appeared in recent years. In this paper, motivated by the industrial practices of different types of product selling and service platforms, we first conduct a holistic literature review of the most representative papers relevant to platform operations. Examining the value of different blockchain features in operations management field, we further review the related works on platform operations with blockchain technologies. Afterwards, we analyse the innovative applications and challenges in platforms such as physical and virtual product selling platforms, rental/sharing and on-demand service platforms. A future research agenda is established which lays the solid foundation for further studies on platform operations in the blockchain era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applications of blockchain in supply chain management (SCM) have received extensive attention among academics and industrial practitioners. Most current blockchain-related review papers focus on the values, methodologies, barriers, trends, and challenges of blockchain applications in the supply chain (SC) context. Despite some papers discussing blockchain's role in SCs from a specific perspective, the existing review papers mainly concentrate on blockchain's influence on one of the three critical SC flows. Hence, this study comprehensively reviews 251 academic papers to capture the precise impacts of blockchain on the material, information, and money flows in SCM. Following the above analyses, a conceptual framework is put forward to accentuate blockchain's influence on SCM. By unveiling a comprehensive research landscape, this study offers valuable viewpoints and vital information for scholars and practitioners to better identify research frontiers and themes of blockchain applications in SCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global trade is plagued by slow and inefficient manual processes associated with physical documents. Firms are constantly looking for new ways to improve transparency and increase the resilience of their supply chains. This can be solved by the digitalisation of supply chains and the automation of document- and information-sharing processes. Blockchain is touted as a solution to these issues due to its unique combination of features, such as immutability, decentralisation and transparency. A lack of business cases that quantify the costs and benefits causes uncertainty regarding the truth of these claims. This paper explores how the costs and benefits of a blockchain-based solution for digitalising and automating documentation flows in cross-border supply chains compare to a conventional centralised relational database solution. The research described in this paper uses primary data collected through semi-structured interviews with industry experts, as well as secondary data from literature. Two models based on existing services were developed and the costs and benefits compared and then analysed using the Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP). Findings from the analysis show that a consortium blockchain solution like TradeLens is the favourable solution for digitalising and automating information flows in cross-border supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain, as a decentralized platform and distributed ledger database, will promote the centralized system to form a comprehensive ecosystem. A systematic review of blockchain research on information systems during the five-year period from 2016 to 2020 selected 46 papers from 16 leading journals. This paper introduces the technological characteristics and implementation models, highlighting its research status and development. Moreover, this paper illustrates the future research directions for blockchain. The objective of this paper is to discuss the emerging technology of blockchain in its early development stage and to depict the relevant IS issues that are worthy of further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an empirical study of cryptocurrency white papers, this paper proposes an actor-based taxonomy of cryptocurrency blockchains. First, it describes the evolution of blockchain architecture with reference to the economic services that blockchains supply. Second, it discusses the socio-technical platform of blockchains as proposed in cryptocurrency white papers. Third, it analyses the socio-economic consequences of these technically diverse blockchain platforms, by proposing a taxonomy of their digital architectures in reference to two groups of actors that maintain blockchain infrastructure: transactioners and accountants. Defining cryptocurrency as data money, and locating cryptocurrency ownership as the possession of an exclusive right to move data privately in a public or private space, the paper describes a blockchain as a digital actor-network platform that makes it possible to define and distribute these data transfer rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores problems of pharmaceutical supply chains, such as drug counterfeiting, and the opportunities of using digital technologies to overcome them. It also evaluates the risks associated with the use of digital technologies. Expert interviews were conducted with pharmaceutical supply chain stakeholders in the first step. The data obtained was assessed through qualitative content analysis. In addition to the lack of transparency, strong individual interests of the supply chain actors and different implementation levels of digitisation were revealed. It is also noticeable that the industry is still paper-oriented. Nevertheless, the chosen experts are optimistic about the increased use of digital technologies. Combining blockchain with other technologies, such as IoT and AI, can improve efficiency, traceability, and trust in pharmaceutical supply chains. A digitalised supply chain concept is developed based on these technologies, enhancing transparency and information availability in the supply chain. In addition, communication and processes along the entire pharmaceutical supply chain are optimised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, research on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has snowballed across many disciplines: technical fields, economics, law, public policy, finance, accounting, and others. As the uses of blockchain technology behind Bitcoin expand, more disciplines will be drawn to its study and the research will greatly expand. This paper provides an assessment of the current state of the literature. From a comprehensive search of the literature that resulted in an original sample of 13,507 results, a final sample of 1,206 papers on Bitcoin are categorised and mapped across six disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to establish the link between blockchain technology adoption in the maritime and shipping industry and its impact on maritime supply chain integration via a systematic review of both the academic and practice literature. In total 148 articles were identified and analysed. Blockchain applications identified from the literature are categorized into three domains: document management, transaction management, and cargo/vessel/terminal operations. An analysis of the benefits and challenges that influence the deployment of blockchain technology for maritime supply chain integration leads to the development of an integrated and extended Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) framework. This study is among the first to examine the current state of blockchain diffusion within the maritime supply chain, making a significant contribution to the field. The extended TOE framework offers guidance for future research and understanding of the relationship between blockchain adoption and maritime supply chain integration. It can be used to assist organisations in successfully adopting blockchain technology in their supply chain operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-consuming ocean transportation for international trades requires enterprises to advance payments for goods, which can be fatal for small and medium enterprises with insufficient self-owned capital. Logistics finance is an effective solution for tackling this problem. However, traditional logistics finance has long been plagued by information asymmetry, tremendous paperwork, and long financing cycles. As a distributed database with characteristics of transparency, traceability, and immutability, blockchain technology shows good potential in addressing pain points on traditional logistics financing platforms. This paper focuses on the operational mechanism and value analysis of the blockchain-based port logistics finance platform. The conceptual architecture of the blockchain-based port logistics finance platform is constructed, and a value analysis model based on the Newsboy Model is established for quantitatively analysing the platform's value. The results revealed that the introduction of the blockchain into port logistics financing can significantly improve small to medium-sized enterprises' profitability by providing reliable financing channels. The results also indicate that participants' profit on the blockchain-based platform may be influenced by the speed of market expansion, initial capital size, and financing cost. This paper also discusses theoretical and managerial implications by providing insights into the participants' decision-making on the platform under different constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platforms are giants in today's operations. Companies like Amazon and eBay are huge enterprises which belong to top enterprises in the world. In this article, we discuss platform supply chain innovations in the blockchain era. We first search the literature and identify the level of popularity of the topic over the past years. Next, we review some closely related studies in the literature and introduce the featured papers in this IJPR special issue. After that, we identify research gaps, present the ABCDE framework and propose a future research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalisation of the food industry increases the complexity and the difficulty in enhancing efficiency and solving issues in food supply chains. Blockchain is a promising decentralised information technology that could benefit food supply chains by reducing transaction cost and time, increasing process transparency, security, and efficiency, as well as building trust among participants. In this paper, we introduce the major blockchain platforms currently used in food supply chains and conduct a synthesis analysis to explore the benefits and challenges of blockchain technology in the food industry. We demonstrate that blockchain enables unprecedented visibility at each step of the food supply chain, helps increase transaction transparency, food safety, and quality, and also reduces food fraud and waste. Furthermore, it serves as a digital solution for reducing operational costs and improving efficiency in food supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdsourcing takes advantage of human intelligence to solve complex problems that computers cannot handle. People actively participate in computational tasks for rewards, especially those that are relatively simple for humans but challenging for computers. However, most traditional crowdsourcing systems must rely on a central organisation to handle the work associated with crowdsourcing. This may lead to privacy and security issues such as information leakage, single point of attack and unfair judgement. Meanwhile, the high service fees of existing central crowdsourcing platforms will reduce people's motivation to participate in crowdsourcing tasks. Consequently, PrivBCS is proposed in this paper, a blockchain-based decentralised crowdsourcing system that does not rely on third-party agencies and requires only low transaction fees. In this paper, PrivBCS protects the confidentiality of crowdsourcing data and the identity privacy of participants by cryptographic means, such as Paillier, El-Gamal and CPABE. It selects the most suitable worker to perform tasks by setting access control policies on task data and matching workers' attributes while ensuring the anonymity of workers' identity. Considering that the data volume of crowdsourcing tasks may be large and there is a certain upper limit to the block capacity of the blockchain, an on-chain and off-chain collaborative storage scheme is proposed, which can increase the throughput of the blockchain system and improve its scalability to a certain extent. In PrivBCS, we implement the transaction process of crowdsourcing tasks through smart contracts. The experimental results and security analysis in this paper demonstrate the effectiveness, efficiency, and feasibility of PrivBCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key aspect of sustainable business development involves protecting a company's products from counterfeiting. Since this can impact brand's image and often, product counterfeits are of a minor quality which can be dangerous and even pose health hazards. Counterfeiters gain profits by manufacturing products using lesser quality materials and production methods. Many counterfeit products in the market are difficult to identify for a normal customer and require to be examined by a trained professional which is time-consuming and costly. In this paper, we propose a method for identifying counterfeit by a simple scan of the quick response code on the product. Since these codes are unique and are implemented by unique algorithms, it is almost impossible to forge them. Also, implementing an encrypted peer-to-peer system for the database makes it impossible for attackers to tamper with the database. The proposed method collectively not only helps laypersons to identify the authenticity of products but also an ownership tracking system where products are linked to the owners' account which will allow them to produce proof of purchase and authenticity when reselling products and when claiming the warranty of the product. This will help in reducing manufacturing and materials costs used from traditional methods against counterfeiting such as Radio-Frequency Identification and the Hologram technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain is increasingly gaining interest in both the academic and professional worlds. The implementation of this decentralised and distributed network has started taking place, firstly in the financial world and in recent years reaching to other industries. Nevertheless, not all blockchain networks are the same, and choosing the right consensus algorithm is important for companies willing to invest in this technology. Companies eager to implement blockchain should understand the underlying architecture when selecting a particular network. Through an in-depth analysis, this paper aims to explore and compare from a technical perspective the three biggest permissionless blockchain networks by market capitalisation: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. Our research shows that Bitcoin gains a competitive advantage as a widely adopted means of payment, Ethereum excels in adopting a robust and flexible smart contract functionality whilst Ripple is most suitable for cross-border payments due to its scalability and fast processing speed. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the networks and their consensus protocols, this paper is designed to set the ground for further studies on the emerging applications of blockchain in numerous sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Industry 4.0 revolution is changing the manufacturing landscape. A broad set of new technologies emerged (including software and connected equipment) that digitise manufacturing systems. These technologies bring new vitality and opportunities to the manufacturing industry, but they also bring new challenges. This paper focuses on the impact of Industry 4.0 on production planning approaches and software. We first propose a digital twin framework that integrates production planning systems and frontier technologies. The frontier technologies that may impact production planning software are the internet of things, cloud manufacturing, blockchain, and big data analytics. Second, we provide a state-of-the-art on the application of each technology in the production planning, as well as a detailed analysis of the benefit and application status. Finally, this paper discusses the future research and application directions in the production planning. We conclude that Industry 4.0 will lead to the construction of data-driven models for production planning software. These tools will include models built accurately from data, account for uncertainty, and partially actuate the decision autonomously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of urbanisation and the ever-changing consumers' demands are constantly changing the urban logistics industry, imposing challenges on logistics service providers to improve customer satisfaction which is one of the indicators for the sustainability of urban logistics. Existing customer satisfaction evaluations are based on a questionnaire survey, which is time-consuming and labour intensive. Moreover, the logistics data are confidential and can only be accessed by the stakeholders in existing logistics models, causing the problem of information non-transparency among logistics enterprises and the third authorities like banks and governments, which may hinder the sustainable development of urban logistics. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based evaluation approach for customer satisfaction in the context of urban logistics. Four criteria affecting customer satisfaction in urban logistics are identified. A machine learning algorithm Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is adopted to predict customer satisfaction in the future period. The implementation is demonstrated to illustrate the proposed approach. A smart contract is designed for compensation and/or refund to customers when their satisfaction with the delivery services is at a low level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethereum is a major public blockchain. Besides being the second-largest digital currency by market capitalization for its cryptocurrency, the Ether (Ξ), it is also the foundation of Web3 and decentralized applications, or DApps, that are fuelled by Smart Contracts. At the time of this writing, Ethereum still uses Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithm to ensure the integrity of the blockchain and to prevent double spend. PoW requires the participation of miners, who are incentivized to assemble blocks of transactions by being rewarded with cryptocurrency paid by transaction originators and by the blockchain network itself via newly minted Ξ. Network fees for transaction submissions are called gas, by analogy to the fuel used by cars, and are negotiable. They are also highly volatile and hence it is critical to predict the direction they are heading into, so that one can time transaction submissions, when feasible. There have been several efforts to predict gas prices, including usage of large Mempools, analysis of committed blocks, and more recent ones using Facebook's Prophet model [Taylor, S. J., & Letham, B. (2017). Forecasting at scale. PeerJ Preprints, 5, e3190v2. ]. In this study, we introduce an innovative approach that employs the DeepAR [Salinas, D., Flunkert, V., Gasthaus, J., & Januschowski, T. (2020). Deepar: Probabilistic forecasting with autoregressive recurrent networks. International Journal of Forecasting, 36(3), 1181–1191. ] model, known for its superior forecasting accuracy over conventional methods by virtue of its ability to learn from multiple related time series. This methodology not only offers immediate advantages but also holds promise for ongoing enhancements. We substantiate our claims through empirical testing, utilizing data extracts from the Ethereum blockchain and cryptocurrency price feeds. This document is an extended version of our ICCS 2022 paper on the same topic. In this paper, we dive deeper into the internals of DeepAR forecasting algorithm [Salinas, D., Flunkert, V., Gasthaus, J., & Januschowski, T. (2020). Deepar: Probabilistic forecasting with autoregressive recurrent networks. International Journal of Forecasting, 36(3), 1181–1191. ], analyse the correlation between the on-chain/off-chain sample data, and describe additional experiments that empirically prove our findings and, finally, perform a comparison of our outputs with those from the Prophet [Taylor, S. J., & Letham, B. (2017). Forecasting at scale. PeerJ Preprints, 5, e3190v2. ] model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural commodity supply chains are characterised by the involvement of multiple intermediaries, lack of access to finance and poor financial conditions of farmers. Additionally, there exist numerous inefficiencies and a lack of transparency in the trading processes. Blockchain-enabled supply chain finance (SCF) solutions can potentially help to overcome these problems. However, there is limited research on the process of developing and implementing such solutions and the potential consequences of their implementation. In this paper, we apply the Context-Intervention-Mechanism-Outcome (CIMO) framework to systematically analyse case studies of four firms that have developed blockchain-enabled SCF solutions in agricultural commodity supply chains. The findings show that blockchain-enabled SCF solutions can reduce different types of transaction costs such as costs associated with information search, negotiation and contracting costs, and costs of accessing finance. The solutions designed with the core objective of improving the financial conditions of farmers will differ from those with the core objective of reducing process inefficiencies. The findings of the study will benefit companies planning to develop and implement blockchain-enabled SCF solutions, by highlighting operational challenges and offering concrete solutions on how they can be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fintech and Industry 4.0 paradigms, and the combination of the two, have gained increasing attention from the scientific community in recent years. This paper aims to explore the convergence of these two research themes by framing their interplay through a systematic literature review covering the period of 2017 to August 2021 and involving 78 papers. The bibliometric approach made it possible to extract a large amount of useful information which was previously scattered and to present it in a systematic way. The analysis of the co-occurrence network of keywords identified four distinct clusters, corresponding to the dominant research themes in the area, which suggested the design of a research agenda. The agenda-driven questions indicated which current aspects of Fintech and Industry 4.0 need additional insight. In that regard, the environmental and social responsibility aspects of the firms in the sectors were found of particular importance. Theoretical and practical implications of this study as well as answers provided to a set of initially posed research questions were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the hype about blockchains among supply chain management (SCM) practitioners and researchers, the technology's adoption is still low, and confusion remains about its potential benefits for operational efficiency and effectiveness. Building on a multiple case study research, this paper clarifies current value creation opportunities enabled by the blockchain for product/material tracking and tracing. We highlight that the setup of blockchain projects depends on the presence of different drivers on customer value or efficiency and the focus towards products/components or raw materials. Based on how tracking and tracing drivers and focus influence the initial blockchain setup, contingent factors are discussed and possible evolutionary patterns are identified. These findings are elaborated in one setup matrix and three propositions. The study is one of the few to add empirical evidence to the mainly conceptual SCM blockchain literature and provides a middle-range theoretical contribution based on contingency theory. Furthermore, it offers actionable guidance for managers and policy makers about SCM blockchain adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this paper are to analyse how blockchain can help in transaction time reduction and quality improvement in supply chains. It also aims to identify the social and technical capabilities needed by the service providers for blockchain implementation and how those capabilities vary between the projects. To achieve the above mentioned objectives, a multiple case study approach is followed, and data are collected from the service providers that have implemented blockchain technology with their customers. We conduct task-technology fit (TTF) analysis to assess the suitability of blockchain to address the tasks to be completed, considering customer needs. The TTF analysis shows that some additional technological solutions related to communication support and user experience design need to be implemented together with the blockchain platform. We then identify common social and technical capabilities, such as empathising with customers and system design, to facilitate implementation and contingent capabilities that vary across different types of blockchain implementation projects. We also develop a process model, a generalisable framework for blockchain implementation and related propositions. The findings from this study will provide guidance to the blockchain service providers to emphasise social and technical capabilities for quality improvement and transaction time reduction from blockchain implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain is one of the most promising technologies with a highly disruptive potential, yet many aspects of this innovation remain unclear in the current body of research. One of them is the whole adoption and diffusion process of blockchain technology, which needs more attention from researchers. This study has adopted a qualitative method to investigate the role of consultants in blockchain diffusion, relying on data from 14 semi-structured interviews conducted with blockchain consultants. The various roles of these key players were identified and challenges related to the technology analyzed by means of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOI) and the Technology – Organization – Environment (TOE) framework. According to the results obtained, consultants' roles range from technology brokers to quality filters. The same results also revealed that the most important barriers to blockchain adoption and diffusion include the lack of knowledge and understanding of the technology, which contributes to promoting unconscious or forced adoption. This paper sheds light on how consulting firms and blockchain-oriented start-ups operate to impact the diffusion of blockchain while dismantling barriers to adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, blockchain technology has attracted more and more attention, and it has been widely used in various fields. But there is still a lack of relevant research reports on the innovation path identification of blockchain technology from a patent perspective. By downloading a total of 14,560 patents from Derwent Innovations Index and conducting main path analysis, this paper illuminates the overall picture of the development of blockchain for experts in this domain from a technology perspective. As an objective and quantitative network-based method, main path analysis identifies important patent, structural backbone and development trajectories in the blockchain development. This provides a reference for the scientific communities to understand the current state of blockchain technology, thereby illuminating future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents current academic and industrial frontiers on blockchain application in supply chain, logistics and transport management. We conduct a systematic review of the literature and find four main clusters in the co-citation analysis, namely Technology, Trust, Trade, and Traceability/Transparency. For each cluster, and based on the pool of articles included in it, we apply an inductive method of reasoning and discuss the emerging themes and applications of blockchains for supply chains, logistics and transport. We conclude by discussing the main themes for future research on blockchain technology and its application in industry and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manufacturing industry is experiencing a service-oriented transformation in the digitalisation era. However, many small and middle enterprises (SMEs) still rely on traditional manufacturing patterns in which they can hardly servitise manufacturing resources due to the limited budget and poor digitalisation capability. To servitise manufacturing resources, this paper proposes unified five-layer blockchain-enabled secure digital twin platform architecture, followed by its core enabling components and technologies. Firstly, a service-oriented digital twinning model is developed to transform physical resources into digital services. Secondly, a rule-based off-chain matching mechanism is designed to bridge customers' orders with manufacturing services. Thirdly, service-oriented architecture (SOA) is adopted as the major methodology to design and develop the whole blockchain platform. Four blockchain frontend services are developed using React.js, whilst the blockchain backend is developed using private Ethereum blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Finally, an experimental case is conducted based on the 3D printing scenario to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed platform, named imseStudio. The results show that it not only provides an effective solution to digitalise manufacturing resources but also promotes the transformation towards service manufacturing. Highlights Blockchain-enabled secure digital twin platform is developed to servitise manufacturing resources Service-oriented digital twinning model is developed to transform physical resources into digital services Rule-based off-chain matching mechanism is built to bridge customers' orders with 3D printer Four blockchain explorers are developed to facilitate 3D printing services [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social manufacturing is conceptualised as a new type of networked manufacturing paradigm that supports the organisation of socialised manufacturing resources (SMRs) to satisfy the growth of personalised demands on crowd intelligence in a timely manner when co-creating open architecture products. The high participation of each stakeholder in this type of product production places a higher requirement on sufficient collaboration among social, cyber and physical spaces. However, under a decentralised social manufacturing network, the management of SMRs has encountered some real-life challenges in terms of their distributed and heterogeneous features. Hence, this paper proposes a blockchain-enabled digital twin collaboration platform (BcDTCP) as an integrated solution to address these challenges. A hybrid domain-driven design method is presented to design and implement business-knowledge driven systems. To address the heterogeneity of SMRs, a ubiquitous object structure is designed to flexibly adjust the functionality of the digital twin. Blockchain is introduced to construct a peer-to-peer network to organise the SMRs in a decentralised manner. Additionally, a timed coloured Petri net-based workflow is adopted to formulise the collaboration logic into a smart contract executed on the blockchain. Finally, a demonstrative case study is conducted to verify and evaluate the proposed BcDTCP under a 3D printing scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing popularity of blockchain technology (BT) applications in a supply chain (SC), the academic literature has failed to offer a complete picture of BT embedded in SC, hereafter referred to as BT-enabled SC, while focusing on BT's specifics. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to develop a conceptual framework by identifying BT's multifaceted features and clarifying their roles in designing BT-enabled SCs. Specifically, we delve into BT's extant definitions in business disciplines as a basis for identifying BT's key attributes and elucidate how these attributes can be incorporated into the design of BT-enabled SCs by introducing the framework that encompasses the strategic, configural, and operational spheres. This paper contributes to clarifying BT's conceptual boundary by framing BT as a stack of technologies and applications – seven dimensions. Based on seven dimensions, the proposed framework offers guidance on how to design BT-enabled SCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technologies loom large among the controversial topics of public debate. Like any technology, blockchain offers various ways to imagine alternative models of politics and society. Arguably, the most common interpretation treats it as the technology for techno-anarchism and a tool for total decentralization. This paper focuses on an overlooked genealogy of the politics of the blockchain – the classic republican theory. We consider whether republican practices could shed light on certain aspects of blockchain communities and understand their governance better. Our paper offers a historical analysis of governance visions inscribed in Bitcoin and Ethereum, arguably the most influential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a digital transformation maturity self-assessment model. The main objective of this model is the diagnosis and the evaluation of the digital maturity of a hospital as a key main in the Moroccan pharmaceutical supply chain. A literature review was conducted for investigating digital maturity models and tools used. A total of 49 relevant works were retrieved, representing 49 distinct maturity models and tools in various domains. The works were inductively analysed, and the maturity model dimensions were extracted and consolidated into a Digital Maturity Assessment Model (DMAM). The resulting DMAM consisted of 4 dimensions: IT & Digital Technologies, Strategy & Processes Management, Human Resources & Culture, and Supply Chain & Patient Journeys Management. Each dimension is further divided into several sub-dimensions, totally 65 sub-dimensions are identified, that can be assessed by the 4 digital maturity levels proposed. The comparison of the proposed digital maturity dimensions and sub-dimensions with the existing models/tools shows a clear and important contribution in the field of digital transformation assessment: the introduction of a new dimension 'Supply Chain and Patient Management', that was developed in response to practitioner needs and organizational factors in pharmaceutical supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process automation and mass customisation requirements of modern manufacturing systems are driven by artificial intelligence (AI). As AI derives decisions from data, securing the data against tampering is crucial to prevent ensuing operational risks. Additionally, manufacturing systems necessitate collaboration, transparency, and trust among participants while preserving a competitive advantage. Thus, we position blockchain, an enabler of transparent and secure operations, as a security solution for AI-assisted manufacturing systems. In this conceptual viewpoint paper, we present a framework to integrate blockchain in AI-assisted manufacturing systems. We highlight the special needs of manufacturing BCs over generic BCs. We delineate the ways in which manufacturing can be a beneficiary of the synergy between AI and BC. We discuss how BC and AI can accelerate early-phase product design, collaboration, and manufacturing processes and secure supply chains against counterfeit products and for ethical consumerism. Lastly, we identify the needs of modern manufacturing systems and cite a few examples of organisational failures to underscore the importance of security while delineating the significant challenges in adopting blockchain-based solutions in the manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional supply chain management faces challenges such as low level of information sharing and lack of transparency. Due to the features such as tamper-proof, reliability and traceability, the blockchain technology enhances the trust among stakeholders and enables transparent transactions and open collaboration, which can reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions. Accordingly, blockchain technology-based supply chain management has attracted more attention from academics and practitioners. However, existing review studies mainly focus on different industries or topics and lack a more comprehensive analysis. Therefore, this paper presents a systematic review integrating bibliometric analysis with theme analysis to understand the current research state in BT-SCM and discuss its future research trends. On the one hand, VOSviewer is used to conduct bibliometric analysis to explore the influences of existing studies from six aspects: publication year, author, country, keyword, journal, and article citation. On the other hand, the functional application of BT-SCM is discussed from logistics traceability, supply chain finance, supply chain collaboration, sustainable management and risk management to determine the research status, and the enablers and barriers of blockchain application in SCM are summarised to facilitate practitioners to adopt BT, and finally the potential research directions are proposed for scholars in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of service offerings in cloud manufacturing continues to grow, so that service level agreement (SLA) within cloud manufacturing is increasingly used to ensure the coordination of the cross-organisational business processes between the cloud service providers (CSP) and cloud service consumers (CSC). The definition of SLA and monitoring SLA's performance are significant and should be highly valued to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of business services. At present, the third-party monitoring methods based on service credit are mainly applied in cloud manufacturing environments. There is no effective supervision mechanism to monitor the third party and no efficient punishment mechanism on SLA violation. To address aforementioned issues, this paper proposes a novel Service Level Agreement model by integrating Blockchain and Smart Contract (SLABSC), in which trust issues among CSP, CSC, and the third-party monitoring can be addressed through Blockchain technologies. The method proposed in this paper realises the full functionality of SLABSC and facilitates data security, and it can be used to supervise CSP to provide better services. Experiments results show that the performance of the proposed model is valid and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As technology progresses, organisations must understand where to direct their value-creating efforts to achieve or sustain competitive advantage. This is even more true in the case of emerging technologies, where innovative activities often focus on achieving a technology promise while overlooking a set of technological, operational, organisational and user-related problems that must be overcome before the technology can fulfil this promise. Through an innovative application of text-mining, this paper develops a practical methodology to identify a range of problems related to a technological field in an unsupervised manner, that may benefit firms, researchers and policymakers. We apply the methodology to the field of blockchain and compare it to traditional literature reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing scholarship on cryptoeconomics describes this field as a new and emergent phenomenon. In this paper, I claim that crypto anarchists and cryptoeconomists design and build decentralised networks as governance systems according to the common principles of cryptography, economics, and engineering, and thus, cryptoeconomics is not new but has historical intellectual roots in the political ideology of Crypto Anarchy. Cryptoeconomics is a multidisciplinary field of study concerned with the design of decentralised systems that facilitate the coordination of multiple actors. Practitioners of crypteoconomics, known as "cryptoeconomists," employ engineering and economic methods to create institutional infrastructure for social coordination. Crypto Anarchy is a political ideology that emphasises autonomy and anonymity and the practice of self-organising through technical means largely attributed to a counter-cultural subgroup known as the "cypherpunks". I demonstrate the link between Crypto Anarchy and cryptoeconomics through the analysis of empirical evidence from primary archival sources, secondary sources, and academic literature. The implication of these findings is a deeper understanding of what the creation of cryptoeconomic systems does in enabling a political economy of distributed, autonomous coordination. What cryptoeconomists did not adopt and perpetuate is a value for anonymity, which is where the social outcomes of Crypto Anarchy and cryptoeconomics diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore how blockchain facilitates supply chain finance (SCF) platform business model reconfiguration. We conduct a case study on a typical Chinese SCF platform to address research questions and propose a blockchain-enabled SCF platform business model framework. The results show that (1) the reconfiguration of the SCF platform business model is driven by internal factors (content, governance, transaction structure) and external factors (sector dynamics, geographical environment, technology) in the context of blockchain. (2) Blockchain influences the SCF platform business model reconfiguration through empowering the operation of SCF information, financial, material, and value flows. (3) The introduction of blockchain changes the business model of the SCF platform significantly, which is mainly reflected in the improved value proposition, expanded value network, strengthened value creation, and generated value appropriation. This study contributes to the existing literature on SCF, business model, and blockchain. The research also provides some important practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable recent growth in supply chain (SC) traceability research due to increased Industry 4.0 solutions and the potential of traceability systems to enable SCs to bounce back from a crisis, thereby having a long-term impact on firm/SC performance. However, to date, the relationship between SC traceability and SC Resilience (SCRes) has not been fully explored. Using a systematic literature review, this paper first provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art understanding of traceability to enable an appreciation of the inherent benefits of its implementation and its role in the improvement of SCRes. Building on this understanding, a conceptual framework is developed showing that there is a direct relationship between traceability benefits, such as improved risk awareness, and SCRes. The framework also demonstrates indirect relationships between these benefits and four enablers of SCRes: flexibility, velocity, visibility and collaboration. Finally, a future research agenda is proposed, including further development of this conceptual framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet of Things (IoT) security is a fundamental challenge for the enterprises working behind the buildup of the IoT, and it is related applications. In today's ara, with IoT, another buzzword is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency and other blockchain applications. Blockchain technology has proven itself one of the most secure existing technology in trust and privacy. This paper discusses IoT and blockchain technology fundamentals, followed by a discussion regarding numerous consensus models. We also discuss mathematical foundations used by blockchain technology, and it is followed by the proposed privacy-preserving technique for IoT devices with better device identity management using blockchain technology. This paper presents a novel solution for privacy preservation and identity allocation using secure identity management through public key-based cryptography-based blockchain. Though we consider smart home management and smart health management's ecosystem for applicability discussion of the proposed scheme, the proposed system can be applied to any IoT application for better privacy preservation. Finally, we conclude with the discussion regarding the futuristic scope of the proposed system.// [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As legal and business interests continue to arise concerning the deployment of blockchains to different use cases, concerns have equally followed as to how legal liability would attach to participants within blockchain networks. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning the attribution of joint legal liability to nodes within blockchain-based networks. It argues that there should be no broad-brush legal rule governing the issue and that it is the modus operandi of each network that should be determinative of the applicable standard of legal liability in every situation. This paper adopts the use case of innovation and creativity networks to advance the argument that individual liability, as a standard, may in some cases be superior to and more socially beneficial than the use of joint legal liability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In globalised manufacturing and production environments, companies increasingly tend to exploit public contribution advantages within designing, manufacturing and marketing processes. To be benefited from outbound capabilities, this paper presents a tactical supply chain planning model to integrate the designing process in the form of open innovation within the supply chain main processes. In this regard, a fuzzy mathematical model is proposed to optimise the tactical decisions according to supply chain objectives and open innovation considerations. On the other hand, intellectual property issues and protecting the rights of innovators are significant concerns that sometimes avoid companies to be engaged in open innovation initiatives. Therefore, this paper proposes a registering mechanism in which the ideas and creative works are collected, refined and finally approved within a blockchain platform. Furthermore, in order to deal with epistemic environmental uncertainty, the fuzzy set theory is utilised. To investigate the applicability of the developed model, a case study in home appliances domain is employed. The results show that the company can achieve favourable designs by spending approximately 1% of the supply chain total cost. Additionally, benefiting the registering mechanism can decrease the cost of using non-original designs more than 41%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are digital certificates of ownership that can be attached to virtual or physical assets. Recently, they have become increasingly popular, especially with the advent of the metaverse, virtual spaces shared and accessible online. Many brands are launching NFT initiatives for various reasons, including retaining customers, developing new revenue streams, or demonstrating that they are keeping up with the latest technological advances. As for any product or service, to increase the likelihood of success of NFT initiatives, it is key to design them so as to provide value to the targeted audience. In previous research, the notion of "value" of NFTs has been essentially seen through the lenses of financial return. However, NFT initiatives can provide other types of values to the targeted audience. This paper presents the NFTByBrands framework that can be used to identify the potential types of values that can be delivered by brands through NFT initiatives, and can help guide brands in this endeavor. It is built upon customer perceived value theory, and an analysis of 50 NFT initiatives launched by 42 brands. The framework can also be used as a basis for further research on the value of NFTs, and a research agenda is proposed in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are expected to disrupt the corporate finance field by offering a cheaper, quicker and simpler funding alternative for companies, thus playing a relevant role in improving access to the financial markets. This paper seeks to test this premise. Based on information collected from advisors in two transactions completed in the market, the paper compares the process of a traditional international bond issue with one on a DLT platform. The paper clarifies how a DLT-based bond issue is conducted in practice and concludes that such issues are not more affordable or time efficient and are equally complex when compared to a conventional issue. These conclusions are, however, limited in scope due to the case study methodolody adopted. The conclusions may also be impacted by the analysis of legal matters beyond the process of issuance and by the consideration of quantitative data concerning the costs incurred with the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technologies are playing a fundamental role in the postmodern era of globalization where interpersonal interactions at the international level and the exchange of goods, services, information and capital are the basis of all activities. The agriculture sector is constantly facing numerous challenges including the steady growth of the population, climate change, the increasing number of catastrophes, the loss of biodiversity and the spread of parasites. This paper analyzes the impacts of Blockchain applications in agriculture and the food supply chain, through a survey literature review, providing the various players in the agriculture value chain with new tools and key technologies to improve production and distribution processes. To demonstrate the importance of applying the Blockchain in the agriculture sector, especially for emerging countries, the case of South Africa is examined. This focus is one of the unique aspects of this paper, which is the first to deal with this kind of solution applied to the South African context. Our findings indicate that Blockchain, in the e-agricultural context, has the potential for reshaping the entire sector, contributing also to the resolution of the food crisis. This paper discusses the overall implications, limits, challenges and potentials of these applications, from a critical point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients and healthcare practitioners are faced with the challenge of accessing, managing, integrating, and sharing health records securely. Patients should be able to manage their health records anywhere in the world, keep track of medical background, give access to data, and share those with any healthcare professional securely. Direct access to data for patients and a more robust data-sharing infrastructure could better prepare the healthcare system to manage public health threats during the emergence of deadly disease outbreak such as COVID-19. Current technologies in use by the healthcare industry do not adequately address these requirements due to limitations related to privacy, security, and full ecosystem interoperability. This paper conducted a literature review to find out the pivotal roles blockchain technology play in solving some of the most critical and challenging issues facing the healthcare industry. This paper identifies challenges and opportunities for implementing blockchain technology in healthcare and summarizes health-related blockchain products and key players offering solutions across different applications. In doing this, our research extends and complements existing blockchain research in healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of a new form of digital central bank money (Central Bank Digital Currency – CBDC) is actively discussed in the Eurozone. This paper explores different design features of retail CBDC and highlights terminological inconsistencies in the debate surrounding their legal status. It compares CBDC to incumbent forms of money and analyses central questions regarding their introduction from the perspective of European Union law, especially whether the ECB has to power to introduce CBDC and under which conditions CBDC would have legal tender status. For this appraisal, focus is especially put on the interpretation of the notions 'legal tender', 'banknotes', and 'coins' referred to in Art. 128 TFEU; the analysis is supported by experiences drawn from the legal discussion in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a multi-layer integrated IoT-blockchain conceptual architecture to solve the issues of the traditional bill of ladings, namely double-spending, duplicated documents, masqueraded information, and fraud and hacking threads related to the complexity of traditional format and fragmented supply chain activities. We formulate the tasks and functions of each IoT-blockchain layer and illustrates how the proposed conceptual architecture can overcome several inefficiency and security issues in the status quo. The proposed conceptual architecture can link IoT and blockchain technologies with port community systems' practices to reduce potential risks behind issuing the bill of lading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to its unparalleled transparency and disintermediation characteristics, blockchain technology has a huge potential to transform the tourism and hospitality industry. Airlines and hotel companies are now turning to blockchain for its multifaceted applications, yet its holistic value realization in the sector is far from reality. The existing literature in terms of theoretical and methodological underpinnings concerning blockchain technology integrated Smart Tourism 4.0 remains limited and fragmented across its lifecycle. With a structured, systematic literature review approach, the study aims to conduct an in-depth review of 56 selected papers obtained from a specific search criterion employed across widespread repositories of Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost databases, capturing the period from Jan 2012 to May 2022. The study identifies critical research gaps in technology awareness, particularly around the maturity index for a BCT-integrated digitized business model. The emerging themes based on the primary focus areas are summarized and extended further to provide future research directions on the basis of theory, context, and method (TCM) framework. To advance the readers' understanding to the next level, a few case examples of linked theory, context and methodology are also provided. 由于其无与伦比的透明度和非中介化特征，区块链技术具有巨大的潜力来改变旅游业和酒店业. 航空公司和酒店公司现在正转向区块链, 以实现其多方面的应用, 但其在该领域的整体价值实现远未实现. 关于区块链技术集成智能旅游4.0的理论和方法基础方面的现有文献在其整个生命周期中仍然有限且支离破碎. 该研究采用结构化、系统的文献综述方法, 旨在对从Scopus、科学之网和EBSCO宿主数据库的广泛存储库中采用的特定搜索标准获得的56篇论文进行深入审查, 涵盖2012年1月至2022年5月这段时间. 该研究确定了技术意识方面的关键研究差距, 特别是围绕BCT集成数字化业务模型的成熟度指数. 基于主要关注领域的新兴主题被进一步总结和扩展, 以在理论、背景和方法(TCM)框架的基础上提供未来的研究方向. 为了将读者的理解提升到一个新的层次, 还提供了一些相关理论、背景和方法的案例. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper undertakes a bibliometric study to analyse and identify emerging themes for future research in blockchain technology, focusing on agriculture and supply chain management domains. A sample of 1322 articles from Web of Science for 2015–2020 is the basis of the study. The publications are grouped into five clusters, of which Cluster 1 is consistently dominant in the Information Systems publication landscape. Clusters 2, 3, and 4 are evolving, and topics with scant coverage are primarily in Cluster 5, indicating saturation in the area of interdisciplinary studies. The results provide valuable insights for potential contributors and global audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly growing importance of blockchain technology has taken many scholars and industry professionals by surprise. Its emergence has sparked a multitude of innovative, yet largely untested use cases and business models that have the potential to substantially transform the marketing landscape. More specifically, blockchain as the base technology in combination with tokenization has the potential to fundamentally transform marketing communication by changing the ways in which companies and their customers interact. While academic research still ponders how blockchain can be best incorporated into existing research streams, the industry tests numerous ideas on a trial-and-error basis. Blockchains comprise a diverse array of complex and rapidly developing technological building blocks, which makes them hard to understand and integrate into existing marketing frameworks, models, and theories. In contrast, a specific focus on tokens facilitates understanding and classification. In this paper, we clarify the terminology surrounding the emerging token ecosystem from a marketing perspective, illustrate how tokens can potentially impact the marketing profession, and recommend approaches for their integration into academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]