The role of blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to humanitarian supply chain management

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-01-2020-0058
• Published date: 19 October 2020
• Date: 19 October 2020
• Pages: 454-478
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics
• Author: Ali Ihsan Ozdemir,Ismail Erol,Ilker Murat Ar,Iskender Peker,Ali Asgary,Tunc Durmus Medeni,Ihsan Tolga Medeni

The role of blockchain in reducing

the impact of barriers

to humanitarian supply

chain management

Ali Ihsan Ozdemir, Ismail Erol and Ilker Murat Ar

Business Administration, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey

Iskender Peker

Business Administration, Gumushane University, Gumushane, Turkey

Ali Asgary

Disaster and Emergency Management, York University –Keele Campus,

Toronto, Canada, and

Tunc Durmus Medeni and Ihsan Tolga Medeni

Management Information Systems, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University,

Ankara, Turkey

Abstract

Purpose –The objective of this study is to investigate the role of blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers

to humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) using a list of blockchain benefits.

Design/methodology/approach –A decision aid was used to explore the suitability of blockchain in

humanitarian supply chains. To achieve that, first, a list of barriers to HSCM was identified. Then, the

intuitionistic fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (IF–DEMATEL) method was utilized to

determine the relationships and the level of interdependencies among the criteria. Finally, the intuitionistic

fuzzyanalytic network process (IF–ANP) technique was employed, as it successfully handles dependencies

among the criteria.

Findings –The findings of this study suggest that interorganizational barriers are the most suitable ones, the

impacts of which blockchain may alleviate. This study further suggests that trust turned out to be the most

significant benefit criterion for the analysis.

Research limitations/implications –The readers should construe the findings of this study with caution

since it was carried out using the data collected from the experts of a particular country. Moreover, the

proposed decisionaid contemplates a limited set of criteria to assess a possible role of blockchain in overcoming

the barriers to HSCM.

Practical implications –The findings of this study can assist humanitarian supply chain managers to make

more judicious assessments on whether they implement the blockchain in humanitarian supply chain

operations. Specifically, this research may help decision makers to identify the certain barriers, the impact of

which may be reduced by using the blockchain. The findings of this research will also help various decision

makers make more rational decisions and allocate their resources more effectively.

Originality/value –To the best of authors’knowledge, no single study exists to investigate the role of

blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to HSCM using an intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria decision-

making approach.

Keywords Blockchain, Humanitarian supply chain management, Barriers to humanitarian supply chain

management, Intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making

Paper type Research paper

IJLM

32,2

454

This paper forms part of a special section “Decision Making in Logistics Management in the Era of

Disruptive Technologies”, guest edited by Vijay Pereira, Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy, Alessio

Ishizaka and Noura Yassine.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0957-4093.htm

Received 31 January 2020

Revised 12 June 2020

Accepted 5 September 2020

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 32 No. 2, 2021

pp. 454-478

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-01-2020-0058

1. Introduction

The rising likelihood and consequences of disasters demand effective management of

humanitarian operations and supply chains (Sahay et al., 2016). It can be argued that one way

to achieve this is to incorporate commercial supply chain management concepts into

humanitarian operations, which may bring about several barriers in practice (Sahebi et al.,

2017). Wassenhove (2006) suggested that humanit arian operations occur in a very

complicated ecosystem, and this complexity is rooted in many issues of humanitarian

operating settings such as high levels of ambiguity, pressures associated with time, high

employee turnover and the existence of many shareholders.

Several challenges of the humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) have been

identified in the literature (Petrudi et al., 2020). For example, numerous studies have discussed

the lack of coordination as a vital problem in humanitarian supply chains (Wassenhove, 2006;

Balcik et al., 2010;Kabra and Ramesh, 2015) claiming that this challenge could cause several

impacts ranging from ineffective aid distribution to competition among actors for scarce

resources and congestion at transportation networks (Kabra and Ramesh, 2015). Moreover,

fundraising problems have been underlined as a significant barrier to HSCM (Wassenhove,

2006;Kovacs and Moshtari, 2019). Several other challenges and barriers have been

considered in the literature including weak monitoring on humanitarian operations, the

extent of disparity in organizations’power and resources, lack of trust between actors, poor

information technology infrastructure, unaccountability to donors, cultural differences

among involved organizations and lack of clear polices (Petrudi et al., 2020;Wassenhove,

2006;Balcik et al., 2010;Kabra and Ramesh, 2015;Kovacs and Spens, 2009).

Considering these challenges, we argue that there is an urgent need to develop more

efficient, effectiveand robust tools to overcome HSCM barriers,which will ultimately improve

humanitarian supply chain performance. It can be argued that out of many alternative

solutions, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) can play significant rolesin

addressing these issues and challenges(Dubey et al.,2020;Aranda et al.,2019;Ko and Verity,

2019). Currently, there are only a few blockchain applications in the HSCM context. For

example, The World Food Program (WFP)’s Building Blocks project (WFP, 2018) uses the

blockchain technology to make money transfers efficiently, transparently and securely to

beneficiariesvia vouchers and to improve collaborationwithin the humanitarian supply chain.

In another example, The IFRCand Kenya Red Cross implemented the Blockchain Open Loop

Payments Pilot Project to explore how the blockchain could increase the transparency and

accountability of cash transferprograms, including independent digital identities(Coppi and

Fast, 2019). Furthermore, Stathakis(2019) discussed the critical perspectives on whether the

implementation of blockchaincan enhance transparency and equity in humanitarian projects

and if these technologies can preserve the privacy of beneficiaries.

Thus, it is argued that how blockchain technologies can be utilized for humanitarian

purposes is a highly significant research question (Ar et al., 2020;Dubey et al., 2020;Erol et al.,

2020). As a preliminary response to this research question, Zwitter and Boisse-Despiaux

(2018) recommended “common monitoring and evaluation frameworks”(together with “well-

selected implementation choices”and “clear ethics guidelines”) to proceed with the

application of blockchain in humanitarian and development aid operations.

However, despite blockchain’s potential reduce the impact of barriers to humanitarian

supply chains and the urgent need for new studies, not much research has been conducted to

systematically investigate the prospective contributions of blockchain for overcoming the

barriers to HSCM. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to explore the role of

blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to HSCM. More specifically, research questions

addressed in this study are as follows: (1) what factors should be considered to evaluate the

usefulness of blockchain in improving HSCM? (2) Which humanitarian supply chain barriers

can be tackled best by blockchain technology? To answer these questions multi criteria

Blockchain in

reducing

barriers to

HSCM

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