In the era of tech-driven globalization, supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, with an increasing number of stakeholders spread across continents. A complex supply chain requires complex management systems. Supply chain management digitalization and information technology have advanced simultaneously in time, but a more technological and connected society calls for more information, uncovering the limits of supply chain management tools available today, which, while providing efficiency, automation, and organizational capabilities, are quite scarce in providing transparency. Consumer awareness on sensible issues such as climate change, human rights, or counterfeiting is increasing.
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In the era of tech-driven globalization, supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, with an increasing number of stakeholders spread across continents (Abeyratne et al., 2016). A worldwide supply chain requires complex management systems, which call for more information to guarantee transparency (Abeyratne et al., 2016). Consumers’ awareness of sensible issues such as climate change, human rights, and counterfeiting is increasing. Despite the transparency expected by end-users, companies themselves have very limited visibility on supply chains (Deloitte, 2018). Modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools are falling short of current supply chain management requirements and are based on both the quality and the quantity of available information (Li et al., 2006). Information on inputs and processes is very unreliable due to the centralization of data storage, which can be easily accessed and perturbed, leaving space for fraud and falsification; all these issues contribute to lower quality outputs and generally lower customer satisfaction (De Giovanni, 2020a; Eskildsen et al., 2007).
One important solution emerging nowadays for solving these issues is blockchain. The blockchain is a ledger technology that is distributed, decentralized, and public. Because the information blocks are concatenated in a chronological manner, any attempt to change the data stored would require the recalculation of all precedent blocks (Gurtu et al., 2019). Furthermore, with the way the data are distributed, any tampering attempt must be carried out on all network’s machines making the data stored on the blockchain practically immutable (De Giovanni, 2020b). This technology is not new since it has been available since 1991. Nevertheless, the focus has primarily hovered around cryptocurrencies and financial transactions (Gurtu et al., 2019). Only relatively recent literature and practical examples have started to implement the tamper-proof distributed ledger concept to the supply chain as a means of replacing non-transparent centralized supply chain management (SCM) tools. The benefits of the technology are relevant, and governments worldwide have started drafting policies to determine an implementation agenda (Suominen et al., 2018). While the blockchain could be a significant step forward for large supply chains to improve current ERP solutions, it may represent a breakthrough for smaller enterprises, lagging behind on digitalization (Buratto et al., 2019) and often taking the hit from non-transparent supply chains (Zimmerman, 2016).
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) represent a supporting column for the Italian economy, contributing circa 66% to the value added by non-financial businesses (World Bank, 2019). The largest number of SMEs is active in the food sector, which is also the main industry by gross domestic product (GDP) contribution. Despite the large quantity of academic studies and pioneering examples in the application of the blockchain to large-scale supply chains or in the banking industry, studies on the implementation of the technology on small enterprises remains very theoretical. Therefore, this chapter aims to contribute in a practical manner to the discussion on the implementation of the blockchain as an SCM tool for SMEs by answering the following research questions: