Leading and Influencing in Purchasing

PSM 524

Shaping Future Leadership through Blockchain by means of Logistics and Supply Chain
Management

Submitted By

Qudrati Al Wasiew (19382004)

Nure Alam Shamim (19382006)

Surojit Mondal (19382007)

Ananya Abduhu (19382008)

MD. Shoab Mridha (19382009)

Sayem Al Amin (19382016)

A study or research paper submitted to BIGD, BRAC University for academic assignment
on Leading and Influencing Purchasing

Masters in Procurement and Supply Management

BIGD, BRAC University

Mohakhali, Dhaka.

March, 2020.

1
Contents
Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3
1.1 Background of the Study ............................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Research Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 3
Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................................................... 4
Literature Review .................................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 What is Blockchain ........................................................................................................................ 4
2.2 Application of Blockchain in SCM .................................................................................................. 7
2.3 Recent Challenges in blockchain ................................................................................................. 10
2.4 Leadership Approach in Blockchain ............................................................................................ 11
Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................................................. 13
Methodology ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Methods ............................................................................................................................................ 13
Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................................................. 14
Results and Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 14
4.1 Leadership Approach .................................................................................................................. 14
4.2 Leadership and Blockchain .......................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 5 .................................................................................................................................................. 20
Conclusion and Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 20
5.1 Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 20
5.2 Recommendation ........................................................................................................................ 20
References ................................................................................................................................................ 21

2
 Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Leadership is the artistry of impelling a group of people to act toward attaining a common goal.
For a business environment it can also mean showing the way or strategy, marshal the set of
people in the industry, invigorate the co-workers and at the same time operate the switch or
alterations in the management system. On the other hand, a manager would budget and plan,
control and operate but might fail to earn the co-workers trust and worthiness. In today’s
market place ‘Blockchain’ is another rising hot topic. To be very basic it can be compared to
a chain of blocks but it doesn’t mean that. In a sense this technology is mentioning digital
information as a block and a public database which could be a chain. Simply a global connected
ledger system, A block is a set of information that separate it from the other block. A block
stores the information like date, time, transaction, participants etc. On the other hand, the chain
creates a decentralized station where peer to peer information is visible to every entity that will
be connected to that set of transaction or action. It will visible but not editable once done. Our
study focuses on the changes that will appear to leadership point of view and the reshaped
leadership style.

1.2 Research Objectives

The objectives of this study were-
• Finding out future leadership style on the merge of blockchain technology regarding
logistics and supply chain management.
• Finding out the forms or structure of leadership in the changing future due to
blockchain.
• Future leadership criteria and motives based on blockchain technology.

3
 Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 What is Blockchain
In today’s fast and forever changing business world, consumers are more aware than ever
before about the goods that they consume or use. Whether it’s a consumable commodity like
foods and beverages, technology like computer and mobile, fashion item like footwear and
apparel or medical item like medicine or equipment- most users want to know every detail of it.
Many researchers point out that trust is a major issue because collaboration requires information
sharing of sensitive data and openness between the different parties (Barratt, 2004; Olorunniwo
& Li, 2010; Ramanathan & Gunasekaran, 2014). After identifying the needs of the users,
scientist didn’t stay put, rather they worked on many ways that can ensure the tracking and
traceability of the goods. Using Centralized Databases, maintaining cloud storage, maintaining
online distributive ledger or using Block chain technology are all part of the attempts to make a
traceable digital footprint of the goods.

With changing technology on each business arena, approach of management, business policy,
corporate behavior, dealing with stakeholders- in short leadership on every arena may need to be
calibrated accordingly.

In this study, we will discuss about:

1. What is block chain?

2. Application of block Chain in today’s Supply Chain.

3. Leadership in Block chain.

Also, in these points we will have a look at the impact it has in today’s business.

Blockchain is a decentralized transaction and data management system or technology. It could be

thought as a spiral invoice of goods, works or services. The secret lies in indemnity, anonymity
and datum fidelity. The focus is less time consumption and minimum third-party occurrence during
transactions and data management. It can be compared to a public ledger that has the invoice of
every transactions completed. This also increases the transparency of the data (Yli-Huumo, Ko,
Choi, Park, & Smolander, 2016).

4
Blockchain is one of the most discussed topics now. For many people the first and most well-
known financial application of blockchain, developed in year 2008, is the crypto currency Bitcoin
(Swanson, 2014). A cryptocurrency that is used for digital transactions. Blockchain technology is
defined as “the core system that underpins bitcoin, computers of separately owned entities follow
a cryptographic protocol to constantly validate updates to a commonly shared ledger” (Casey &
Wong, 2017). Every transaction in the network is recorded in a digital ledger and multiple
transactions are together forming a block (Swan, 2015). A 'block' is then added to the general
ledger, once a predetermined quantity of transactions is documented. Each block is together
forming the 'blockchain' which is the reason of the technology's given name (White, 2017). A
block may consist of monetary transactions (Bitcoin) or smart contracts (Ethereum) (Swan, 2015)

Each block represents transactions and consists of data, a hash and the previous hash. A block can
consist of one single or multiple transactions depending on the predetermined restrictions of the
amount of transactions in one block. The stored data contains the details of the transaction.
‘Hashing’ is one of the main concepts used in blockchain solutions. Each hash is a unique digital
fingerprint of a transaction in a block. However, one ‘hash’ is given to all new blocks that has been
created within the chain. Once a new block is created a hash is developed, based on the previous
hash in the former block (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2017). The first block, called Genesis, is an
exception since it cannot refer to a previous hash and therefore consists of arithmetically produced
codes (Nofer, Gomber, Hinz, & Schiereck, 2017).

One strength of blockchain is that transactions are continuously confirmed, cleared and saved in
the ledger (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2017). They are replicated on multiple computers in the network,
and are therefore accessible and visible for all members (McConaghy, McMullen, Parry,
McConaghy, & Holtzman, 2017). Users in the network can choose to reveal information about
their identity or remain anonymous. However, every transaction is carried out between blockchain
IP addresses and not individuals (Casey & Wong, 2017). Blocks are extremely difficult to change,
manipulate or hack. In order to manage a successful falsification of the information, the entire
blockchain would need to be reshaped (White, 2017).

5
 Figure 1: How blockchain works. (Depatie, 2016)(Niranjanamurthy, Nithya, & Jagannatha,
2019)
Summarizing all the discussed information, lets put it simple for easier understanding, Blockchain
is a decentralized, peer to peer ledger for transactions of value which is fundamentally changing
how businesses offer products and services. It removes the middle-man from transaction. It voids
the use of banks through Blockchain payment services, circumvents lawyers with smart contracts
that automatically update themselves, and offers an alternative to accounting firms through
Blockchain databases that record and verify accounts in real time. Whether you believe in the
Blockchain revolution or not, it is calling old business into question by undermining the very
pillars it was built on.

6
2.2 Application of Blockchain in SCM
Enterprise blockchain technology can transform the supply chain with these three use cases:

1. Traceability

2. Transparency

3. Tradability

Traceability improves operational efficiency by mapping and visualizing enterprise supply chains.
A growing number of consumers demand sourcing information about the products they buy.
Blockchain helps organizations understand their supply chain and engage consumers with real,
verifiable, and immutable data.

Transparency builds trust by capturing key data points, such as certifications and claims, and then
provides open access to this data publicly. Once registered on the Ethereum blockchain, it’s
authenticity can be verified by third-party attestors. The information can be updated and validated
in real-time.

Tradability is a unique blockchain offering that redefines the conventional marketplace concept.
Using blockchain, one may “tokenize” an asset by splitting an object into shares that digitally
represent ownership. Like how a stock exchange allows trading of a company’s shares, this
fractional ownership allows tokens to represent the value of a shareholder’s stake of a given object.
These tokens are tradeable, and users can transfer ownership without the physical asset changing
hands.

How does blockchain technology enhance product traceability? [1]

Global supply chains support everything from consumer-packaged goods to product recalls.
Sometimes consumer products or raw ingredients need to be recalled to prevent injury or illness.
Between lost sales, replacement costs, and lawsuits; recalls on consumer products negatively
impact millions of individuals around the world. Blockchain technology can enhance product

Recalls become less expensive and more efficient when manufacturers can locate affected products
quickly and easily. Blockchain technology enables a more transparent and traceable supply chain,
therefore, facilitating faster and more efficient recalls.
7
The Global Brand Counterfeiting Report, 2018 estimates that the losses suffered due to online
counterfeiting globally have amounted to 323 Billion USD in the year 2017. Counterfeit consumer
goods account for nearly 188 billion dollars of lost revenue regarding prescription drugs alone.
Blockchain enables an individual to verify that a product was sourced accurately and ethically.

Documentation counterfeiting and fraud are also common among diplomas, certifications, and
official identification. Blockchain records can transparently verify certifications, official legal
documents, and coordinate record-keeping immutably, which prevents counterfeiting or fraud.

How does blockchain technology improve supply chain transparency? [2]

Blockchain technology enhances supply chain management through process tracking, regulatory
compliance, reporting.

Supply chain traceability is one of the top use cases for blockchain technology. Replacing the
traditional processes with distributed ledger technology could increase trade volume by 15% and
U.S GDP by up to 5%. Blockchain provides the ability to track any digital or physical product
throughout its lifecycle. Distributed ledger technology has the potential to expand the sustainable
and ethical production and consumption of any commodity on a global scale.

Almost every industry uses third-party manufacturers or various products from multiple vendors
before creating and labelling the final finished goods. In some cases, white-label products are sold
before being repackaged and relabelled under another brand. Transparency in process tracking
gives producers a bird-eye view into their value chain, allowing them to guarantee the proper
handoff of third-party goods and final product labelling.

Blockchain can track the progression of assets, record the information, and show previous asset
records. Smart contracts are used to enforce the asset tracking processes on the Ethereum
blockchain. Anyone can view the provenance and journey of an asset in real-time, whether the
asset is physical or digital.

Regulatory and compliance reporting is a severe concern for pharmaceutical companies given
many patient’s reliance on prescription drugs. The supply chain must remain efficient while
avoiding under or overstocked medications.

8
How does blockchain technology bring tradability to the supply chain? [1]

Blockchain technology enables efficient ownership and licensing. Verifying past ownership
through standardized licensing procedures is vital for numerous industries. Additionally,
blockchain can be utilized to accurately license services, products, and software using automated
smart contract payments.

Blockchain provides consensus, which means there is no dispute in the chain regarding
transactions by design. All entities on the chain have the same version of the ledger, giving it the
unique potential to track ownership records for real estate, automobiles, and digital assets.

Figure 2: Data visibility in Supply chain using blockchain.

Another application of Blockchain is the Visa B2B Connect. It uses the Modern Application
Programing Interface (API) and Cowdz (a Blockchain based invoice) to maintain cross border
corporate payment processing. The IBM Food Trust is a Blockchain-based platform that allows
network participants to track food supply-chain data from the source to the end user and between
the channels. It is now supported by companies like Nestle, Unilever, Carrefour, Walmart and
Kroger.

Another important factor is that, blockchain could minimize the time and works of creating a
contract. With the use of blockchain, contract could be written as a simple digital ledger. The
creation of “smart contracts” are possible through automatic tracking, recording and acting upon
the initiatives. (Ivan Kot, B2B News, 2018). ‘Smart contracts’ are described as one of the most

9
interesting solutions for supply chains(Bocek, Rodrigues, Strasser, & Stiller, 2017). Swan (2015)
defines smart contracts as an extension of the simpler event of buy/sell activities in currency
transactions. Additionally, the concept of smart contracts can be described as a code or protocol
that is creating an independent contract between two parties without the need for intermediaries
(Bocek et al., 2017).

2.3 Recent Challenges in blockchain

• High cost: First, the cost of RFlD tag is very high. Comparing with bar-code, the minimum
cost of RFTD tag is 0.3 dollar, however, in China a bar-code normally cost only 0.02 RMB
(Zhang et al., 2014) [20]. Secondly, establishing this kind of traceability system needs huge
investments in corollary equipment and updating the original system. Tn consequence, all
these conditions seriously restrict the application and popularization of RFlD technology
in the logistics area. In order to reduce the cost, many enterprises try to narrow the
application scope of RFlD. For instance, instead of using RFTD tag on every single
product, it can be mainly used on pallet, packing-case, and container, etc.

• Security: The chance of being attacked to lose the current data of blockchain under Bitcoin
network is about 51%. Thus, a single entity can gain access to all the data 51 times if he
tried 100 times. This a big issue for the users and their intensions to use this network might
lighten. This might be an area to focus.

• Wasted Resources: The data are not secured at a proof of work effort or proof of stake. In
such a way many unnecessary information or wastage is also added to the database.

• Usability: The API must be more friendly to the users or the perfect outcome of blockchain
technology will be hampered.

Blockchain is dominated by the technology of Open Source Software (OSS). Only 8% of all OSS
projects on Github are actively maintained which measures that most of the OSS are going to
failure. Some studies show that participation, motivation and network structure of developers are
important for maintaining the continuity (Belenzon & Schankerman, 2015; Von Krogh, 2012; Von
Krogh & Von Hippel, 2006). A few also argue with the importance of influence like proper
leadership (Dabbish, Stuart, Tsay, & Herbsleb, 2012; Li, Li, & Shapiro, 2012; Peng, 2013).

10
2.4 Leadership Approach in Blockchain
The actions and characteristics of project leaders act as reliable signals in blockchain (Li et al.,
2012; Oh & Shong, 2017). Again, coordination of project leaders are also big antecedent for project
successes (Dahlander & O'Mahony, 2011; Faraj, Kudaravalli, & Wasko, 2015). On basis of
blockchain the importance of leader can come in different dimensions. One dimension is the
behavioral dimension which is relatable to knowledge contribution. As public recognition is
important in online communities thus knowledge contribution becomes important. It motivates
extra participations of developers.

Another dimension is the structural dimension or relatable to social capital and resources. The third
dimension is cognitive dimension which is the openness orientation or transparency factor.

A leader’s power lies in all the dimensions talked about whether primary or secondary. The secret
lies in the leader whether to expose the power and work through or keep the efficiency without
exposing the power. A true leader would never expose the power rather keep up the work rate at a
prime.

Although online community is characterized as loosely coordinated, self-organized, volunteer and

flattened hierarchies and informal structures though leadership is still indispensable (Faraj et al.,
2015). Uniform leader member exchange (ULMX) and differential leader member exchange
(DLMX) styles have different outcomes based on online participants (Li et al., 2012). Existing
research identifies different types of occupants in blockchain technologies such as contributors or
lurkers (Phang, Kankanhalli, & Tan, 2015), core developers or peripheral developers (Setia,
Rajagopalan, Sambamurthy, & Calantone, 2012). As a result of fact the contributor or core
developers evolve to be the online leaders. The transformational leadership has a big part to play
here (Peng, 2013).

This subsection aims at describing the tasks of our new leader in a blockchain-based organization.
To this effect, the study derives the model of Thomas D. Zweifel, the Global Leader Pyramid,
depicted in Fig. 3, as a frame of references for the “tasks” of an effective leader. The pyramid

is consistent with many other leadership models such as the Pyramid Model of Global Leadership
adapted from Bird and Osland or the Leadership Pyramid of Pate. It differs from many models; in
that it refers to leadership as a set of conversations; approach considered primordial by many

11
scholars such as Harvard professors Groysberg and Slind. Although it is not the dominant approach
in the business world, many newly appointed CEOs share this view and now regard leadership as
an attitude rather than as a know-how or a trait. Such a posture is suitable about blockchain
consequences because, as previously explained, conversations and decisions-in-action are central
to a blockchain-based organization.

Figure 3: The global leader pyramid by Thomas Zweifel.

12
 Chapter 3
Methodology
Methods

The methodology for this study was mainly secondary literature review. No primary
research or questionnaire survey was completed. Studying different papers and concluding
or decision was the focus. Below are the methodologies followed for this study-
a. Literature review
Several journals and papers were studied by the team members and shared among each
other. Every team member went on with their own findings first. The collected papers and
knowledge then were shared in a group to keep transparency. Everyone kept onwards with
others information in their minds too.
b. Brainstorming
After collecting all the required papers and information everyone made a group gathering
in the class to brainstorm the outcomes of the literature review, they personally made.
c. Collecting several information
Most important topics from that information were selected by the team and taken in account
to work with it.
d. Rearranging the information
The information and papers were rearranged and some topics were assigned to different
group members like background, introduction phase- what is blockchain, application of
blockchain, results and discussion etc.
e. Decision making
After completing individual parts the study was shared I the group and everyone came to a
decision to conclude the results.
f. Concluding the result and discussion
The results were finally concluded in this section.
The focus of the literature review was to introduce blockchain, finding the connection
between blockchain and leadership, finding the changes that would appear in leadership
throughout these changes and aligning those leadership changes in a proper frame.

13
 Chapter 4
Results and Discussion
4.1 Leadership Approach
Self-Awareness:
It is about self-reflection for both the leader and the members, which affect each other. This
includes being aware of its own and others’ cultural blind spots or lack of expertise. One
of its implication about blockchain technology is leaders accepting that the system has
changed and reconsidering their role within the organization. Accepting that the power has
shifted from an organizational and hierarchical one to a conversational one. Leaders should
be aware of the autonomy of actors, the different practices of doing things, and of their
limited span of knowledge. Instead, they should focus on their strength and build their new
role within the enterprise accordingly. They should be aware of the coaching each member
(i. e. experts) requires due to his high expertise, as well as his cultural mask. Finally, leaders
should be aware, but most importantly accept, that conversations may also happen without
them.
Relationships:
It involves strong communication and coordination of ideas, people and projects. Currently
managers centralize communication, i. e. information must go through them. This is the
well-known problem of top-down hierarchies where information are barely passed to upper
levels, there by leading executives to decide on the basis of a minimum of information.
This means that leaders should develop their listening power in order to make informed
decisions, as well as engage people so that they report more to them.
In the blockchain organization, it is a crucial part of the work because the technology
provides direct, immediate communication, bypassing managers. It happens peer-to-peer,
thereby forcing our leader to listen more to what members report to him. He must also
enacts this reporting by fostering communication among members across the organization.
Instead of ensuring that as much information as possible is reported to him, like one should
do in a hierarchical situation, blockchain leader will have to ensure that communication
actively occurs between the members of the organization: everyone should systematically

14
interact and exchange ideas, across departments and offices. For instance, he could
moderate numerous Slack discussions to enact collaboration. He should also coach experts
and ensure that they actively take part in many projects. The leader will not have to know
everything, he will have to ensure that communication is taking place and that people
actively engage towards the organization’s purpose. At the same time, communication
implies coordination. In this case, not of work and tasks anymore, but of ideas.
Vision:
A proper vision drives an organization. In moments of doubts and confusion, a vision is
what people look at to remember what they are trying to achieve. In our blockchain
economy, people will likely lose sight of what they are doing. The autonomy of actors,
associated with their high expertise makes it difficult to look at the big picture. Added with
decentralization of power, authority and tasks resulting from blockchain technology,
confusion will likely arise for every member of the organization.
With blockchain implementation, the vision will also be more easily shared. leaders will
have to lead everyone into a shared vision, which will be increasingly difficult and time
consuming, because they will much more to consider since communication will be much
easier. The vision will not stay static and will continuously evolve over time. The job of
leaders will thus shift from
simply building the vision to constantly enacting it and ensuring it is shared; that is
understood by every member of the organization. Otherwise, an underground vision might
appear via the peer-to-peer communication and collaboration. If the leader does not mind
enough about restoring vision, it shall lead to different understandings of the organization
within the same organization, which would eventually lead to power struggle and collapse.
The vision job of our leader will be of utmost importance, for without it, the decentralized
component of the enterprise makes it so that nothing else maintains the organization
together.

15
Strategy:
The strategy is no more ‘for the boss only’. It is explicit-systematic and is the result of
managerial work: it becomes “a common achievement of the management” (Nagel &
Wimmer).
Leader will lead everyone into strategy development, where people act as agents and co-
authors of the strategy. It is integrative and comprehensive, as a result of the managers’
leadership: micro-politics, employees’ coaching, (re)enacting vision, fostering
communication and collaboration. This is what Thomas Zweifel and Edward Borey refer
to as strategy-in-action. It opposes itself to what is too often the case: ’a strategy plan
without a strategy’
Different conversations of self-awareness and relationships will also foster even more
divergence inside the organization; i. e. members might be more willing to criticize or to
propose new ideas. That is why vision is essential, and so is a clear, consensual and
collaborative strategy. Because it is dynamic and systematic, it is
considered strategy ‘in-action’. The planning and design should be horizontal (instead of
top-down) and in continuous evolution; it ties together design and implementation. That is,
constantly (re)aligning people and the strategy (goals) together. It is the increasing expert
collaboration, the peer-to-peer communication, or the distribution of power and authority
(i. e. consequences of blockchain adoption), which will force the leader to consult every
organization’s member. Everyone will be both agent and co-author of the strategy.
Stakeholders need not to agree, they only need to be aligned on the vision deviance nurtures
creativity. By connecting perspectives and collecting feedback, our leader will enact and
create, collectively, a strategy (process).
There will be a continuous evolutionary process for the leader to systematically formulate,
enact, reformulate and retransmit the strategy as part of its day to day activities; hence
strategy-in-action.
Action:
With blockchains, organizations will gain clarity in purpose and action. Everyone knows
who is doing what, and there is greater awareness of vision and strategy, which prevents
their continuous questioning or re-enactment. At the same time collaboration prevents

16
 loads of hot air or a switch to unproductive tasks: every idea, every opportunity can be
exploited and one can always ask for help or focus
on a new task. There is no need to switch to paperwork to feel productive. For a start there
might not be much left, thanks to smart contracts, and it will be so easy to step-up and
collaborate on another, more interesting project. Joseph Lubin explains it is quite
imaginable that members of blockchain organizations will work on multiple projects at the
same time: no time for procrastination. In addition, distribution of authority makes it so
easy to reach consensus (without the help of a manager), that decisions will be rapidly
taken and implemented. The awareness of members about those decisions will bring further
clarity within the organization. In a similar manner, lack of engagement translates into the
same pointless actions and productivity issues. Hopefully, the stronger leadership required
in a blockchain organization should resolve this engagement issue.
Finally, performance tracking via the blockchain platform acts as a continuous underlying
incentive not to waste energy and time in pointless activities. Even if efficiency in some
activities is poorly measurable, the simple fact that everything is made available on the
platform fosters employees’ engagement. For instance, publicizing meeting outcomes on
the platform forces members to reflect on what is the purpose of their actions. Moreover,
thanks to the rating and communicative system, other members can advertise to the entire
organization including and especially to leaders that those people wasted time and energy.
The point is that, in blockchain organization, people will have no choice but to focus on
the essence of what the vision and strategy bespeaks to convert it into meaningful action.
That is what action is in the sense of leadership.

4.2 Leadership and Blockchain

The attention regarding blockchain might go to financial and customer services, but it has
a big impact on business model and leadership strategy.
From the definition of leadership, the main aspects to find are-
• Leaders are direction providers.
• Leaders are organization alignment maker.
• Leaders are change manager.
• Last but not the least leaders are energizer.

17
 Blockchain

Direction
1.Knowledge Contribution

Alignment Energizing
2.Social Leadership 3.Openness
Capital and Orientation
Resources

Change Management
1+2

Figure 4: Connection between Blockchain and Leadership.

From the literature review it is well known that the blockchain or online leadership will be
depending on behavioral dimension or knowledge contribution. As a matter of fact knowledge
contribution will act as the form of direction. Another dimension is the structural dimension or
social capital and resources. In this case social capital or resources will align the online structure
of framework of blockchain. The last dimension is cognitive dimension or openness orientation.
This means it will create transparency across the network which will energize people to focus on
the possibilities rather than negative gestures. So, if we summarize the changes in leadership style
in a table-

18
 Table 1: Transformation of Leadership Style

Traditional Leader Transformational Leader

Direction Knowledge Contribution

Alignment Social Capital

Change Management Knowledge and Capital

Energizing Openness Orientation

As blockchain takes over the global market industries it is sure to have a big effect in the shape
and style of leadership. The knowledge of how to create and control blocks and maintaining the
chains is going to become very important rather than just having supply chain knowledge. As it
will become online based thus having control and knowledge of social resources like
cryptocurrencies would become very important rather than knowing how to account for works.
Companies and industries would become tied to each other through these chains. So, change
management is going to need proper knowledge and resources regarding blockchain technology
as well as knowing to shuffling the enterprise and human resources. As not having access to these
knowledge and resources would drag companies and people backward, the way of energizing folks
would require openness orientation to share these knowledges and let them know.

The future leader needs to transform into multi-dimensional leader for the purpose of the
betterment of transparency, traceability and tradability.

19
 Chapter 5
Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusion
The objective of this study was to focus on blockchain technology and leadership at the same time.
The purpose was to understand the changes that are coming with the help of blockchain technology
to the existing market condition and supply chain management strategy. As the things are
changing, the reshaping of the leadership strategy must also be done. The outcome of this study
is-

a. Transformational leadership plays a big part in reshaping the leadership style as technology
advances.

b. Knowledge contribution, social capital and openness orientation are the transformed forms
of direction, alignment, change management and energizing co-workers.

c. The transformation should come through self-awareness, relationship, vision, strategy and
action. Every section plays its part in reshaping the form of new leadership style.

In either way leadership requires charisma, strength and belief in individual. The future leader
should lead his way to excellence through proper knowledge, capacity, capital and openness and
energize the group with utmost care.

5.2 Recommendation
The main recommendation would be having an approach for quantitative measurements as this
research or study focuses on the qualitative measures regarding this topic. Quantitative
measurement s would help identify leaders the percentage of concentration needed in different
fields to apply.

20
 References

Barratt, M. (2004). Understanding the meaning of collaboration in the supply chain. Supply Chain
Management: an international journal.
Belenzon, S., & Schankerman, M. (2015). Motivation and sorting of human capital in open
innovation. Strategic Management Journal, 36(6), 795-820.
Bocek, T., Rodrigues, B. B., Strasser, T., & Stiller, B. (2017). Blockchains everywhere-a use-case
of blockchains in the pharma supply-chain. Paper presented at the 2017 IFIP/IEEE
symposium on integrated network and service management (IM).
Casey, M. J., & Wong, P. (2017). Global supply chains are about to get better, thanks to
blockchain. Harvard business review, 13, 1-6.
Dabbish, L., Stuart, C., Tsay, J., & Herbsleb, J. (2012). Social coding in GitHub: transparency
and collaboration in an open software repository. Paper presented at the Proceedings of
the ACM 2012 conference on computer supported cooperative work.
Dahlander, L., & O'Mahony, S. (2011). Progressing to the center: Coordinating project work.
Organization science, 22(4), 961-979.
Faraj, S., Kudaravalli, S., & Wasko, M. (2015). Leading collaboration in online communities. Mis
Quarterly, 39(2).
Li, J., Li, Y., & Shapiro, D. (2012). Knowledge seeking and outward FDI of emerging market
firms: The moderating effect of inward FDI. Global Strategy Journal, 2(4), 277-295.
McConaghy, M., McMullen, G., Parry, G., McConaghy, T., & Holtzman, D. (2017). Visibility and
digital art: Blockchain as an ownership layer on the Internet. Strategic change, 26(5), 461-
470.
Niranjanamurthy, M., Nithya, B., & Jagannatha, S. (2019). Analysis of blockchain technology:
pros, cons and SWOT. Cluster Computing, 22(6), 14743-14757.
Nofer, M., Gomber, P., Hinz, O., & Schiereck, D. (2017). Blockchain. Business & Information
Systems Engineering, 59(3), 183-187.
Oh, J., & Shong, I. (2017). A case study on business model innovations using Blockchain: focusing
on financial institutions. Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Olorunniwo, F. O., & Li, X. (2010). Information sharing and collaboration practices in reverse
logistics. Supply Chain Management: an international journal.
Peng, M. W. (2013). Global strategy: Cengage learning.
Phang, C. W., Kankanhalli, A., & Tan, B. C. (2015). What motivates contributors vs. lurkers? An
investigation of online feedback forums. Information Systems Research, 26(4), 773-792.
Ramanathan, U., & Gunasekaran, A. (2014). Supply chain collaboration: Impact of success in
long-term partnerships. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, 252-259.
Setia, P., Rajagopalan, B., Sambamurthy, V., & Calantone, R. (2012). How peripheral developers
contribute to open-source software development. Information Systems Research, 23(1),
144-163.
Swan, M. (2015). Blockchain: Blueprint for a new economy: " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
Swanson, T. (2014). The anatomy of a money-like informational commodity: a study of Bitcoin.
Creative Commons.
Tapscott, D., & Tapscott, A. (2017). How blockchain will change organizations. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 58(2), 10.

21
Von Krogh, G. (2012). How does social software change knowledge management? Toward a
strategic research agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 21(2), 154-164.
Von Krogh, G., & Von Hippel, E. (2006). The promise of research on open source software.
Management science, 52(7), 975-983.
White, G. R. (2017). Future applications of blockchain in business and management: A Delphi
study. Strategic change, 26(5), 439-451.
Yli-Huumo, J., Ko, D., Choi, S., Park, S., & Smolander, K. (2016). Where is current research on
blockchain technology?—a systematic review. PloS one, 11(10), e0163477.
Zhang, D., Yang, L. T., Chen, M., Zhao, S., Guo, M., & Zhang, Y. (2014). Real-time locating
systems using active RFID for Internet of Things. IEEE Systems Journal, 10(3), 1226-
1235.

22