Blockchain technology adoption in the fashion supply chain: a review on the practices of fashion brands

What the paper says

Purpose This study aims to investigate how fashion brands adopt blockchain technology in the fashion supply chain and give insights to practitioners in the fashion industry who are planning to adopt blockchain technology in their fashion supply chain. Design/methodology/approach Research in literature and real-life examples of the fashion industry has been undertaken to investigate how fashion brands adopt blockchain technology in the supply chain. A proposed framework for this study is developed based on the research results in the literature. The four blockchain technology companies for the fashion supply chain, including Everledger, Arianee, TextileGenesis and Aura Blockchain Consortium, providing support to fashion brands such as Alexander McQueen, Lacoste, H&M (Hennes and Mauritz) and Bvlgari, are reviewed and discussed. Findings This study reviewed how the leading issues of different stages in the fashion supply chain could be mitigated by adopting blockchain technology. After reviewing the literature and the real-life examples of blockchain technology companies for fashion brands, the three blockchain platforms suitable for the fashion supply chain are explored, comprising (1) public permissionless blockchain, (2) private permissioned-based blockchain and (3) consortium blockchain. The eight components of blockchain technology for the fashion supply chain are identified, including (1) distributed ledger, (2) smart contract, (3) non-fungible tokens, (4) quick response code, (5) near field communication, (6) digital product passport, (7) multi-token minter and (8) digital token. Furthermore, the emerging practices of the eight underlying blockchain technology adoption in the fashion supply chain are discussed. Research limitations/implications While this paper provides a literature review and examples of fashion brands adopting blockchain technology to explain the findings, further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of current efforts to adopt blockchain technologies in the fashion supply chain by collecting quantitative and qualitative data. Also, future studies may attempt to explore the difficulties of constructing a blockchain fashion supply chain. Whether or not there are relationships between adopting blockchain technology in the fashion supply chain and business performance can be investigated. Practical implications Fashion practitioners and managers planning to adopt blockchain should cooperate better with blockchain technology companies. They must choose a suitable company to work with and consider it proficient in building and implementing blockchain solutions tailored to the fashion industry’s unique needs. Besides, a growing number of blockchain platforms are available, each with unique features that make it suitable for specific applications. Careful consideration of the chosen blockchain platform is crucial. They must be mindful of the challenges, including the way blockchain technology integrates into existing technological infrastructures, transaction fees, block size, response time and uncertainty and unpredictability about legal and regulatory requirements, which can create hesitation in both businesses and investors across the fashion supply chain considering blockchain implementation. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, it would seem that this is the first work that conducts research in literature and examines real-life examples of blockchain technology companies and fashion brands. This study addressed how fashion practitioners and managers use blockchain technology to create a transparent, traceable, immutable, secure, authentic, exclusive, trustable, decentralized, sustainable, flexible, fungible and engaging fashion supply chain.