Filipe Sarmento is an MCS student at Aston University and is researching user acceptance of Block chain technologies - The link to his research is above.
As background, his research objectives are summarised below :-
Title : - User Acceptance Behaviour of Blockchain Technology in UK-based Supply Chains
Background
A simple shipment of refrigerated goods from East Africa to Europe requires stamps and approvals from up to 30 people such as those in customs, tax officials and health authorities, including over 200 different interactions and communications among them (Groenfeldt, 2017). IBM and Maersk did a proof of concept and estimated that paperwork accounts for 15% of the shipping cost and decided to implement a pilot project using blockchain application in international logistics.
Blockchain technology first appeared in the mainstream associated with bitcoin in 2008. The key concept of the technology is to be a shared and secure ledger that creates a permanent record of transactions. It is based on four characteristics: decentralisation, security, auditability, and smart execution.
Since 2008, there were some adaptions of Blockchain technology into the Supply Chain Context. For example, Alibaba and Walmart explored the use of blockchain to fight food fraud and tracking the products in two separate projects; also London-based start-up Everledger’s blockchain-based solutions are used to verify the provenance of products, eliminating the flow of diamonds mined in conflict zones (Kshetri, 2018).
Blockchains in transport and logistics could also be utilised to facilitate payments to suppliers or 3PLs couple them with smart contracts.
Another key aspect in a multi-tier supply chain is trust, and here blockchain provides proof of identity enabling all members of the system to record, validate and track the transactions in their supply chain: using blockchains to record supply chain data free of errors would hold relevant supply chain members accountable and resolve disclosure issues, minimising the impact of conflicting objectives and increasing trust in supply chains (Pournader et al., 2020).
Yet, while studies on blockchain have gained pace in recent years, there is still a lot of doubt on blockchain adoption behaviour at the individual level. Therefore, there is a need to understand how ready UK-based Supply Chains are for this disruptive technology.
To come to an understanding it will be developed a model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) proposed by Venkatesh, V. et al. (2003) with the additional inputs from the study of Queiroz, M. & Wamba, S. (2018).
The data for the model will need the collaboration of UK-based Supply Chain Professionals, as we need them to answer a Liker-Type Scale Questionnaire.
The link to the questionnaire is the following:
Confidentiality will be protected by anonymizing the names of the participants and their Companies.
Thank you in advance for your collaboration!
Best Regards,
Filipe Sarmento
MSc Student Aston University
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