Blockchain-Enabled Risk Governance, Cybersecurity, and Sustainable Value Creation in Global Supply Chains: An Integrative Theoretical and Empirical Synthesis

Abstract

The rapid digital transformation of global supply chains has intensified both opportunities for value creation and exposure to systemic risks, including operational disruptions, cybersecurity threats, regulatory non-compliance, and sustainability failures. Among emerging digital technologies, blockchain has attracted sustained scholarly and practitioner attention due to its distinctive properties of decentralization, immutability, transparency, and cryptographic security. This study develops a comprehensive, theory-driven and empirically grounded examination of blockchain technology as a foundational infrastructure for risk governance, resilience, cybersecurity, and sustainable value creation in contemporary supply chains. Drawing strictly and exclusively on the provided body of peer-reviewed literature, the article integrates perspectives from sustainable supply chain management, information systems, cybersecurity, operations management, strategic management, and organizational theory.

The research advances three primary objectives. First, it systematically elaborates the multifaceted mechanisms through which blockchain reshapes supply chain risk structures, extending beyond efficiency enhancement to include accountability, trust redistribution, and behavioral transformation among actors. Second, it situates blockchain-enabled supply chains within broader theoretical frameworks, including the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, and institutional compliance regimes such as the General Data Protection Regulation, highlighting how blockchain can function simultaneously as a strategic resource, a governance mechanism, and a compliance-enabling architecture. Third, it critically analyzes blockchain’s role in mitigating systemic shocks, such as pandemics and cyberattacks, while acknowledging structural barriers, adoption risks, and unintended consequences.

Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative, integrative research design combining deep literature synthesis, conceptual modeling, and theory triangulation. Rather than aggregating empirical metrics, the analysis emphasizes causal reasoning, interpretive depth, and cross-disciplinary coherence. The findings demonstrate that blockchain’s value in supply chains emerges not merely from technical deployment but from its alignment with organizational capabilities, regulatory environments, and socio-behavioral mechanisms. The discussion highlights key limitations, including governance complexity, scalability challenges, and cybersecurity paradoxes, and outlines future research directions focused on hybrid architectures, AI–blockchain convergence, and sector-specific regulatory harmonization. The article concludes that blockchain represents a transformative but contingent infrastructure whose long-term impact on supply chain resilience and sustainability depends on strategic orchestration rather than technological determinism.