A GPN perspective on the adoption of blockchain technology in global supply chains

Blockchain technology is lauded for its potential to enhance transparency, traceability, and ultimately lead to more resilient and sustainable supply chains. However, its implications for power dynamics, governance and spatial reconfigurations in global production networks (GPNs) remain underexplored. This paper examines the adoption of blockchain technology in global supply chains and reviews its associated benefits and barriers. The paper highlights three main arenas where applying key concepts of GPN theory can help us understand how digital technologies, such as blockchain, reshape the geography and organisation of production. First, focusing on the different dimensions of power could provide a nuanced exploration of blockchain’s impact on power relations between actors in GPNs. Second, the field would benefit from an analysis of the interplay between digital- and physical space acknowledging the human factor in narratives of digital transformation. Third, there is a need to evaluate blockchain’s role as a potential technology of globalisation, changing the nature of global production and trade. For GPN theory to remain relevant, it must integrate the effects of digital technologies on actor strategies, power relations, and uneven development within global production systems.