Globalization initiated the challenges in Supply Chain (SC) such as management and control. In this situation, Blockchain as a digital distributed ledger can guarantee clarity, tractability, and safety. Many case studies proved that we can use Blockchain Technology (BT) to solve global supply chain problems especially in smart contracts with their potential applications. BT is in its early period and it is hard to find supply chains that have successfully implemented this technology to track their sustainable actions. Therefore, it is worth studying about the role of customers, members, domestic, national, and international challenges that could resist implementing Blockchain and may affect SC sustainability. Accordingly, four categories of barriers to the use of BT are introduced which are inter-organizational, intra-organizational, technical, and external barriers. Then with Bayesian Best Worst Method, we ranked the BT barriers and the sub-barriers. The study illustrates the interconnection of these barriers and the priority of each element. The lack of business models and the best practices in implementing Blockchain technology is a challenge and it is important that practitioners acknowledge these barriers in the first steps.

PurposeThis study examines the potential of contracts as one of the supply chain coordination mechanisms under competitive conditions. It also investigates a two-echelon supply chain model with two manufacturers and two retailers to develop a competitive structure in grey stochastic demand.Design/methodology/approachSupply chain demand is considered as a stochastic phenomenon depending on the selling price of the product. Also, products can be replaced by market manufacturers. Each retailer faces the pricing of products from two manufacturers, leading to competition between downstream retailers. In the present study, the duopoly supply chain model was presented based on the wholesale price contract, revenue-sharing contract and quantity discount contract separately.FindingsGrey optimization and analysis of their coordination were presented. The results showed the high performance of revenue-sharing contracts in the supply chain. Thus, manufacturers will give the next priority to quantity discount contracts.Originality/valueOrdering is the main factor contributing to competitive decision-making. Meanwhile, decision-making along with ordering and pricing will be required due to the nature of the demand.

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The present study investigates a two-echelon supply chain including a usual retailer and two competing manufacturers. The objective function of our model is the maximization of the whole profit of the supply chain, which consists of the stochastic demand, shortage cost, and holding costs. This paper aims to analyze a single period with two products to define the optimum retail prices and wholesales under different game theory approaches (e.g., Bertrand, cooperation, and Stackelberg competitions) based on Double Interval Grey Numbers (DIGN). The other aim of this paper is to specify the price using the manufacturers and the common retailer and considering the stochastic different channel power structures and demand function. In this paper, it is considered that different power structures of channel members may affect the optimal pricing decisions. In this paper, two pricing policies of manufacturers, eight pricing models and various structures of distribution channel members are utilized. In these pricing models, the impacts of retail substitutability are evaluated on the decisions of the chain members and the equilibrium profits. In this paper, the products are substitutable and the demand is stochastic. In this model, the demand is not certain then, we may have shortages or unsold products. Finally, sensitivity analysis is provided for illustrating the theoretical outcomes established in each case.