Understanding blockchain deployments in supply chains: A Template Analysis

This research is a response to Treiblmaier et al. (2021) who called for future research into blockchain adoption in supply chains that produce actionable outcomes which may be used by industry and academia to understand the blockchain deployment process. This is achieved through an adapted version of the Technology-Organisation-Environment theoretical framework, by first understanding the barriers which organisations face when they attempt to deploy a production-grade blockchain throughout their supply chain, before detailing novel best practices currently being employed in industry that target the underlying causes of the barriers identified in the first part of the research. In this Critical Realist interview study, evidence was collected from 18 participants who each had extensive experience working with blockchain technology in a supply chain setting. Further, in response to Treiblmaier et al. (2021), a maximum variation sampling approach was undertaken to capture the perspectives of various key stakeholder groups. Additionally, several interviewees had worked on production-grade blockchain deployments which are infrequently documented in the extant literature. Template Analysis was the preferred data analysis method due to its compatibility with the Technology-Organisation-Environment theoretical framework and its flexibility to be applied with various philosophical assumptions and research methods. The Template Analysis revealed that the interviewees found ‘onboarding supply chain members into the blockchain governance’ and ‘establishing the return on investment from the blockchain project’ were the two most prominent issues facing blockchain deployments throughout a supply chain. Thus, best practices were identified which targeted the underlying causal mechanisms which caused each of these barriers to occur. This was presented as a framework in the form of a series of tables which can be used by managers to aid in their blockchain deployments whilst being the basis for future academic research.