Towards a Sustainability Assessment of Blockchain-Applications in Supply Chain Management

In times of numerous global problems, such as the climate crisis, supply chain management has a significant responsibility due to its far-reaching influence. Companies are, therefore, faced with the challenge of making their supply chains more sustainable. One way of achieving this is through dual transformation, which utilizes the interactions between sustainability and digital transformation. Here, blockchain technology is a promising technology. However, there is still a need for research into a holistic picture of the sustainability impact of technology on supply chains. This paper addresses this by focusing on the sustainability assessment of blockchain-based solutions. For this, the design principles that a sustainability assessment should fulfil are examined. A method for design principle development is used for this purpose. Furthermore, a systematic literature search is simultaneously used to identify existing approaches for the sustainability assessment of blockchain-based solutions. In total, ten design principles and six assessment approaches for blockchain-based solutions can be identified and further examined. Future research uses both objects of investigation to examine the extent to which the existing assessment approaches meet the requirements with the aim of designing a new, improved sustainability assessment approach.