Adoption of blockchain technology in supply chain operations: a comprehensive literature study analysis

The concept of blockchain technology, which has been around for over a decade, is gaining traction in academics and the commercial world. Blockchain technology, first created for virtual currency use, has recently found wider applications. Traditional blockchain applications in supply chain management focus on increasing safety, visibility, and auditability. A new movement is underway in which organizations are incorporating blockchain technology into their supply networks to reduce the environmental impact. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of scholarly studies examining the many applications of blockchain technology in the field of supply chain management. A comprehensive evaluation of blockchain applications in the supply chain domain, on the other hand, presents the current state of the art of blockchain in supply chain management. Thus, we use a systematic literature review based on bibliometric analysis to review 477 research articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 2017 and July 2022. This paper sheds light on the latest research trends in the field and guides readers through the many choices that must be made regarding blockchain implementation at various aspects of the supply chain by analyzing the most important and highly cited papers, authors' collaboration networks, keywords, countries, and institutions. Our analysis reveals six different themes related to supply chain traceability, resilience and collaboration, blockchain adoption challenges, supply chain performance, supply chain agility and adaptability, sustainability and carbon auditing, and supply chain finance. Our findings broaden the discussion by taking an integrated approach that embraces blockchain from different angles. Future research paths were pinpointed by systematically mapping and analyzing existing research trends, major research subjects, the evolution of publications over time, patterns of author and country collaboration, keyword co-occurrence, and more.