Blockchain Adoption or Not? Analysis of Demand Information Sharing in Maritime Supply Chain

This study examines whether adopting blockchain technology can enhance maritime supply chain performance by improving information sharing in the presence of mismatches between service capacity and demand. We analyze a maritime supply chain with one port and one carrier. Depending on whether the port and the carrier adopt blockchain technology to share forecast information, we consider two scenarios: neither party adopts the technology, or both the port and the carrier adopt it. We find that when the port’s ex ante expected demand is relatively low, the adoption of blockchain technology not only incentivizes the port to expand its service capacity but also increases the actual demand from the carrier. In addition, when the port has a high forecasting accuracy, it prompts both the port and the carrier to make more stable decisions on the service capacity and freight rates under demand uncertainty. Finally, while the port and the carrier exhibit conflicting incentives to adopt blockchain technology, these tensions can nonetheless be reconciled. This alignment becomes possible due to blockchain’s spillover effect: by enabling information sharing, it facilitates a closer match between the port’s service capacity and the carrier’s realized demand.