**1. Introduction**

The supply chain plays a crucial role in modern businesses by allowing them to achieve efficiency, responsiveness, and success. Over the past several decades, the scale of businesses has expanded, the number of geographic locales involved in the production process has grown, and product portfolios have diversified. As a result, the supply chain has grown from a traditional network of manufacturers and suppliers, to a vast ecosystem made of various products that move through multiple parties and require cooperation among stakeholders [1]. Additionally, due to the rapid evolution of e-commerce, the demand for improved product visibility and source-to-store traceability has never been higher. However, the inefficiency of data sharing in current supply chain networks has dramatically impacted the operations of retailers and manufacturers. For example, information gaps between data collected by factories and by retailers make it challenging to trace product history and offer customized products.

To overcome these challenges and improve supply chain performance, industries have explored innovative technologies that support efficient collaboration and coordination within and among different organizations [2, 3]. Among these technologies, blockchain provides a promising future and allows the supply chain to provide better visibility, transparency, and acuity of transactions throughout the entire process [4]. The blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrency has caught the attention of businesses, especially those in supply chain management. A 2017 study indicated that nearly 62% of supply chain executives claimed to have engaged with blockchain

technology [5]. Although blockchain-based applications in the supply chain are still in their early stages, we believe this technology will significantly remodel the supply chain system [6–8]. Analysts forecast that blockchain technology can help supply chain management gain one-third improvement in most of its common processes [9]. A blockchain network is as a distributed ledger—transactions are contained in blocks that are linked together in chronological order to form a tamper-proof chain, which is usually stored in all network nodes [10, 11]. As such, blockchain technology provides a means to create tamper-proof logs of business activities and transactions [12]. Transaction data are immutable because they cannot be tampered with once they are distributed, accepted, and validated by network consensus and stored in the blocks [13]. By eliminating intermediaries to achieve trust among all stakeholders, efficiency improves and cost is reduced for the entire supply chain.

Despite the general acceptance that blockchain technology facilitates faster, more easily auditable interactions and allows for the exchange of immutable data among supply chain partners [14], it will take time for this technology to be adopted and to revolutionize the supply chain. Currently, most applications of blockchain are conceptual expositions, and empirical evidence on the implementation of it is limited [15]. Furthermore, few studies have been conducted on the challenges of deploying blockchain in the supply chain, such as organizational readiness, technical expertise, scalability, and compatibility with existing systems. Therefore, this study will provide a systematic analysis of how blockchain technology fits in the supply chain network and discuss potential challenges with its implementation.
