Assessing the Maturity of Blockchain-based Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Comprehensive Examination of the Current Situation

Blockchain technology, a transformative force in digital transactions, has emerged as a significant enabler of secure, transparent, and traceable operations within supply chain management and logistics (SCML). Its immutable nature facilitates enhanced management of SCML activities by seamlessly integrating information flow throughout the value chain, and substantially increasing data integrity and operational reliability. While organizations are attracted to these capabilities, they still lack comprehensive guidelines to fully benefit from blockchain in SCML. There is a fundamental need to assist organizations in assessing and enhancing their blockchain-based SCML capabilities. Maturity models (MMs) are tools that help organizations assess and improve their processes, providing step-by-step guidelines from basic to advanced levels of maturity. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze MMs focused on blockchain-based SCML. An extensive systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, and thirteen relevant studies were identified and evaluated against a comprehensive set of quality criteria. The analysis revealed that none of the existing MMs fully satisfied all criteria, highlighting a significant gap in the field. This research provides a thorough systematic analysis of MMs for blockchain-based SCML, offering an in-depth view of their levels, dimensions, research focuses, domains, industry targets, and their quality evaluation. The significance of this study lies in identifying the necessity for an MM specifically designed for blockchain-based SCML, addressing a critical gap in the current literature. These findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge on blockchain integration in SCML and provide a foundation for future research.