区块链在农产品流通中的应用模式与实施

区块链技术具有信息共享、数据真实安全、信息与凭证可追溯、智能合约等特征,与农产品流通需求存在多重耦合,有助于解决农产品流通中的痛点问题,并在农产品流通中得以局部应用。不过,区块链技术在农产品流通领域的应用尚处于起步阶段,存在全产业链应用整合程度较低、数据共享与可靠性未能完全实现、农业融资区块链落地难等一系列问题。目前具备可实现条件的农产品流通领域的区块链项目,一是跨境农产品交易联盟链,能够提高交易的公平性和透明度,降低交易风险,可由核心企业、产业基金、信息技术企业等主体共同参与开发,并建立上下游产业协同关系;二是跨境农产品物流联盟链,能够实现物流全程可控与费用自动结算,需要在行业内部增强互信并建立协调与激励机制,同时融合应用多种信息技术;三是农产品溯源联盟链,能够实现从生产源头直到消费者的农产品溯源,而为确保全链共查共享和监管,需要通过制度设计来赋予链上各方信任,应用多种技术、借助线上线下共同作用来防止一切造假;四是高效传递价值的农业融资区块链,其基于智能合约的融资征信与自动履约功能可有效满足农业融资需求,降低征信成本,需要建立风险控制制度、信用自证的认证标准、技术体系以及金融业内部技术业务标准,以实现征信信息跨链共享。农产品流通领域任何区块链具体项目的实施都要遵循严谨的实施步骤,依次是判断适用性、开展区块链培训、构思理论模型、寻找内外部资源合作、开发原型和项目实施。     

Blockchain in Additive Manufacturing and its Impact on Supply Chains

Additive manufacturing (AM) appears to be a particularly attractive use case for blockchain. This research combines inductive in‐depth interviews with the Delphi method to explore what potentials blockchain technology in AM creates, which adoption barriers firms need to overcome, and how supply chains will be affected by the integration of these two potentially disruptive technologies. The results suggest opportunities that are related to intellectual property (IP) rights management, the monitoring of printed parts throughout their lifecycle, process improvements, and data security. The most important barriers for blockchain adoption in AM are an absence of blockchain‐skilled specialists on the labor market, missing governance mechanisms, and a lack of firm‐internal technical expertise. By addressing important limitations of AM, blockchain is expected to improve the competitiveness of AM in parts’ production, catalyzing the trend toward more decentralized manufacturing resulting in more agile, resilient, and flexible supply chains and reduced logistics costs. Beyond that, blockchain‐based AM platforms are expected to enhance supply chain visibility, drive supply chain digitalization, support supply chain finance, and contribute to the emergence of shared factory systems.     

海关与跨境供应链合规领域的区块链创新

来自不同国家多方参与者的信息交互造成跨境供应链数据缺乏透明度和可视性,信息协同程度较低,增大了跨境供应链合规风险。由于区块链具有数据不可篡改、不易伪造、可追溯、可审计等特点,已有海关和企业将其创新应用于跨境供应链合规领域以实现供应链信息协同。根据该领域主要区块链试点应用情况,从主导者选择、标准化、法律问题、效率与可拓展性四个方面分析了区块链应用于跨境供应链合规领域仍需解决的问题和所面临的挑战,并提出了应用区块链创新的建议。     

A decentralized token economy: How blockchain and cryptocurrency can revolutionize business

As the underlying technology of bitcoin, blockchain is expected to create a new economic system by revolutionizing the way we communicate over the internet. Blockchain seeks to improve information security and transparency by sharing encrypted data among peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Due to its emphasis on security and trust, there is increased demand for blockchain’s application in a variety of business sectors. The decentralized nature of blockchain creates the new concept of a token economy in which the community’s revenue can be allocated to the actual content producers and service users who create value. This article looks at how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are evolving and interconnected, creating a token economy through different business models. Blockchain is expected to be a key technology that enables new protocols for the establishment of a token economy in the future, leading to a new economic paradigm.     

E‐learning: emerging uses,empirical results and future directions

The use of network technology to deliver training is the latest trend in the training and development industry and has been heralded as the ‘e‐learning revolution.’ In an effort to separate hype from reality, this paper reviews practitioner and research literature on e‐learning, incorporating unpublished information from interviews with managers and consultants directly involved in e‐learning initiatives. Specific attention is given to why organizations use e‐learning, what the potential drawbacks to e‐learning are, what we know from research about e‐learning and what the future of e‐learning may hold.     

How blockchain technologies impact your business model

Much of the attention surrounding blockchain today is focused on financial services, with very little discussion about nonfinancial services firms and how blockchain technology may affect organizations, their business models, and how they create and deliver value. In addition, some confusion remains between the blockchain (with definite article) and blockchain (no article), distributed ledger technologies, and their applications. Our article offers a primer on blockchain technology aimed at general managers and executives. The key contributions of this article lie in providing an explanation of blockchain, including how a blockchain transaction works and a clarification of terms, and outlining different types of blockchain technologies. We also discuss how different types of blockchain impact business models. Building on the well-established business model framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur, we outline the effect that blockchain technologies can have on each element of the business model, along with illustrations from firms developing blockchain technology.     

基于区块链的碳抵消研究综述与展望

碳抵消市场因为缺乏透明度、质量难以保证等问题导致发展十分缓慢,区块链技术可有效解决上述问题。通过区块链发行碳通证不仅体现了碳资源的价值,还运用市场手段促进了碳普惠的发展。目前,大部分文献集中论述基于区块链构建碳抵消的理论设想及必要性,现实应用研究极少。未来要继续探索相关的政策支持、激励机制、计量标准、审核机制,更好地发挥区块链技术对碳抵消市场的积极作用,以促进"碳中和"目标的实现。     

How does the retailing industry decide the best replenishment strategy by utilizing technological support through blockchain?

Practitioners face two significant issues: product inaccuracy and transparency in supply chain management. Blockchain is a highly secure and trustworthy means of storing data. Radio frequency identification incorporation is essential if reliability is at a low level. Incorporating radio frequency identification can improve supply chain management in terms of product's visibility for the best replenishment strategy. A production and replenishment coordination via mathematical modeling is visualized through a three-echelon supply chain with a non-reliable production process, and the retailer deals with misplacement issues. The manufacturer handles the inventory flowing reversely and is responsible for proper end-of-life treatment, either repairing or remanufacturing. Repairs are sold in bulk on the secondary market, and remanufactured items are used to prevent retailers' shortages. In this model, radio frequency identification technology on the physical surface is combined with a blockchain on the cyber surface, containing all the information about the product, including its location and attributes. A comparative study is provided for the traditional supply chain with misplacement versus a blockchain-based supply chain with radio frequency identification. An analytical approach is used to arrive at the optimum policy for the practitioners, and numerical analysis illustrates the problem. Numerical experiments indicate that the technology is highly profitable for supply chain management. Radio frequency identification technology can increase profit by up to 61%. After discrepancy, holding cost is the second most sensitive parameter for the profit function. If the holding cost is higher, profit can be increased by 40% using radio frequency identification and blockchain. The negative effect of misplacement is reduced with an increasing demand rate, but the reduction rate is very slow. The choice of not adopting radio frequency identification can only be successful if demand is so high that it can reduce the effect of misplacement.     

The impact of blockchain technology on the online purchase behavior of green agricultural products

The purpose of this study is to identify and investigate the types of trust and their impact mechanisms in the application of blockchain technology for green agricultural products. A mixed research approach was used in this study. First, qualitative in-depth interviews with consumers were conducted to identify the technological path (blockchain technology), and the information disclosure path (environmental information of green agricultural products) that affect consumer trust. Two types of consumer trust were also identified, namely, cognitive trust in blockchain technology (digital trust), and instantaneous trust in blockchain technology disclosure information (swift trust), both of which play a role in influencing consumers’ immediate purchase. Then, based on the interview results, a theoretical model for this study was developed by combining signal theory and trust transfer theory. Through a quantitative survey, 474 valid data were collected to empirically examine the role of consumer blockchain technology experience and environmental information transparency perceived on digital trust and swift trust, and the role of both types of trust on impulse buying. The results show that consumer blockchain technology experience can significantly and positively affect the environmental information transparency perceived. And both have a positive effect on digital trust and swift trust. Also both trusts have a significant effect on impulse buying. Further mediating effects confirm the environmental information transparency perceived as an important intrinsic mechanism by which the blockchain technology experience influences consumer trust. The results of this study add an empirical basis for the role of blockchain technology. It also provides a reference for technology adoption by related companies.     

Designing for Cost Transparency in Investment Advisory Service Encounters

Investment advisory services of financial service providers (FSPs) exhibit several characteristics that are detrimental to advisory quality. The interaction of advisor and client is strained by a lack of transparency regarding the advisory process (what activities are performed and why) and the information used therein (what information is used for what purpose and with what effect), as well as regarding the precise costs of the service and the recommended products. In prior research, we suggested that process and information transparency issues may be appropriately addressed with collaborative information technology (IT) artifacts. In this paper, we argue that collaborative, transparent artifacts may also be a premise of enabling cost transparency. To this end, we describe a complete research cycle of designing, implementing, and evaluating a shared cost-transparent IT artifact to support client-advisor interaction in investment advisory encounters. Evaluation results suggest the efficacy of our design in improving the clients?? perceived cost transparency as well as increase their satisfaction and their willingness to pay for the received investment advice. These findings may also challenge the common belief of FSPs that transparent, fee-based advisory services would neither be accepted by clients nor be economically viable. Practical implications of these findings for designing advisory encounters with supportive IT are discussed.     

THE SUCCESSFUL CROSS‐DOCK BASED SUPPLY CHAIN

A supply chain using the cross‐dock approach can speed goods from upstream suppliers to downstream customers quickly and cost‐effectively, with benefits to the entire chain, if the appropriate type of cross‐dock is chosen and then designed, staffed and managed for effective performance. Unlike a warehouse, which offers storage, a cross‐dock is a high performance rapid transit point that does not provide storage. Although cross‐docks have been studied with some thoroughness, what has not been seen clearly is that a cross‐dock does not operate in isolation and therefore can't be optimized independently from the upstream and downstream processes. To be successful, cross‐dock optimization makes demands for high performance on all members of the supply chain in terms of speed, effective planning, high reliability, near error‐proof processes and a high degree of transparency, visibility and information‐sharing; accordingly, the article refers to this integrative perspective as a “cross‐dock based supply chain.” To make clear this interdependency between the cross‐dock and the chain based on it, a new definition that classifies types of cross‐dock based supply chains is offered. To assist scholars analyzing and industry management choosing a cross‐dock approach, cross‐dock based supply chains are classified as falling into three different types. Lastly, based on field work in industry and on literature review, nine critical success factors for cross‐dock based supply chain operations are offered.     

Understanding Managers’ Reactions to Blockchain Technologies in the Supply Chain: The Reliable and Unbiased Software Agent

Organizations investing in supply chain information systems struggle to ensure successful adoption and implementation. Projects fail because of technical caveats, inability to meet business needs, and poor management of implementation. Implementation of blockchain technologies across a network of supply chain partners is more complex than internally focused technologies. It is necessary for partner firms to implement, contribute, and share information, and employees to actively use the capabilities of the technology to realize potential. Blockchain technologies can substitute for traditional interfirm intermediaries acting as an unbiased software agent embedded in the supply chain network. Understanding managers’ perceptions of and willingness to use blockchain technologies is crucial for successful implementation. Integrating design theory with classic diffusion processes, we conducted a scenario‐based role‐playing experiment with industry professionals to examine managers’ perceptions of blockchain technologies and willingness to use. We find that trustworthiness with regard to competence and perceived distributive justice is the focal drivers of managers’ willingness to use the technology. Additionally, both risk and interactional justice are not drivers of willingness to use blockchain technology despite significant claims to that effect. We provide implications for how managers can leverage these drivers to influence supply chain partners’ willingness to use the technology.     

区块链技术在碳中和债中的应用探索

本文试图从碳中和债与区块链技术相结合的角度出发,运用文献回顾、横纵向对比等方法,探索与研究区块链技术在碳中和债中的可能应用。结果表明：分布式账本便于发债主体、监管机构等主体查看与管理碳中和债发行全过程的信息记录;非对称加密的运用使得记录在区块中的信息难以被篡改,可以降低碳中和债的信任成本;共识机制通过对区块内容的验证与确认,可以保证区块内信息的准确性与可靠性,有助于提高碳中和债的公信力;智能合约通过设定代码来使电脑准确执行合同内容,有助于保障碳中和债信息披露的完整性与透明度。因此,区块链技术有助于加强对碳中和债的监管,降低碳中和债的信任成本,提高碳中和债的公信力和信息透明度。     

Blockchain: a game changer for marketers?

Marketing Letters - Marketers are faced with understanding and implementing new technologies at a greater rate than ever before. Yet despite the emergence of blockchain technology over a decade...     

The role of blockchain-enabled traceability,task technology fit,and user self-efficacy in mobile food delivery applications

The working pattern of the food industry has entirely changed with the emergence of mobile food delivery apps (MFDAs), which deliver an innovative method to interact with and offer high-quality services to customers. This study pinpoints the imperative factors affecting the customer's attitude and continued intention in light of the task technology fit (TTF) model. The required data were collected from MFDA users and analyzed by the structural equation modeling technique via Amos-23 and SPSS-22. The results confirm that customer rating, ordering review, food tracking, navigational design, and user self-efficacy positively impact TTF. Further, self-efficacy positively moderates the relationship between visual design and TTF, navigational design and TTF, and food tracking and TTF. Moreover, TTF positively influences attitude and continued intention, and in turn, attitude positively influences continued intention. Additionally, blockchain technology (BT) enabled traceability positively moderates the relationship between TTF, attitudes, and continued intention to use MFDAs. The developers of MFDAs should consider how customers perceive BT-enabled traceability and take steps to embrace it to increase customer trust in MFDAs. Furthermore, the theoretical and managerial applications are explained in detail so that developers can offer what MFDA users need.     

What Factors Influence the Diffusion of the Mobile Communications Industry: A Case Study from China

Mobile communications have experienced rapid growth in China and play an increasingly important role in the country’s economic development. However, there is still vast regional imbalance in China’s communications industry which we will be exploring here, including examining what factors influence diffusion paths and cause these differences. Through a two‐step estimate method, this paper successfully describes the differences in the diffusion paths of mobile communications in different regions of China. It evaluates the impacts of industry variables, intra‐regional income gaps, macroeconomic factors (such as degree of urbanisation) and geographic effects of neighbouring provinces. Our work may be helpful to inform policymaking for effective and equitable development.     

Blockchain and business ethics

This paper provides, from a business ethics perspective, a basic clustering of the morally (a) favorable, (b) unfavorable, and (c) ambivalent dimensions of blockchain technology and its various emergent applications. Instead of proffering specific assessments on particular aspects of blockchain‐based business models, we aim to offer an initial overview that charters the territory so that future research can bring about such moral assessments in an informed and orderly fashion. The main contribution of this paper lies in identifying several morally ambivalent dimensions of blockchain technology, which we finally link to two strands of business ethics research: ethical and legal aspects of legislation as well as a link to Habermasian corporate social responsibility theory arguing for transparent data production and consumption on the blockchain. We conclude that future research is necessary for moral assessment of the ambivalent cases, since their ethical evaluation changes depending on whether one analyzes them through the lenses of utilitarianism, contractarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics, respectively.     

Blockchain Applications in Supply Chain Transactions

Blockchains, a disruptive technology with potentially many applications in modern‐day supply chain (SC) transactions, have not been adequately reflected by theory. Researchers and business managers must understand where and when blockchains’ application may be expected and investigated. The present study clarifies the discussion about blockchain application areas (BAAs) in SC transactions and their relevance for businesses. This study combines the findings from three methodological approaches: an extant literature review, a Delphi study, and a survey of 151 German machinery and equipment sector business managers. The results further our understanding of blockchains’ business opportunities among SC transactions and verify and extend Iansiti and Lakhani’s (Harvard Business Review 2017; 95: 118) blockchain adoption framework. Verified customer reviews and product quality certification are identified as the most relevant blockchain usages in SC transactions. Interestingly, we anticipate the least likely adoption of blockchains to occur for document‐signing processes despite arguments within the literature that suggest otherwise. Two newly identified BAAs—logistics and delivery systems—and token‐curated registries rank among the top four most relevant. The present study’s valuation of BAAs advances theory and will likely affect business strategies by indicating where, when, and why businesses should participate in blockchain networks.     

Bitcoins,Blockchain und Distributed Ledgers

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin were invented to facilitate instant payment services without the need for a central bank or financial intermediaries executing payments. Using cryptographic functions, any user of the bitcoin system can transfer units of the virtual currency globally on an anonymous basis. However, financial supervisory authorities are about to increase regulation of virtual currencies due to concerns that the anonymous character of the system facilitates money laundering and the financing of illegal transactions. Nevertheless, the underlying blockchain technology, or in broader terms the distributed ledger technology, may revolutionise several industries. This paper illustrates the functioning and recent market developments in the bitcoin industry as well as the disruptive potential of the underlying technologies.