This study examines the impact of information technology, particularly blockchain, on enhancing supply chain performance amidst increasing complexity and competition. An agent-based model simulates a four-tier supply chain (consumers, retailers, distributors, suppliers) across three scenarios—no information sharing, complete information sharing, and blockchain verification—over 120 time steps in three repeated experiments. Results demonstrate that blockchain verification significantly outperforms other scenarios, improving service levels by 30.8%, cost control by 23.7%, and reducing inventory by 30.8% compared to no sharing. Retailers gain the most (88.0% service level improvement), followed by distributors (25.1%), with suppliers showing minimal change (-1.7%). Blockchain mitigates the bullwhip effect by 6.0%, while complete sharing reveals an “information overshoot” issue. The research extends information asymmetry theory, proposes credible coordination mechanisms, and offers quantitative insights for technology investment and inventory optimization.
Lu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.