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Purpose This paper aims to strive to close the current research gap pertaining to potential implications of the blockchain for supply chain management (SCM) by presenting a framework built on four established economic theories, namely, principal agent theory (PAT), transaction cost analysis (TCA), resource-based view (RBV) and network theory (NT). These theories can be used to derive research questions that are theory-based as well as relevant for the industry. This paper is intended to initiate and stimulate an academic discussion on the potential impact of the blockchain and introduces a framework for middle-range theorizing together with several research questions. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds on previous theories that are frequently used in SCM research and shows how they can be adapted to blockchain-related questions. Findings This paper introduces a framework for middle-range theorizing together with several research questions. Research limitations/implications The paper presents blockchain-related research questions derived from four frequently used theories, namely, PAT, TCA, RBV and (NT). These questions will guide future research pertaining to structural (PAT, TCA) and managerial issues (RBV, NT) and will foster middle-range theory development in SCM research. Practical implications Blockchain technology has the potential to significantly change SCM. Given the huge investments by industry, academic research is needed which investigates potential implications and supports companies. In this paper, various research questions are introduced that illustrate how the implications of blockchain on SCM can be investigated from different perspectives. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, no academic papers are published in leading academic journals that investigate the relationship between SCM and blockchain from a theory-based perspective.

Aquaculture contributes significantly to global food security, poverty alleviation, and international fish trade. Aquaculture products have become some of the most globalized food commodities, attracting the interest of diverse stakeholders that scrutinize industry developments, through the lenses of the global value chain (GVC) approach to analyze and understand the dynamics and roles at value chain nodes of key players, economic costs and benefits, value addition and value creation and to develop policy options and suitable market instruments for the promotion of sustainable aquaculture. Key characteristics of the aquaculture GVC are that most of the production takes place in developing countries, involving mostly small‐scale operators, while 60 to 70% of the demand (in value) occurs in Europe, North America, and Japan. As a consequence, the institutional and operational capacity of the producing countries is challenged to comply with increasingly demanding regulations and standards for consumer protection, social, and environmental requirements in order to participate actively in the aquaculture GVC. This article reviews the current status and the issues facing aquaculture value chains. It focuses on the challenges and perspectives for aquaculture value chain development, their main drivers, implications, and opportunities for the future of the aquaculture GVC.

For its promise in enhancing sustainability, the global value chain (GVC) has grown in relevance and sparked many studies. Due to different value activities in multiple countries and industry clusters, the competition and cooperation among value chains have attracted the considerable attention of business leaders and academicians worldwide. GVC-related sustainability research is a niche area despite its widespread presence in the literature. To bridge the gap, we use scientometric analysis in this paper, examining the corpus of 753 articles published in Web of Science journals from 2001 till 2021. This review illuminates the research performance constituents (e.g., most prolific authors, nations, institutions, and journals), the themes and issues that underpin the fields’ intellectual structure, and transforming discoveries. GVC depends on nine basic clusters for sustainability research (i.e., global value chain participation, gendered global production network, repositioning organisational dynamics, labour stands, learning opportunities, Internet era). Future studies can be conducted to generate new knowledge across ten thematic (based on keywords) clusters (i.e., market liberalisation, trade pollution nexus, value chain dynamics, global value chain reconfiguration, non-governmental organisation, multipolar governance). A model that encompasses current knowledge of the global value chain for sustainability is developed, and avenues for future research are provided.

The burgeoning literature on global value chains (GVCs) has recast our understanding of how industrial clusters are shaped by their ties to the international economy, but within this context, the role played by corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to evolve. New research in the past decade allows us to better understand how CSR is linked to industrial clusters and GVCs. With geographic production and trade patterns in many industries becoming concentrated in the global South, lead firms in GVCs have been under growing pressure to link economic and social upgrading in more integrated forms of CSR. This is leading to a confluence of \"private governance\" (corporate codes of conduct and monitoring), \"social governance\" (civil society pressure on business from labor organizations and non-governmental organizations), and \"public governance\" (government policies to support gains by labor groups and environmental activists). This new form of \"synergistic governance\" is illustrated with evidence from recent studies of GVCs and industrial clusters, as well as advances in theorizing about new patterns of governance in GVCs and clusters.

This article reviews the rapidly growing domain of global value chain (GVC) research by analyzing several highly cited conceptual frameworks and then appraising GVC studies published in such disciplines as international business, general management, supply chain management, operations management, economic geography, regional and development studies, and international political economy. Building on GVC conceptual frameworks, we conducted the review based on a comparative institutional perspective that encompasses critical governance issues at the micro-, GVC, and macro-levels. Our results indicate that some of these issues have garnered significantly more scholarly attention than others. We suggest several future research topics such as microfoundations of GVC governance, GVC mapping, learning, impact of lead firm ownership and strategy, dynamics of GVC arrangements, value creation and distribution, financialization, digitization, the impact of renewed protectionism, the impact of GVCs on their macro-environment, and chain-level performance management.

This paper develops a multi-stage general-equilibrium model of global value chains (GVCs) and studies the specialization of countries within GVCs in a world with barriers to international trade. With costly trade, the optimal location of production of a given stage in a GVC is not only a function of the marginal cost at which that stage can be produced in a given country, but is also shaped by the proximity of that location to the precedent and the subsequent desired locations of production. We show that, other things equal, it is optimal to locate relatively downstream stages of production in relatively central locations. We also develop and estimate a tractable, quantifiable version of our model that illustrates how changes in trade costs affect the extent to which various countries participate in domestic, regional, or global value chains, and traces the real income consequences of these changes.

The objective of this article is to introduce readers to the emerging research stream on business ecosystems, explicating the novelty and the usefulness of ecosystem-based theorizing, and hoping to pave the way for an influential but cumulative body of knowledge. The key tenets within an ecosystem-based perspective are outlined and used to contrast this emerging perspective from other established perspectives of value chains, supply chains, alliances, and networks. The article concludes by discussing the research approaches that can be employed to study ecosystems and the implications for organization design.

The rise of private food standards has brought forth an ongoing debate about whether they work as a barrier for smallholders and hinder poverty reduction in developing countries. This paper uses a global value chain approach to explain the relationship between value chain structure and agrifood safety and quality standards and to discuss the challenges and possibilities this entails for the upgrading of smallholders. It maps four potential value chain scenarios depending on the degree of concentration in the markets for agrifood supply (farmers and manufacturers) and demand (supermarkets and other food retailers) and discusses the impact of lead firms and key intermediaries on smallholders in different chain situations. Each scenario is illustrated with case examples. Theoretical and policy issues are discussed, along with proposals for future research in terms of industry structure, private governance, and sustainable value chains.

Growing human activity has led to a critical rise in global energy consumption; since the current main sources of energy production are still fossil fuels, this is an industry linked to the generation of harmful byproducts that contribute to environmental deterioration and climate change. One pivotal element with the potential to take over fossil fuels as a global energy vector is renewable hydrogen; but, for this to happen, reliable solutions must be developed for its carbon-free production. The objective of this study was to perform a comprehensive review on several hydrogen production technologies, mainly focusing on water splitting by green-electrolysis, integrated on hydrogen’s value chain. The review further deepened into three leading electrolysis methods, depending on the type of electrolyzer used—alkaline, proton-exchange membrane, and solid oxide—assessing their characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. Based on the conclusions of this study, further developments in applications like the efficient production of renewable hydrogen will require the consideration of other types of electrolysis (like microbial cells), other sets of materials such as in anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis, and even the use of artificial intelligence and neural networks to help design, plan, and control the operation of these new types of systems.

In this paper, we suggest that internalization theory might be extended by incorporating complementary insights from GVC theory. More specifically, we argue that internalization theory can explain why lead firms might wish to externalize selected activities, but that it is largely silent on the mechanisms by which those lead firms might exercise control over the resultant externalized relationships with their GVC partners. We advance an explanation linking the choice of control mechanism to two factors: power asymmetries between the lead firms and their GVC partners, and the degree of codifiability of the information to be exchanged in the relationship.