BLOCKCHAIN INNOVATION IN SUPPLY CHAIN TRACING - A qualitative multiple-case study on the use of blockchain in supply chain management

Abstract: Throughout the history of trade between people and organizations, trust has always been a fundamental requirement. The need for trust increases as supply chain become more global and complex, since trust is handled by an intermediary, this increases the risks which increases the cost of trust. Blockchain is an innovation that is expected to have great impact on the ways we exchange value in the future, especially regarding solving problems of trust. Supply chains are pressured by stakeholders to trace their materials, and blockchain has been pointed out as a solution. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the uses of blockchain technology in supply chain tracing by studying supply chain tracing companies to find out why blockchain is used, what factors makes blockchain a suitable innovation for supply chain tracing and if there are other technologies that can achieve results similar to blockchain. The study follows a qualitative research strategy to conduct exploratory research in the form of a multiple case study of 5 European supply chain tracing companies using inductive reasoning. Data was collected through semi-structured interview with c-level executives or other professionals at these 5 companies. Study also includes a review on current literature in the field of blockchain technology and blockchain in supply chain management. A thematic analysis was used to answer the two research questions using the collected data as well as current literature on the topic. The findings of the study suggest that the functions of a chosen blockchain is the most important factor for use in supply chain tracing, especially the immutability which means data cannot be tampered with, which the study found unique to blockchain technology. The immutability allows users to verify data and creates transparency. All these factors together create a system that is proven to work, and that proof makes users trust the technology. Once trust has been built it seems that the actual technical configuration of the blockchain is of less importance to the users, if the system is proven to work, the users do not need to understand how it works. The study also found that the types of blockchains used in supply chain tracing do not have high energy consumption like Bitcoin.