Trio of West Coast Ports Added to DOT Supply Chain Data Platform

Negotiations can be derailed by a lack of internal, cross-organizational collaboration and agreement. When different departments or stakeholders within an organization have conflicting objectives or are not aligned on the desired outcome, it weakens the negotiator’s position. Ensuring internal consensus and collaboration is critical for presenting a united front and negotiating from a position of strength.

Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks

These solutions aim to reduce complexity and make data sharing more secure, accurate and efficient. This book offers a highly topical resource for stakeholders across the entire supply chain, helping them prepare for the upcoming technological revolution. Chen et al. [30] leverage blockchain, alongside systems and technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), to establish an integrated SCF platform running as-a-service for the automotive retail industry. The platform, called Blockchain auto SCF, provides equal visibility on transactions and collateral custody information to interested parties and collaborates with financial institutions to supply inventory financing and purchase order financing [30].

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It is noted that an extensive discussion regarding the differences and the similarities between different blockchains of the same class/type regarding their appropriateness for SCF techniques is, to the best of our knowledge, absent from the literature. Blockchain is a digital distributed ledger of time-stamped series of data records that is stored on a cluster of computers where no single entity has control, and the information is visible to all parties [52, 137]. Transactions are broadcasted to the network and the full-node participants validate them directly through the operation of a consensus mechanism [7]. The full-node participants or miners validate whether there is a successful delivery from the sender to the recipient and examine the veracity of the signed acknowledgements provided by the intermediate nodes [63]. An encryption method secures data against unauthorised interference to ensure censor-resistance and to safeguard sensitive information [41].

The Digital Multinational: Navigating the New Normal in Global Business (Management on the Cutting Edge)

Most services are offered mainly by financial institutions, and blockchain might hold the key for cheaper forms of financing, liquidity generation and improving working capital. Optimising cash flows throughout the supply chain is a key topic for corporate decision makers, as many key performance indicators actually target working capital. BCT can take the role of a facilitator to accelerate the cash flow throughout the supply chain. We suggest that blockchain SCF networks may be conceptualised as ecosystem platforms [76], which consist of members that are themselves other organisations and operate as evolving organisations or meta-organisations [3] that shift along a continuum of different innovation configurations [53]. This means that potential innovators of complementary products can utilise Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), to build compatible complements [40].

A useful case in point can be found in the electronics industry which, unlike most other industries, uses standardized, industrywide identifiers, across brands, for some 600 million materials, parts and components. International shipping and mailing company Pitney Bowes found a huge opportunity to improve operational efficiency, as well as employee retention, with a lively, ongoing feedback loop between workers and management. Next, you’ll discover how a golf equipment manufacturer, TaylorMade, took advantage of the fact that leases were expiring on its customization and distribution facilities to find a smart way to rejig its distribution network.

• Currently, most academic studies investigate blockchain and SCF by utilising either conceptual or simulation methods.
• Similarly, the Marco Polo Network, which consists of 30 banks, aims to facilitate SCF solutions via a DLT-based platform inter alia by providing distributed data storage and bookkeeping, identity management, and asset verification [109].
• This book investigates how the Blockchain Technology (BCT) for Supply Chain Finance (SCF) programs allows businesses to come together in partnerships and accelerate cash flows throughout the supply chain.
• Mechanisms for incentivising blockchain participation remains a major strategic challenge and an open research question [124].

The Power of Scarcity: Leveraging Urgency and Demand to Influence Customer Decisions

This involves understanding not only one’s own goals and limitations, but also those of the counterpart. Effective preparation includes researching the market, knowing the key players, and anticipating potential objections. A well-prepared negotiator can navigate conversations with ease and respond to challenges with agility.

Future research could focus on the notion of co-opetition with a view of determining the organisational conditions under which a blockchain SCF network is feasible and stable. Game theoretical network formation models [75] provide an analytical framework for such an endeavour, and can help identify SCF methods, market structure, and economic conditions under which blockchain-based SCF can be established. Further legal issues that need to be addressed include the legal status of blockchain records and the issue of synchronicity between the state of the blockchain and the legal status, which might be different due to the occurrence of fraud or incapacitation [125]. The situation is further complicated as blockchain-driven SCF operates worldwide, which requires numerous parties to comply with different national laws, regulations, and institutions [61].

For example, We.Trade, Skuchain, and eTradeConnect utilise various business models to enhance existing processes and provide better SCF products through sharing of information and digitisation of the relevant paper-based documentation. Blockchain is also being used under Letters of Credit (L/C) by the Contour network, Financle Trade Connect, and TradeFinex, which are among the most popular trade finance projects in the industry. Similarly, the Marco Polo Network, which consists of 30 banks, aims to facilitate SCF solutions via a DLT-based platform inter alia by providing distributed data storage and bookkeeping, identity management, and asset verification [109]. In this context, the Digital Ledger Payment Commitment (DLPC) provides a payment undertaking in digital form on a blockchain for use in any trade finance transaction, which is legally binding, enforceable, negotiable and independent in a sense that it is not contingent on the underlying trade transaction [43].

Hofmann et al. [69] argue that the combination of blockchain with IoT can maintain device connectivity and deliver material flow tracing across the supply network so to adjust the risk premium throughout the shipping process. IoT enables feeding the blockchain with instant information via sensors, rather than having to rely on human ‘oracles’ to transmit data about the physical movement of goods [26]. The latter constitute automatable and enforceable agreements that can run on blockchains by coding various contractual terms into computer code [24, 134].

Despite the interesting introduction of how technology platforms can support open-account international trade, the authors are critical as to whether pure peer-to-peer payments will replace existing solutions on B2B transaction levels. Instead, https://forexarena.net/ they stress the value of a faster and leaner cash settlement and resulting lower transaction fees. Combining BCT and IoT-driven solutions would offer a range of possibilities to track the physical supply chain which invites new SCF solutions.

For instance, the lack of a sufficient legislative and regulatory framework for blockchain alternatives to paper trade documentation begets a risk of a legal void surrounding the use of blockchain SCF platforms. The key legal issues raised by the development and the use of blockchain records operating on global trade platforms need to be explored by legal scholars in order to establish how would the legislative and regulatory environment need to change to ensure legal enforceability of blockchain-based SCF solutions. The book gives a good introduction to peer-to-peer value exchange A Contribution to the SCF Literature systems, group consensus mechanisms and smart contracts. The authors describe commercial opportunities for SCF instruments which blockchain can offer, e.g. the visualisation of the physical flow of goods, as well as other B2C applications. Such opportunities are defined by a blockchain-driven supply chain, which provides an efficient cash settlement, a simplified invoice validity check and an integration of product and money flow. Using this framework, the book subsequently discusses relevant use cases for the technology, which could open up new opportunities in the SCF space.

This paper is one of the first to consolidate the state-of-the-art of blockchain applications in trade and supply chain financing. By elucidating the current perspectives in academia and practice, the areas where blockchain may bring value to trade and supply chain finance have been identified. This review sets out to explore how blockchain technology may transform SCF by exploring the answers to three research questions. In this context, Iansiti and Lakhani [71] developed a blockchain applicability model based on how innovative technologies are naturally being adopted.

These concepts are then analysed through the liquidity they provide, key drivers including firms of different sizes and the risks involved. Subsequently, the book gives an overview of how the BCT works and provides insights into technical aspects. Such tasks include compliance checks by comparing different paper-based trade finance documents. After having introduced the reader to the financial solutions, barriers for technologies are discussed and possible blockchain-driven supply chain models to achieve lower overall costs of financing are presented. After the analysis, the authors discuss the practical implication of previously analysed findings and the limitations of SCF.

A decentralised and immutable database which enables SCF stakeholders to securely share peer-to-peer digital trade documentation and tokenised assets entails a paradigm shift toward automation, real-time risk management, and cheap, efficient, and inclusive financing at reduced administrative cost [9, 26]. However, there is evidence of opposition from incumbent economic leaders within the banking system to the blockchain transformation in SCF out of fear of being cut-off [149] or of missing revenue streams [101]. Other actors are unwilling to share valued information and reluctant to the total transparency provided by blockchain [82, 149].

Suddenly, no part of the end-to-end supply chain was certain; a pallet shipped to a warehouse was now many, smaller, time-definite direct-to-consumer (D2C) parcels with multi-point delivery options; sourcing reliability could no longer be assured amid rising costs, congested terminals and workforce shortages. As geopolitical and trade tensions ratcheted up, a trusted supplier one day could be sanctioned the next. Effective time management and a well-paced negotiation process allow for more thoughtful and deliberate decision-making. Lu and Xu [97] and Kouhizadeh et al. [86] discuss technical issues, such as usability, energy consumption, size and bandwidth and throughput latency, while Wang et al. [149] point out that despite the immutable character of blockchain, hacking is still possible [163]. In a similar fashion, Kshetri [87] highlights the technological immaturity of sensor devices, the borderline between the physical and virtual worlds, and the high degree of computerisation that might not be accessible in some parts of the world.