The Blockchain Technology (BCT) has become one of the most investigated technological paradigm within a broad range of industries such as financial services, healthcare and transportation. Several business-related disciplines showed their interest towards this technology, including supply chain management. The multiple uses and configurations of BCT, are bringing experts to be more and more interested in the topic, trying to understand if this revolutionary distributed network will actually lead to a new level of security, transparency and trust. The main purpose of this research project, issued by Supply Chain Finance (SCF) “Observatory” of Politecnico di Milano, is to spot BCT potential applications in order to improve the management, planning, control and optimization of all transaction activities and processes concerning financial flows among supply chain actors. This study aims to answer research questions coming from literature gaps. Firstly, a theoretical study of how BCT features can mitigate inefficiencies in the implementation of SCF programs has been carried out. Then, a catalogue of innovative blockchain-based and SCF (bSCF) oriented use-cases was studied in order to understand the state-of-art of this potentially highly attractive market. Finally, the use-case analysis played an important role to confirm and validate the findings. The research work proposes a comprehensive framework, taking advantages of both theoretical considerations and practical examples, to properly identify the uncovered connections between SCF programs and BCT features. This framework’s uniqueness consists in its ability to show how the under-investigated BCT features can provide substantial value by addressing SCF programs inefficiencies. Specifically, the ultimate goal of this thesis is to deepen the bSCF ecosystem, not only by understanding the “as-is” blockchain-based solutions, but also by providing insights about how different technology characteristics can be exploited to lower SCF barriers.
La Blockchain Technology (BCT) sta progressivamente diventando uno dei paradigmi tecnologici più studiati per via del al suo alto grado di innovazione e del suo potenziale. Diversi settori aziendali, in particolare Supply Chain Management, hanno mostrato il loro interesse nei confronti di questa tecnologia. Grazie alla molteplicità di applicazioni e configurazioni di BCT, gli esperti hanno sviluppato un crescente interesse sull’argomento, cercando di capire se questa rivoluzionaria rete distribuita sarà effetivamente in grado di condurre ad un nuovo livello di sicurezza, trasparenza e fiducia. Questo progetto, inserito all’interno della ricerca dell’Osservatorio Supply Chain Finance (SCF) del Politecnico di Milano, è stato realizzato per individuare le potenziali applicazioni di BCT al fine di migliorare la gestione, la pianificazione, il controllo e l'ottimizzazione di tutte le attività ed i processi di transazione relativi ai flussi finanziari tra attori della Supply Chain. Lo studio si propone di rispondere alle domande di ricerca emerse dalle lacune della letteratura attuale riguardo l’argomento trattato. In primo luogo, è stato effettuato un attento studio teorico su come le funzionalità di BCT possono attenuare le inefficienze nell'implementazione e nell’esecuzione dei programmi SCF. Quindi, è stato raccolto un database di casi d'uso innovativi basati su blockchain e SCF (bSCF) al fine di comprendere lo stato dell'arte di questo mercato. Infine, tramite l'analisi del database i risultati sono sati confermati e convalidati. Il lavoro di ricerca propone un quadro completo, che trae vantaggio sia da considerazioni teoriche sia da esempi pratici, per identificare correttamente le connessioni scoperte tra i programmi SCF e le funzionalità di BCT. L'unicità di questo framework consiste nella sua capacità di mostrare come le nuove applicazioni BCT, che vanno oltre lo scopo primordiale delle Cryptocurrencies, possano apportare un valore sostanziale le inefficienze delle soluzioni di SCF. Nello specifico, l'obiettivo finale di questa tesi è di approfondire l'ecosistema bSCF, non solo comprendendo le soluzioni attualmente offerte sul mercato, ma fornendo linee guida su come le diverse caratteristiche tecnologiche possono essere sfruttate per ridurre le barriere SCF.
A blockchain application : how this technology mitigates inefficiencies in the implementation of supply chain finance programs
Di NISIO, ANDREA;CONGIU, FABIO
2018/2019
Abstract
The Blockchain Technology (BCT) has become one of the most investigated technological paradigm within a broad range of industries such as financial services, healthcare and transportation. Several business-related disciplines showed their interest towards this technology, including supply chain management. The multiple uses and configurations of BCT, are bringing experts to be more and more interested in the topic, trying to understand if this revolutionary distributed network will actually lead to a new level of security, transparency and trust. The main purpose of this research project, issued by Supply Chain Finance (SCF) “Observatory” of Politecnico di Milano, is to spot BCT potential applications in order to improve the management, planning, control and optimization of all transaction activities and processes concerning financial flows among supply chain actors. This study aims to answer research questions coming from literature gaps. Firstly, a theoretical study of how BCT features can mitigate inefficiencies in the implementation of SCF programs has been carried out. Then, a catalogue of innovative blockchain-based and SCF (bSCF) oriented use-cases was studied in order to understand the state-of-art of this potentially highly attractive market. Finally, the use-case analysis played an important role to confirm and validate the findings. The research work proposes a comprehensive framework, taking advantages of both theoretical considerations and practical examples, to properly identify the uncovered connections between SCF programs and BCT features. This framework’s uniqueness consists in its ability to show how the under-investigated BCT features can provide substantial value by addressing SCF programs inefficiencies. Specifically, the ultimate goal of this thesis is to deepen the bSCF ecosystem, not only by understanding the “as-is” blockchain-based solutions, but also by providing insights about how different technology characteristics can be exploited to lower SCF barriers.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/144967