Table 3 Barriers in implementation of... | Emerald Publishing

Table 3

Barriers in implementation of blockchain and IoT in green supply chains

Sr. No	Barrier name	Description	Source
B1	High Energy consumption	Blockchain uses the proof-of-work mechanism and validates transactions. These calculations require large amounts of energy to power the computers solving the problems and a sizable amount to cool down the computers	Kshetri (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B2	Weak Legislation	The legislation is considered to have a high influence on strategy formulations of industries. There is no legal provision to ensure enforceability of smart contracts to avoid disputes among the transacting parties	Handfield and Bechtel (2002), Weber et al. (2016)
B3	High Initial investment	Establishing a system with Blockchain and IoT for entire supply chain needs huge investments in terms of equipment and updating the original system	Kshetri (2017). Reyna et al. (2018)
B4	Lack of Top management support	The amount of investments in SCM and relevant technologies depends on top management’s attitude. Many authors have discussed the negative impact of lack of management’s support to the implementation of new initiatives	Handfield and Bechtel (2002)
B5	Lack of Roadmap for continued blockchain innovation	New products and services are evolving based on blockchain transactions. As it’s a new technology, there is no roadmap available on how it will get evolved in the future	Our contributed Barrier
B6	Lack of training	Digital supply chain requires all the employees to be trained in new technologies so that they don’t become obsolete	Kshetri (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B7	Lack of Organizational Resources	Blockchain requires a complete shift to the decentralized network and hence requires all the organization’s resources for its implementation	Zhao et al. (2016)
B8	Nascent technology	Blockchain-IoT is still in a nascent stage and will require some time to evolve completely. Resolving issues like transactions speeds and data limits are crucial in making its adoption worldwide	Yli-Huumo et al. (2016), Chung and Kim (2016)
B9	Scalability of technology	Blockchain is not able to support wide range of transactions and scalability is major concern for organizations	Kshetri (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B10	Data security concerns	In a public ledger like blockchain everyone can see all the transactions on a Blockchain network. Data security is main concern for the parties doing the transactions	Khan and Salah (2018)
B11	Lack of standards to ensure the interoperability of systems	Global standard of IoT communication protocol are required for smart objects and systems to eliminate sources of vulnerabilities throughout the SC nodes and links. It is required to find a way to integrate the existing system with the blockchain solution for interoperability of systems	Khan and Salah (2018)
B12	Lack of sufficient digital skills	The technologies require high-end skill sets not easily available in employees. App development or understanding the data and software is difficult for inexperienced employees	Li et al. (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B13	Smart Contract Vulnerabilities	Hackers can access and use the data on smart contracts if security is not full proof	Khan and Salah (2018)
B14	Digital to Physical Link	Blockchain and the data stored in it exist only in the digital realm. Interfacing the data tracked in the blocks to the physical goods being traced requires other technologies	Banerjee et al. (2018)
B15	Management of Data	IoT collects lot of data and it is visible to everyone in the supply chain processes. It is difficult for organizations to handle and process this data	Khan and Salah (2018)

Sr. No	Barrier name	Description	Source
B1	High Energy consumption	Blockchain uses the proof-of-work mechanism and validates transactions. These calculations require large amounts of energy to power the computers solving the problems and a sizable amount to cool down the computers	Kshetri (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B2	Weak Legislation	The legislation is considered to have a high influence on strategy formulations of industries. There is no legal provision to ensure enforceability of smart contracts to avoid disputes among the transacting parties	Handfield and Bechtel (2002), Weber et al. (2016)
B3	High Initial investment	Establishing a system with Blockchain and IoT for entire supply chain needs huge investments in terms of equipment and updating the original system	Kshetri (2017). Reyna et al. (2018)
B4	Lack of Top management support	The amount of investments in SCM and relevant technologies depends on top management’s attitude. Many authors have discussed the negative impact of lack of management’s support to the implementation of new initiatives	Handfield and Bechtel (2002)
B5	Lack of Roadmap for continued blockchain innovation	New products and services are evolving based on blockchain transactions. As it’s a new technology, there is no roadmap available on how it will get evolved in the future	Our contributed Barrier
B6	Lack of training	Digital supply chain requires all the employees to be trained in new technologies so that they don’t become obsolete	Kshetri (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B7	Lack of Organizational Resources	Blockchain requires a complete shift to the decentralized network and hence requires all the organization’s resources for its implementation	Zhao et al. (2016)
B8	Nascent technology	Blockchain-IoT is still in a nascent stage and will require some time to evolve completely. Resolving issues like transactions speeds and data limits are crucial in making its adoption worldwide	Yli-Huumo et al. (2016), Chung and Kim (2016)
B9	Scalability of technology	Blockchain is not able to support wide range of transactions and scalability is major concern for organizations	Kshetri (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B10	Data security concerns	In a public ledger like blockchain everyone can see all the transactions on a Blockchain network. Data security is main concern for the parties doing the transactions	Khan and Salah (2018)
B11	Lack of standards to ensure the interoperability of systems	Global standard of IoT communication protocol are required for smart objects and systems to eliminate sources of vulnerabilities throughout the SC nodes and links. It is required to find a way to integrate the existing system with the blockchain solution for interoperability of systems	Khan and Salah (2018)
B12	Lack of sufficient digital skills	The technologies require high-end skill sets not easily available in employees. App development or understanding the data and software is difficult for inexperienced employees	Li et al. (2017), Reyna et al. (2018)
B13	Smart Contract Vulnerabilities	Hackers can access and use the data on smart contracts if security is not full proof	Khan and Salah (2018)
B14	Digital to Physical Link	Blockchain and the data stored in it exist only in the digital realm. Interfacing the data tracked in the blocks to the physical goods being traced requires other technologies	Banerjee et al. (2018)
B15	Management of Data	IoT collects lot of data and it is visible to everyone in the supply chain processes. It is difficult for organizations to handle and process this data	Khan and Salah (2018)

Source(s): Authors' own work