Proof of Delivery Smart Contract for Performance Measurements

The growth of the enterprise blockchain research supporting supply chain management calls for investigations of their impact and mindfulness of their design, use cases, and pilots. With a blockchain design for the Proof of Delivery (PoD) process management, this paper contributes to learning about performance measurement and the transaction costs implications during the development and application of smart contracts. An experimental design science approach is applied to develop an open-source blockchain to explore ways to make the delivery processes more efficient, the proof of delivery more reliable, and the performance measurements more accurate. The theory of Transaction Costs is applied to evaluate the cost implications of the adoption of smart contracts in the management of the PoD. The findings show that smart contracts make the delivery processes more efficient and proof of delivery more reliable. Yet, the methods and metrics are too complex and qualitative, limiting the smart contract’s capability to measure performance. Our findings indicate potential transaction costs reduction by implementing a blockchain-based performance measurement. The complexities of the delivery process and proof of delivery call for pre-contractual steps to identify the processes and performance metrics to design blockchains. Smart contracts need further development and digital aids to handle qualitative inspections and proof of delivery generation during the delivery process. The blockchain requires the system’s capacity to record off-chain transactions, such as in case of disputes resolutions. The authors extended blockchain research beyond the theoretical level, designing an open-source blockchain for supply chain management within the use case, pilot design, and case study.