Blockchain in your grocery basket : trust and traceability as a strategy

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain insights and explicate how blockchain technology enables trust and traceability building from a real business use case. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a qualitative case study of a leading global French grocery retail firm that has started to integrate blockchain into their supply chain and products. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources. Findings: This paper developed a conceptual framework in unboxing the mechanism by which blockchain enables trust and explicating how information flows in a blockchain-based system compared to a traditional one in a real business application scenario through three main elements, namely, system architecture, data recovery and communication. Originality/value: Given the upside potential of emerging technologies such as blockchain coupled with the current increasing demand for business use cases, the paper is timely in integrating the business and technological aspects of trust in formulating a firm-level blockchain strategy.