Blockchain and Supply Chain Management

This book offers a distinctive and evidence-based examination of why blockchain technology has not achieved the transformative impact in supply chain management that many anticipated. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with technology and supply chain executives across the logistics, food and pharmaceutical sectors, it develops a novel analytical framework based on sociomateriality, affordance theory and organisational paradox to explain the tensions and dilemmas limiting blockchain adoption.

Readers will benefit from a rich empirical study and a theoretically informed explanation of why blockchain initiatives frequently remain at pilot or proof-of-concept stages. The book provides practical insights into the strategic choices and organisational tensions influencing technology adoption and offers recommendations for unlocking the potential value of blockchain. More broadly, it provides a framework for understanding the challenges associated with the emergence and adoption of new digital technologies in complex organisational settings.

The book will be of interest to researchers and students in supply chain management, operations management, information systems, organisation studies and digital innovation, as well as practitioners, consultants and technology leaders responsible for technology and supply chain strategy. It will also appeal to policymakers and professionals seeking to understand the realities of digital transformation beyond the often-optimistic claims surrounding emerging technologies.