Nexus among blockchain visibility, supply chain integration and supply chain performance in the digital transformation era
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0784 |
| Published date | 05 April 2022 |
| Date | 05 April 2022 |
| Pages | 229-252 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Cheng Ling Tan,Zhongkai Tei,Sook Fern Yeo,Kee-Hung Lai,Ajay Kumar,Leanne Chung |
Nexus among blockchain visibility,
supply chain integration and
supply chain performance in the
digital transformation era
Cheng Ling Tan
Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia and
Department of Information Technology and Management,
Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Zhongkai Tei
Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Sook Fern Yeo
Faculty of Business, Multimedia University, Melaka, Malaysia and
Department of Business Administration, Daffodil International University,
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Kee-Hung Lai
Faculty of Business, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, China
Ajay Kumar
AIM Research Centre on AI in Value Creation, Emlyon Business School,
Ecully, France, and
Leanne Chung
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Abstract
Purpose –Digital transformation (DT) in the semiconductor industry goes beyond traditional business
operations and supply chain management (OSCM) to the digital world. Despite significant developments in
recent years, blockchain implementations for OSCM remain relatively underdeveloped in the semiconductor
industry. Therefore, this research aims to examine the relationships between blockchain visibility, supply
chain integration (SCI) and supply chain performance (SCP) in the era of DT in Malaysia’s semiconductor
industry to shed light on this emerging area.
Design/methodology/approach –A convenience sampling of 71 operations and supply chain managers
attached to semiconductor manufacturing firms in Malaysia were invited to participate in a survey. In
assessing blockchain visibility within the industry, key terms namely business intelligence gathering,
information exchange, information technology (IT) and knowledge of asset status, were conceptualised from
the literature review. The questionnaires developed to collect data were validated by industry and academic
experts.
Findings –The results from the analysis confirmed that SCI mediates the link between blockchain visibility
(information exchange, business intelligence gathering and knowledge asset status) and SCP. Likewise, the
importance-performance matrix analysis (IPMA) outcomes revealed that IT played a minor role. The results
suggested thatsemiconductor manufacturers should pay less attention to IT since this was identified as having
the least priority towards improvement.
Practical implications –The outcomes from this research enable policymakers to strategise and integrate
blockchain technology in the era of DT to ensure sustainable SCM in the semiconductor industry in Malaysia.
Originality/value –The research bridge the knowledge gap by revealing the value that blockchain visibility
can facilitate SCP and explore SCI as the prevailing factor and demonstrates how Resource-Based Theory and
Network Theory can be applied in this study.
Keywords Digital transformation, Blockchain, Performance, Visibility, Supply chain, Integration,
Technology
Paper type Research paper
Supply chain
integration in
the digital era
229
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 26 December 2021
Revised 14 February 2022
11 March 2022
Accepted 15 March 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 123 No. 1, 2023
pp. 229-252
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0784
1. Introduction
In recent years, disruptive technologies have significantly altered the way industries and
businesses operate. However, while this is true to some extent, companies that fail to consider
the effect of such technologies may ultimately pay the price by losing market share to
competitors that have chosen to integrate these technologies into their business operations.
Having said that, from a supply chain perspective, it is critical for manufacturing industries,
to rely heavily on their supply chain partners to deliver products. Manufacturers, suppliers,
shippers, distributors and customers are the principal stakeholders in the supply chain of
manufacturing industries. Indeed, manufacturing companies have increasingly recognised
the importance of supply chain performance (SCP) and efficiently managed supply chains as
critical factors in remaining competitive. As pointed out by Kumar et al. (2017b), globalisation
has also amplified the effects of these factors, thus increasing the need to incorporate
disruptive technology into the supply chain management (SCM) system.
An inter-organisational information system (IOIS) can be described as a data network that
enables information sharing between organisations. As manufacturers continue to advance
towards hybrid cloud and cloud-native applications as part of their digital transformation
(DT), they will have to determine if and where blockchain can play a role. Blockchain
technology is a novel approach towards establishing inter-organisational information
systems (Pedersen et al., 2019). Xu et al. (2021) explained that a blockchain is literally a chain
of blocks, or more precisely, digital data (the “block”) kept in a shared database (the “chain”).
Furthermore, blockchain usage and smart contracts in the context of SCM have been
proposed. As explained by Yoo and Won (2018), a company may operate more efficiently in
the long-term, by sharing information securely through a blockchain network. Indeed,
innovations are posing exciting prospects for supply chain improvement (SCI), and
incorporating blockchain technology into the supply chain making it possible to improve
supply chain visibility while lowering operational costs (Laaper et al., 2017).
As depicted by Queiroz et al. (2020), blockchain is considered a prominent and highly
disruptive technology, contributing to remodelling traditional business models and creating
new opportunities across the entire supply chain. More than 70% of all businesses across
sectors consider blockchain to be part of their digital transformation plan now and the years
to come (Stacey, 2020). Blockchain applications in SCM have been shown to have a
tremendous, transformational effect on businesses. This is supported by recent research
suggesting that the introduction of blockchain applications in SCM helps to improve business
performance (Manupati et al., 2020;Queiroz et al., 2019).
From an Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) perspective, blockchain is
considered a potential solution for SCM traceability problems (Lu and Xu, 2017), enabling
trustworthy relationships to be developed between organisations and their suppliers along
the entire supply chain and management. In responding to this, while Industrial Revolution
(IR) 4.0 has ushered in a new era of economic disruption, manufacturing companies are
closely looking beyond the latest technologies and identifying the real potential of these
technologies to elevate SCP, particularly the most complex digitalised industries, namely the
semiconductor manufacturing. Although blockchain technology has a great potential for
acquiring high levels of efficiency with a decentralised, transparent and visible operation to
SCM (Cole et al., 2019;Dolgui et al., 2020;Wong et al., 2020), blockchain remains relatively
underutilised and understood. The five most leading blockchain research studies based on
the number of publications are in the United States (US), China, the United Kingdom (UK),
Germany and South Korea (Wamba and Queiroz, 2020). However, there still remains a lack of
research data on blockchain visibility outside of these countries.
On the other hand, scholars and researchers worldwide have started concentrating on
blockchain technology features and adoption within OSCM. Babich and Hilary (2020)
highlighted five key strengths in the interplay between blockchain and operations
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