OM Forum—Distributed Ledgers and Operations: What Operations Management Researchers Should Know About Blockchain Technology

Volodymyr Babich () and Gilles Hilary
Additional contact information
Volodymyr Babich: McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia 20057

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2020, vol. 22, issue 2, 223-245

Abstract: Problem definition : Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology. While it has grown in prominence, its full potential and possible downsides are not fully understood yet, especially with respect to operations management (OM). Academic/practical relevance : This article fills this gap. Methodology : After briefly reviewing the technical foundations, we explore multiple business and policy aspects. Results : We identify five key strengths, the corresponding five main weaknesses, and three research themes of applying blockchain technology to OM. The key strengths are (1) visibility, (2) aggregation, (3) validation, (4) automation, and (5) resiliency. The corresponding weaknesses are (1) lack of privacy, (2) lack of standardization, (3) garbage in, garbage out, (4) black box effect, and (5) inefficiency. The three research themes are (1) information, (2) automation, and (3) tokenization. Managerial implications : We illustrate these research themes with multiple promising research problems, ranging from classical inventory management, to new areas of ethical OM, and to questions of industrial organization.

Keywords: visibility; information aggregation; validation; resiliency; smart contracts; digital assets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (116)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0752 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:22:y:2020:i:2:p:223-240

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().