Ensuring Traceability and Quality Across Food Supply Chains
摘要
In the context of the integration of blockchain technology in agri-food supply chains, this chapter explores how it can be exploited by firms to ensure traceability and quality of goods and services delivered to customers. Moreover, the chapter will focus on practical implications for managers and consultants in terms of firms’ performances assessment and strategy definition. The first paragraph is dedicated to assessing how the implementation of blockchain technology affects different performance dimensions of agri-food companies, presenting a literature review as well as results from existing empirical research, which confirms blockchain’s role in improving collaboration, knowledge, and governance within supply chains. In the second paragraph two different implementation paths of blockchain technology are introduced, as part of a strategic framework useful for managers. On one side, the “Dynamic configuration” is focused on operational integration and supply chain efficiency; on the other side the “Static configuration” is mainly intended for enhancing marketing differentiation and customer’s engagement. In this context, to fully extract the potential of blockchain technology, managers should carefully align the adopted configuration along with the firm’s strategic goals.