scholarly journals Blockchain Solutions for International Logistics Networks along the New Silk Road between Europe and Asia

Logistics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Bernard Aritua ◽  
Clemens Wagener ◽  
Norbert Wagener ◽  
Michał Adamczak

The primary research that underpins this paper seeks to explore the applications of blockchain technology on a specific international corridor and to draw policy implications for decision makers. To analyze the bottlenecks of operating on the New Silk Road and to identify opportunities for applying the blockchain technology on this corridor, a survey was conducted among main train operators and experts working on this route. These responses provide insight into the issues related to the adoption of blockchain technology from front-line actors. The top three challenges are lack of capacities, congestion at transshipment terminals, and slow border crossing. Through the application of blockchain technology, the operators are presented with opportunities for improved accuracy in the processing of data and information, higher reliability of information flows through failure-free transfer of information, and improved traceability of supply chains through irrevocable input of status information. Currently, 50% of the respondents have started to implement blockchain applications or have an actual interest to apply blockchain solutions. For a wider implementation of blockchain solutions, business models need to be developed allowing private and permissioned access that is accepted and open for parties involved. Policy makers should facilitate these digital innovations through flexible and harmonized legal regulations on an international level.

First Monday ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shekhar Shukla

The unfortunate arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought along with it a tsunami of information that can be both authentic and important as well as non-reliable and misguiding. The World Health Organization (WHO) coins this outburst of information in this era of pandemic as an infodemic. It becomes essential for societies to consume and act on trusted information in these times of uncertainty and grief. In this article, we describe and assess the role of blockchain technology and its features to establish an environment of a trusted information ecosystem. We present an equivalence mapping of these important parameters to curb an infodemic with blockchain technology features and applications. This equivalence mapping provides a directional sense to stakeholders, decision-makers, policy-makers and investors to gauge and synthesize the potential of blockchain technology for tackling an infodemic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Draheim

Our aim is to understand technological and socio-economic barriers to blockchain solutions that are intrinsic in the blockchain technology stack itself (permissionless as well as permissioned). On the basis of that, we want to understand the future potentioal impact of blockchain technology. We provide an argumentation against the theoretical background of Williamson's instutional analysis framework, and triangulate the insights with results from four design science research efforts. We (i) characterize cryptocurrency as one-tiered collateralized money. We (ii) review potential blockchain solutions against defined essential modes of communications. We review (iii) well-known scalability issues and potential denial-of-service attacks through a new probabilistic model. We (iv) characterize a typical neglection of physical network infrastructure in blockchain technology discussions. We (v) describe four successful blockchain solutions and explain their design. There is (vi) no evidence that the proclaimed ``blockchain revolution'' can disrupt our institutional stack; instead, it can only happen in the boundaries of the current institutional stack. Nevertheless, it is possible to (vii) design useful blockchain solutions. The findings of this research enable policy makers, decision makers and information systems architects alike to make informed decisions about blockchain technology and its application. Given its theoretic foundation in new institutional economics, triangulated with comprehensive results from design science efforts, this study is the first of its kind in the area of blockchain technology research. <br>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Draheim

Our aim is to understand technological and socio-economic barriers to blockchain solutions that are intrinsic in the blockchain technology stack itself (permissionless as well as permissioned). On the basis of that, we want to understand the future potentioal impact of blockchain technology. We provide an argumentation against the theoretical background of Williamson's instutional analysis framework, and triangulate the insights with results from four design science research efforts. We (i) characterize cryptocurrency as one-tiered collateralized money. We (ii) review potential blockchain solutions against defined essential modes of communications. We review (iii) well-known scalability issues and potential denial-of-service attacks through a new probabilistic model. We (iv) characterize a typical neglection of physical network infrastructure in blockchain technology discussions. We (v) describe four successful blockchain solutions and explain their design. There is (vi) no evidence that the proclaimed ``blockchain revolution'' can disrupt our institutional stack; instead, it can only happen in the boundaries of the current institutional stack. Nevertheless, it is possible to (vii) design useful blockchain solutions. The findings of this research enable policy makers, decision makers and information systems architects alike to make informed decisions about blockchain technology and its application. Given its theoretic foundation in new institutional economics, triangulated with comprehensive results from design science efforts, this study is the first of its kind in the area of blockchain technology research. <br>


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Cathrin Hein ◽  
Wanja Wellbrock ◽  
Christoph Hein

"Dieser Beitrag fasst den aktuellen Stand der rechtlichen Herausforderungen der Blockchain-Technologie kurz und prägnant zusammen. Blockchain stellt, ähnlich dem World Wide Web, eine Art Grundlagentechnologie dar, auf deren Basis neue Plattformen und Geschäftsmodelle geschaffen werden können. Es stellt sich jedoch die Frage, ob das deutsche Rechtssystem grundsätzlich in der Lage ist, die Herausforderungen, die eine solch dezentrale Technologie mit sich bringt, zu bewältigen. Insbesondere hinsichtlich strafbarer Handlungen oder der neuen Datenschutzgrundverordnung. Fraglich ist dabei, wie sich die derzeitigen Negativschlagzeilen (beispielsweise Silk Road) langfristig auf Kryptowährungen und infolgedessen wo- möglich auch auf die Blockchain-Technologie, nicht nur im Hinblick auf die rechtswidrigen Inhalte wie Kinderpornographie, auswirken. This article summarizes the current status of the legal challenges of blockchain technology. Similar to the World Wide Web, Blockchain represents a kind of basic technology on the basis of which new platforms and business models can be created. However, the question arises as to whether the German legal system is fundamentally capable of mastering the challenges posed by such a decentralized technology. In particular with regard to criminal offences or the new Basic Data Protection Ordinance. The question is how the current negative headlines (e. g. Silk Road) will affect crypto currencies in the long term and, as a result, blockchain technology, not only with regard to illegal content such as child pornography. "


10.29007/cx17 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kramers ◽  
Tina Ringenson ◽  
Liridona Sopjani ◽  
Peter Arnfalk

In this paper, a set of indicators is presented that aim to identify promising service innovations for Accessibility as a Service (AaaS) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS); services that potentially can reduce the demand for transport and optimize use of transport infrastructure and vehicles in urban regions. The proposed indicators characterize service innovations from three different perspectives: 1) Is the service innovation environmentally sustainable? Does it reduce negative impacts on the environment (reduce carbon emissions, use of space), 2) Is it rewardable? Is value created for an organization? Does it make use of new sustainable business models, and 3) How widely is the service spread? How many users are there, what is the geographic distribution and what level of societal transition has occurred? The developed indicators are meant to guide policy makers, decision makers, business developers and academia in the prioritizations that need to be made when allocating land and resources to the most promising and powerful innovations, moving towards more environmentally friendly mobility and accessibility. The next step will be to test the indicators to identify and categorize existing and emerging new services, ideas, pilots and prototypes. The results of this second step will be presented in our next article.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Ying Long ◽  
Jianting Zhao

This paper examines how mass ridership data can help describe cities from the bikers' perspective. We explore the possibility of using the data to reveal general bikeability patterns in 202 major Chinese cities. This process is conducted by constructing a bikeability rating system, the Mobike Riding Index (MRI), to measure bikeability in terms of usage frequency and the built environment. We first investigated mass ridership data and relevant supporting data; we then established the MRI framework and calculated MRI scores accordingly. This study finds that people tend to ride shared bikes at speeds close to 10 km/h for an average distance of 2 km roughly three times a day. The MRI results show that at the street level, the weekday and weekend MRI distributions are analogous, with an average score of 49.8 (range 0–100). At the township level, high-scoring townships are those close to the city centre; at the city level, the MRI is unevenly distributed, with high-MRI cities along the southern coastline or in the middle inland area. These patterns have policy implications for urban planners and policy-makers. This is the first and largest-scale study to incorporate mobile bike-share data into bikeability measurements, thus laying the groundwork for further research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Dagenais

Abstract Background Despite the increased emphasis placed on the use of evidence for policy development, relatively few initiatives have been developed to support evidence-informed decision-making, especially in West Africa. Moreover, studies examining the conditions under which policy-makers use research-based evidence are still scarce, but they show that their attitudes and opinions about research are one of the main determinants of such use. In February 2017, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Health planned to create a unit to promote evidence-informed decision-making within the ministry. Before the unit was set up, documenting the attitudes towards research at the highest levels of his Ministry appeared profitable to the unit’s planning. Method Individual interviews were conducted by the author with 14 actors positioned to consider evidence during decision-making from the Burkina Faso’s Minister of health cabinet. An interview grid was used to explore several themes such as attitudes towards research, obstacles and facilitators to research use, example of research use in decision-making and finally, ways to increase decision-makers’ participation in knowledge transfer activities. Interviews were partially transcribed and analysed by the author. Results The results show a mixed attitude towards research and relatively little indication of research use reported by respondents. Important obstacles were identified: evidence inaccessibility, lack of implementation guidelines, absence of clear communication strategy and studies’ lack of relevance for decision-making. Many suggestions were proposed such as raising awareness, improving access and research communication and prioritizing interactions with researchers. Respondents agree with the low participation of decision-makers in knowledge transfer activities: more leadership from the senior officials was suggested and greater awareness of the importance of their presence. Conclusions The conclusion presents avenues for reflection and action to increase the potential impact of the knowledge transfer unit planned within the Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso. This innovative initiative will be impactful if the obstacles identified in this study and policy-makers’ preferences and needs are taken into account during its development and implementation.


Author(s):  
Giuliano Sansone ◽  
Elisa Ughetto ◽  
Paolo Landoni

AbstractAlthough a great deal of attention has been paid to entrepreneurship education, only a few studies have analysed the impact of extra-curricular entrepreneurial activities on students’ entrepreneurial intention. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the role played by Student-Led Entrepreneurial Organizations (SLEOs) in shaping the entrepreneurial intention of their members. The analysis is based on a survey that was conducted in 2016 by one of the largest SLEOs in the world: the Junior Enterprises Europe (JEE). The main result of the empirical analysis is that the more time students spent on JEE and the higher the number of events students attended, the greater their entrepreneurial intention was. It has been found that other important drivers also increase students’ entrepreneurial intention, that is, the Science and Technology field of study and the knowledge of more than two foreign languages. These results confirm that SLEOs are able to foster students’ entrepreneurial intention. The findings provide several theoretical, practical and public policy implications. SLEOs are encouraged to enhance their visibility and lobbying potential in order to be recognized more as drivers of student entrepreneurship. In addition, it is advisable for universities and policy makers to support SLEOs by fostering their interactions with other actors operating in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, who promote entrepreneurship and technology transfer activities. Lastly, this paper advises policy makers to assist SLEOs’ activities inside and outside the university context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-492
Author(s):  
Jovan Karamachoski ◽  
Ninoslav Marina ◽  
Pavel Taskov

Blockchain technology will bring a disruption in plenty of industries and businesses. Recently it proved the robustness, immutability, auditability, in many crucial practical applications. The blockchain structure offers traceability of actions, alterations, alerts, which is an important property of a system needed for development of sustainable technologies. A crucial part of the blockchain technology regarding the optimization of the processes is the smart contract. It is a self-executable computer code, open and transparent, encoding the terms of a regular contract. It is able to automate the processes, thus decreasing the human-factor mistakes or counterfeits. In this paper, we are presenting the feasibility of the blockchain technology in the certification processes, with an application developed for university diploma certification. The example is easily transferable in other areas and business models such as logistics, supply chain management, or other segments where certification is essential.


2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-266
Author(s):  
Tien Duc Pham

Tourism productivity measures are quite diverse, not always compatible and usually based partly on labor productivity for hotels and restaurants. This article develops a holistic approach that integrates the principles of the growth accounting framework and tourism satellite account to measure multifactor productivity, labor productivity and capital productivity for the Australian tourism industry. This study shows that tourism has been identified as a reservoir for other industries through the ebbs and flows of labor demands. Compared with the rest of the economy, the average growth of labor productivity—that is, income per unit of labor—for tourism is stagnant, and has reached an unprecedented low, six times below the market sector average, mainly because of low multifactor productivity. The results are valuable for policy makers and the lobbying groups wanting to identify areas of need for policy changes to ensure the healthy long-term growth of tourism.


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