# A Guidance for Blockchain-Based Digital Transition in Supply Chains
## 1 Introduction  
As an emerging technology, blockchain is still in its infancy in business applications [1; 2; 3]. However, in the last few years, the supply chain (SC) has been considered one of the fields where blockchain technologies have been implemented with higher impact [4; 5]. According to [PERSON] et al. [6], blockchain is a driver for digitalization in the SC, but the resulting improvements in performance are difficult to predict [7]. The implementation of blockchain-based SCs has been largely explored for the traceability and transparency of products. Traceability and transparency, along with the development of an advanced level of trust, were identified as the main drivers for blockchain adoption [6; 7; 8; 9].  
Nevertheless, there is a lack of experience, knowledge, and understanding regarding blockchain [6]. Moreover, according to [PERSON] et al. [10], there is a lack of education programs focusing on blockchain and related skills. Thus, more education and research are needed in this area for a better understanding of the impact of this technology and its acquisition procedures. Additionally, as a software-based technology, blockchain should be addressed in digitalization strategies and goals [11], but thus far, its impacts and digital transitions are unclear [12]. However, information management and trust were identified as factors for the implementation of blockchain-based SCs [13]. Nonetheless, further research is necessary to explore how SC operations may be impacted with sufficient benefits, the reward maximized, and a higher level of efficiency and effectiveness assured [7; 14]. For this purpose, digitalization and digital transition may play an essential role [5; 15]. Thus, this research aims to fill these research gaps, provide an insight into the body of knowledge in this area, and explore which elements might play a relevant role for the identification of those digital strategies that may assure operational efficiency and effectiveness in the SC sector.  
Therefore, this study answers the following research question (RQ): _Which are the elements for designing blockchain-based digital strategies that might foster a reliable re-engineering in SC operations?_  
Following an analysis of 18 interviews with international experts, and by applying the grounded theory methodology, we were able to analyze the data obtained to address the above-mentioned RQ and contribute to the body of knowledge in this research area.  
As main contributions, this explorative research provides the following outcomes: (I) a summary of key findings of previous research and a taxonomy of existing work; (II) a presentation of findings emerged from the experts interviewed, divided into four major categories; and (III) a set of elements and recommendations presented as matrices and tables for a suitable adoption in SC applications.  
The uniqueness of this explorative research is that it merges a qualitative approach based on interviewing experts with an exhaustive and solid literature review to create a scientific contribution that aims to answer the research question. As an interdisciplinary work, it follows previous research in the blockchain field [3; 5; 6; 11; 13; 15].  
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents a literature review of the most relevant research works for the study and a taxonomy, Section 3 details the grounded theory methodology and analysis of the collected data, Section 4 elaborates on the findings of the analysis, Section 5 offers a discussion and the research contributions, and Section 6 presents the conclusions.