Blockchain in the operations and supply chain management: Benefits, challenges and future research opportunities Abstract   Blockchain technologies have captured the imagination of scholars, managers, and practitioners around the world. It is widely accepted by these actors that blockchain is not a buzzword, but a highly disruptive technology that is already remodeling the organizations and their supply chain business models. Despite the meaningful advance in the last years, blockchain applications regarding the operations and supply chain management (OSCM) are still in their infancy. Little is known about the role of blockchain in terms of operations traceability, as well in areas such as ecommerce, agriculture, public services, etc. Therefore, this Special Issue seeks to extend our understanding of blockchain applications in OSCM and how firms create and capture business value with blockchain. To this effect, this Special Issue will provide a wellarticulated and indepth discussion of the role of blockchain in creating value in the domain of OSCM. Specifically, it is expected that more light is shed on how blockchain integrates with and impacts new business models, transforms relationships, and improves performance and competitive advantage in OSCM. Also, the evolution of blockchain was reviewed in order to provide a strong background to the readers. The literature review was performed taking into account a bibliometric perspective of blockchainrelated publications. The review supports the importance of this Special Issue by highlighting the urgent needs of this topic in this reputable journal. Finally, we provide future research directions and a guide for the papers presented in this Special Issue.

A Supply Chain Model with BlockchainEnabled Reverse Auction Bidding Process for Transparency and Efficiency Blockchain technology as a foundation of distributed ledger offers an innovative platform for transparent and efficient transaction in Reverse Auction Bidding process in a supply chain for procuring carriers. This research work provides background and motivation for the use of Blockchain in such domains. A supply chain model is realized by deploying a smart contract in Blockchain to procure carrier. The model considers multiattribute of the carriers while procuring one through the reverse auction bidding process. This research work validates the Blockchainenabled supply chain model by simulating a supply chain proposed for a Dairy Company. Data to calibrate the simulation was taken from a published case study on Reverse Auctions in the supply chain. The result shows that the model is a feasible scheme and its features will offset the challenges of current RAB process making it more efficient and transparent.