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Integration of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain

Management: A Bibliometric and Network Analysis

Conference Paper · April 2024

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024

INTEGRATION OF BLOCKCHAIN AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC & NETWORK ANALYSIS
Ashutosh Verma
Associate Professor, Khalsa College of Engineering & Technology, Amritsar, Punjab (India)

ABSTRACT
Blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) are two promising technologies that have captured the interest of managers and
researchers worldwide. The integration of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant focus in the recent
years especially in area of supply chain management. Supply chain models of organizations have been revamped with the advent
of these two disruptive technologies owing to the enhanced information and process resilience, faster and cost-efficient deliveries
along with product traceability. This paper conducts a comprehensive review, examining how blockchain and AI are utilized
within the supply chain domain, providing insights into the latest advancements in this field. This paper aims to answer three
principal questions: RQ1: Which affiliations and authors wield the most influence in the integration of blockchain and AI within
the supply chain? RQ2: How do authors, countries, and organizations connect in the literature about combining blockchain and AI
in supply chain management? RQ3: What are the key topics or themes regarding the integration of blockchain and AI in supply
chain management?1,671 publications from the year 2021 to 2024 were obtained through Scopus and analysed through
bibliometric and network analysis. The findings revealed that the maximum number of publications (746) were in the year 2022.
Khalifa University of Science and Technology, UAE emerged as the most prominent affiliation, most cited author was Sarkis, J
with a CPP of 77.2, most impactful country was China with 355 documents, and the most cited keyword was blockchain with
1131 occurrences. The collaborative patterns amongst authors, organizations and countries clearly indicate potential applicability
of blockchain and AI in supply chain management.
Keywords: Blockchain, Artificial intelligence, Supply Chain, Bibliometric analysis, Network analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
The competition in today's business environment is increasingly centered around the optimization and innovation of supply chain
management. Companies that can build agile, technologically advanced, and resilient supply chains are better positioned to thrive
in the dynamic and competitive marketplace. Having said this, there are multiple issues faced by companies in managing smooth
supply chain. Production delays and inventory shortages are often the result of disruptions stemming from natural disasters,
geopolitical events, and worldwide pandemics. Additionally, supply chain complexity, driven by globalization and intricate
supplier relationships, poses challenges in coordinating and optimizing operations. Further, assessing information and mitigating
risks in supply chain networks proves challenging due to a multitude of factors, including link maintenance, regulatory policies,
cultural norms, and human behaviour [1]. In addition, the growing dependence on digital technologies exposes supply chains to
potential attacks, raising concerns about emerging cybersecurity threats and data breaches. Ineffective transactions, fraudulent
practices, pilferage, and underperforming supply chains contribute to a significant trust deficit [2] This underscores the imperative
for enhanced information sharing and increased verifiability to address these challenges. Another prominent challenge for the
supply chain is sustainability, ensuring minimum environmental impact and ensuring faster deliveries. Managing supply chain
visibility is another significant business challenge, as many companies lack adequate information about their second and third-tier
suppliers [3]. Traceability is evolving into a pressing necessity and a crucial distinguishing factor across various supply chain
industries. The absence of transparency in the value chain of a product prevents both supply chain entities and customers from
authenticating its true worth. Managing traceability in the supply chain is additionally complicated by the costs associated with
intermediaries, their reliability, and the challenge of ensuring transparency. Consequently, strategic and reputational competitive
concerns emerge as a result of these risks and the overall lack of transparency [2]. Another major challenge with today’s supply
chains is their high reliability on central, sometimes disparate, and stand-alone systems of information management, such as
enterprise resource planning systems [2]. The significant drawback of employing a centralized system is its susceptibility to
becoming a single point of failure, exposing the entire system to vulnerabilities such as hacking or corruption. Historical incidents
over the past decades underscore that even robust and costly security measures cannot assure complete data security, leaving
organizations within the network potentially at risk [3]. Moreover, there are ongoing pressures on supply chain practices to
acknowledge and authenticate the sustainability of supply chains. To attain sustainability, a holistic approach considering
environmental, social, and business aspects is imperative, aligning with the triple-bottom-line concept [4]. As an integral strategic
and competitive concern, ensuring supply chain sustainability involves the validation and verification of adherence to predefined
sustainability criteria and certifications across supply chain processes, products, and activities [5]. In response to customer
expectations and competitive forces, contemporary businesses are undergoing restructuring to operate on a global scale,
capitalizing on opportunities presented by international product, factor, and capital markets [6]. There is a high need to examine
the current supply chains on their capability to provide secure, transparent and reliable data for tracking the timely origin of goods
and services. Improving supply chain security, long-term viability, transparency and process integrity are the possible solutions.
Blockchain technology could be a possible solution to the supply chain issues. The capabilities of blockchain in ensuring the
reliability, traceability, and authenticity of information, coupled with the implementation of smart contractual relationships to
create a trustless environment, signal a significant re-evaluation of supply chains and supply chain management [2]. By virtue of

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
its decentralized and 'trustless' database attributes, blockchain technology has the potential to enable global-scale transaction and
process disintermediation, fostering decentralization among diverse stakeholders [7]. The application of blockchain is not
restricted to cryptocurrency anymore and has expanded in multiple areas like agriculture [8] healthcare [9] finance [10] education
[11] transportation [12] and supply chain [13]. Numerous scholars have shown interest and studied application of blockchain
technology in supply chain in the recent time [14,15,16].
Blockchain has the potential to handle the entire supply chain, extending beyond supply chain finance, making business
transactions easier to validate and enhancing the overall efficiency of the ecosystem [17]. Some of the most notable areas for
application of blockchain technology besides finance are expected to be in supply chain, food and agriculture [18]. Blockchain
technologies hold great promise for application in supply chains [19]. The impartial platform offered by blockchain is anticipated
to facilitate the integration of diverse participants in a supply chain. The integrity and audit trail within a blockchain ledger are
expected to enhance transparency and instill confidence throughout the entire supply chain [19].
Despite the growing number of blockchain use cases over time, the adoption and implementation of blockchain in supply chain
networks face various challenges and barriers. Similar to any potentially disruptive system or technology, blockchain is still in its
nascent stages of development. This presents challenges related to behavioral, organizational, technological, and policy-related
issues that need to be addressed for widespread adoption [2]. Blockchain is not the sole technology capturing the interest of supply
chain managers and scholars. Other emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), smart contracts, and artificial
intelligence are poised to bring about significant transformations in supply chain management [15]
Artificial intelligence (AI) is another promising technology that has found diverse applications in today’s times. Artificial
Intelligence (AI), a prominent and widely researched field, involves the simulation of human intelligence processes by computer
systems. This has resulted in an automated world driven by machine-to-machine interconnections. [20].The benefits of this
technology enable the creation of decision-support systems for supplier selection, infusion of agility in the humanitarian supply
chains (HSCs), extraction of patterns from big data for risk identification, and the effective management of information from
diverse sources, among other applications. [21].The integration of AI with blockchain can further help strengthening the supply
chain. Blockchain and AI combined are anticipated to yield numerous significant advantages, including the enhancement of
deliverables in terms of robustness [22]. The integration of AI and Blockchain is anticipated to yield numerous advantages and
benefits. It establishes a secure, trusted, and distributed platform for sharing large volumes of data, facilitating analysis, learning,
and decision-making among parties. Importantly, this can be achieved without the necessity of a central authority or
intermediaries.[23]. As two prominent technologies in the contemporary landscape, the convergence of blockchain and artificial
intelligence holds a natural advantage. Blockchain enhances the autonomy and credibility of artificial intelligence, while artificial
intelligence, in turn, can propel blockchain towards greater intelligence [24].
Despite the increasing application of blockchain and AI in supply chain, there is a shortage of academic papers providing a
comprehensive review of integrated technologies with blockchain in supply chain management [25]. This research is an attempt to
fill the void in the field of supply chain management though an exhaustive evaluation of the existing studies in context of
blockchain and AI integration in supply chain. Further, the paper outlines the potential benefits of the integration.
The paper is structured as follows: Literature review is presented in section 2, Section 3 talks about the research methods
employed, eventually leading to selection of the primary studies. Section 4 presents the analysis of the selected studies. In Section
5 discussion regarding the findings of the research is given. In Section 6, conclusion and future research direction is presented.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW: BLOCKCHAIN, AI AND SUPPLY CHAIN
The evolution of blockchain stems from the white paper outlining the construction of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency [26]. Blockchain
is defined as a decentralized and open-source distributed database designed to store transaction details [27]. The blockchain serves
as a sophisticated digital ledger software designed to store data records and transaction logs in the form of organized blocks. In
essence, it functions as a secure and distributed database. Each block contains digital information pertaining to a transaction,
encompassing details such as time, date, price, and the participants involved. This information is distributed across the blockchain
network, where numerous independent nodes validate transactions without mutual knowledge or trust. Within each block, there
are two hash codes: the prior hash code, corresponding to the preceding block, and the current hash code for the block itself.
Notably, altering information in one block requires corresponding changes in all associated data. The strong linkage between
blocks is reinforced by transaction codes and cryptographic codes, ensuring the integrity and security of the entire network [28].
The surging interest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum has propelled the underlying technology, blockchain, into the
spotlight, attracting significant attention from both academic and industrial sectors. Beyond functioning as a distributed database,
blockchain has the remarkable capability to foster trust among numerous untrusted participants [29].Blockchain has the potential
to elevate transparency, trust, security, safety, and privacy across various processes by providing a decentralized and shared
distributed ledger [30]. In recent times, following the successful implementation of blockchain in financial applications, this
technology is swiftly making inroads into various sectors such as healthcare, Internet of Things (IoT), smart contracts, and
governmental applications. Its growing influence is attributed to its supremacy in terms of security, decentralization, and
reliability [31]. Blockchain technology possesses unique capabilities that make it well-suited for enhancing efficiency in supply
chains. It has the potential to transform rigid supply chains into dynamic demand chains, leading to more efficient utilization of
resources for everyone involved [32].
In the manufacturing, retail, and agricultural sectors, supply chains play a crucial role in facilitating the movement of goods and
services across organizational boundaries. Supply chain contracts within these industries are intricate, dynamic, and involve

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
multiple parties, each subject to regulatory and logistical constraints. Furthermore, these supply chains often extend beyond
jurisdictional boundaries. In this context, the exchange of information is just as pivotal as the physical exchange of goods. For
instance, customs inspections typically commence only when both the physical goods and the associated information are present.
Having confidence in the accuracy of supply chain documentation can streamline customs and biosecurity processes, diminish risk
and insurance expenses, and serve as leverage in trade finance. Payments occur at various points within the supply chain among
the involved parties [19]. Blockchain facilitates the accurate and efficient measurement of outcomes and performance in key
Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes. Once tracking data inputs are recorded on a blockchain ledger, they become
immutable. This ensures that other suppliers in the chain can also trace shipments, deliveries, and overall progress. Through this
transparency and immutability, blockchain establishes trust among suppliers in the supply chain [18]. Artificial intelligence (AI)
technology had its inception in 1956 and has undergone three significant peaks of development: the periods spanning 1956 to
1970, 1980 to 1990, and 2000 to the present. The proposal for machine learning in 1959 marked a pivotal moment, contributing to
the peak of the initial phase of AI development [24].AI, or artificial intelligence, involves the process of enabling a machine or
program to execute tasks typically associated with human intelligence. This technology aims to develop intelligent computers and
machines capable of emulating human-like behavior. Artificial intelligence encompasses several key technologies, including
computational vision technology, natural language processing technology, cross-media reasoning technology, intelligent adaptive
learning technology, swarm intelligence technology, autonomous drone system technology, smart chip technology, and brain-
computer interface technology. These technologies have broad applications across various industries [24]
The integration of AI and blockchain technology in the supply chain offers transformative advantages. The combination enhances
transparency, reduces fraud and counterfeiting risks, leveraging blockchain's security features and AI's capabilities in fraud
detection. Further, predictive analytics powered by AI optimizes inventory management, minimizing wastage and improving
demand forecasting. AI contributes to real-time decision-making by swiftly analysing vast data sets. Ultimately, this synergy
fosters a more efficient, transparent, and resilient supply chain, instilling trust among participants and enhancing overall
management.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative method used to analyze publications within a specific field, providing valuable insights into
its intellectual landscape. By examining various aspects such as publication counts, citation patterns, authorship networks, and
journal impact factors, this approach helps researchers understand the trends, influences, and dynamics within the field [33].In this
research, the application of bibliometric analysis will uncover emerging trends within academic documents on integration of
blockchain and AI in supply chain. This paper broadens the research methodology presented by Tchangalova and Coalter, which
delineates a four-stage process for pinpointing influential and forthcoming studies within a particular field. The method involves
first identifying research questions, then defining boundaries, followed by searching and selecting relevant studies for bibliometric
analysis, and finally presenting the results [34]. Moreover, besides these stages, this paper integrates an analysis of co-authorship.
Figure 1 depicts these modifications, demonstrating the inclusion of co-authorship analysis alongside the original four-step
methodology. By integrating co-authorship analysis, this study aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of research
networks and collaboration patterns within the subject area, enriching the insights gained from bibliometric analysis alone.

Defining
Identifying the Boundaries by Conducting Directions for
Co-authorship Presenting
Research searching and Bibliometric future
analysis results
Questions selecting Analysis research
publications

Figure:1 Research Methodology

3.1 Research Questions and Boundaries
The primary objective of this research is to identify, analyse and summarize the research carried on the integration of blockchain,
AI and supply chain. The researcher has formulated three key questions to answer in this context:
▪ RQ1: Which affiliations and authors wield the most influence in the integration of blockchain and AI within the supply
chain?
▪ RQ2: How do authors, countries, and organizations connect in the literature about combining blockchain and AI in
supply chain management?
▪ RQ3: What are the key topics or themes regarding the integration of blockchain and AI in supply chain management?

The objective of the study is not only to enquire into the existing literature regarding integration of blockchain and AI in
supply chain, but also to emphasize as to how this integration has changed the landscape of supply chain. In-depth
analysis has been carried on the studies to highlight both the integration as well as impact on supply chain management.

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
This study is expected to lead the future researchers, academicians and practitioners towards a better understanding of the
key areas where integration of blockchain and AI can strengthen the supply chain.

3.2 Search and Selection

In order to address the research questions, Scopus was used as the main database. The reason behind choosing Scopus database
lies in the fact that almost 99% of the journals indexed on the Web of Science are also indexed in Scopus [35]. The Scopus search
algorithm was TITLE-ABS-KEY (“blockchain” OR “block chain”) AND (“artificial intelligence” OR “machine learning” AND
(“supply chain” OR “supply-chain”). These keywords were looked up in each publication’s title, abstract, and keyword list. The
search was conducted on 31st January, 2024. The search returned 1821 document results, all published between 2020 and
2024.The data obtained was further filtered and10 papers from 2020 were removed owing to lesser number thereby resulting to
count of 1,797. Finally, 126 articles in press and 14 non-English papers were also excluded, leaving to the final count of 1,671.
4. Bibliometric Analysis
Bibliometric analysis employs quantitative methods to assess scientific publications, enabling examination of authorship and
keywords across various dimensions [36]. VOSviewer was used in the current study due to its practicality in bibliometric analysis
and its ability to offer clear visualizations [37].
4.1 Publication Trend by Year
Out of 1,671 selected articles, 443 articles were published in the year 2021, 746 were published in year 2022, followed by 442
articles in 2023, and 40 articles published in year 2024 till date. The data is presented graphically in figure 2 as under:

DOCUMENTS
Documents

746

443 442

40

2021 2022 2023 2024

Figure 2: Publication Trend (2021-2024)

4.2 Documents by Affiliation
Table 1 lists the top ten affiliations with the highest contributions to the integration of blockchain and AI in the supply chain.
Table 1 also presents the Total Publications (TP) ,Total Citations (TC) , and Citations per Publication (CPP).Scopus Databases
provided the data for the TP and CP. TC/TP = CPP is the formula used to calculate CPP [39]. The CPP measures the impact, per
paper, on average, of an organization [40]. The CPP is a more accurate measurement of an impact than the TC because it does not
allow the TP to skew the data.

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
Table 1. Top 10 affiliations contributing to integration of blockchain and AI in supply chain
Sr
no Affiliation TP TC CPP

Department of electrical engineering and computer science, Khalifa University

1 of Science and Technology, UAE 5 248 49.6

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Khalifa University of

2 Science and Technology, UAE 5 248 49.6
3 School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology 4 84 21

School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of

4 Sciences 4 58 14.5
5 ESB Business School, Reutlingen University, Germany 4 43 10.75
6 Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, Germany 4 43 10.75
7 UNSW, Australia 4 35 8.75
8 Lovely Professional University, India 5 0 0
9 SR University, India 5 0 0
10 Uttaranchal Institute of Technology, Uttaranchal University, India 5 0 0

Out of the total affiliations, six are based out of Asian countries. The most impactful institutions as seen from the table 1 are
Khalifa University of Science and Technology, UAE, South China University of Technology, University of Chinese Academy of
sciences, followed by affiliation locations from Germany and Australia. The Khalifa University of Science and Technology, based
in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is renowned for its extensive range of departments focusing on science, engineering, and
medicine. The university has gained recognition for its prolific output in Blockchain Oracle research, making it a leader in this
field [38].
4.3 Author Influence
Table 2 shows top 10 authors with the highest number of publications in the area of blockchain and AI integration in supply chain.
Table 2. Top 10 authors with the highest number of publications in the area of blockchain and AI integration in supply
chain.
Sr No Author TP TC CPP
1 sarkis, j 12 926 77.2
2 salah, k 9 464 51.6
3 jayaraman, r 9 464 51.6
4 wang, l 9 351 39.0
5 chen, y 9 319 35.4
6 kumar, a 10 306 30.6
7 li, y 9 271 30.1
8 li, x 9 231 25.7
9 wang, y 18 226 12.6
10 xu, x 9 225 25.0

Total Publications (TP),Total Citations (TC) and Citations Per Publication (CPP).
The authors with the most impactful publications, as measured by CPP (Citations per Publication), are: Sarkis, J, having the
highest CPP of 77.2, followed by Salah, K and Jayaraman, R , both having a CPP of 51.6. The contribution of Wang, Chen,
Kumar and Li is equally good with CPP of 39.0, 35.4, 30.6 and 30.1 respectively.
4.4 Co-authorship Networks
Co-authorship analysis serves multiple purposes, primarily fostering connections within the research community. By pinpointing
the most active contributors in a field, it helps assemble groups best positioned to lead projects. The co-authorship analysis in this
paper will explore inter-organizational networks, international collaboration, and regional contributions to knowledge generation.
In co-authorship networks, nodes represent authors, organizations, or countries, depending on the context, and are linked when
they share authorship of a paper. This allows for graphical representation of research collaboration. VOSviewer offers three

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
visualization types: “network visualization”, “overlay visualization”, and “density visualization”. This study utilizes Network
visualization. Data for this study was accessed by VOSviewer through a CSV file downloaded from Scopus.
4.4.1 Co-authorship
VOSviewer provides three levels of analysis within co-authorship, namely “authors,” “organizations,” and “countries.” In Section
4.4.1, "authors" were chosen for analysis. A complete counting approach was utilized, giving equal weight to each co-authorship
connection. To ensure inclusion of only the most influential authors in the field, a criterion was established requiring each author
to have a minimum of 9 published documents and 100 citations. Out of the original 3,507 authors, only 15 met this threshold.
However, some of these 15 authors were not connected. As Section 4.4 aims to visualize relationships, all unconnected items were
omitted, resulting in 8 authors remaining. This led to the identification of 3 unique clusters, comprising 12 links and a total link
strength of 18.Figure 3 presents a graphical model of the aforementioned. Table 3 illustrates the top research groups of authors
contributing to integration of blockchain and AI in supply chain

Cluster 1 Cluster 2

Author No of No of Author No of No of
Documents Links Documents Links
Li, X. 9 5 Li, J. 11 4

Li, Y. 9 2 Liu, J. 10 1

Wang, Y. 18 4 Liu, Y. 16 3

Cluster 3

Author No of No of Links
Documents
Chen, Y 9 1

Wang, I 9 4

The group with the highest publications is cluster 2 (Li, J, Liu, J. & Liu, Y.) having published 37 documents, however cluster1
(Li, X, Li, Y & Wang, Y) has the highest connects at 11 links.

Figure 3: A network model depicting co-authorship among researchers regarding the integration of blockchain and AI in the
supply chain from 2021 to 2024 was constructed using data obtained from the Scopus database. The visualization was generated
using VOSviewer software.

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
4.4.2 Co-authorship network of organizations
VOSviewer provides three levels of analysis within co-authorship, namely “authors,” “organizations,” and “countries.” In Section
4.4.2, "organizations" were chosen for analysis. A complete counting approach was employed, giving equal weight to each co-
authorship connection. To ensure that only the most prominent organizations in the field were included in this study, a criterion
was established requiring each organization to have a minimum of 1 published document and 10 citations. Out of the original
2,869 organizations, 1,023 met this threshold. However, some of these organizations were not connected. As Section 4.4 aims to
visualize relationships, all unconnected items were omitted, resulting in 1,000 organizations remaining. This led to the
identification of 6 unique clusters, comprising 61 links and a total link strength of 65. Figure 4 presents a graphical representation
of the aforementioned.
Table 4 illustrates the top research groups of organizations contributing to integration of blockchain and AI in supply chain

Cluster 1 Cluster 2

Organization No of No of Organization No of No of
Documents Links Documents Links
Dalton state College, US 1 5 C lamar, Ann Wright school of 2 4
Business, Dalton, USA
Division of business 1 5
College of Business, Lander 1 4
administration & economics,
University, USA
University of South Carolina
School of Business, Worcester 2 4
Foisic Business School, USA 2 7
Polytechnic University, USA
School of business 1 5 Walker College of Business, 2 4
administration, University of USA
South Carolina
Cluster 3
University of South Carolina 1 5
Organization No of No of
Documents Links
Collaborative Innovation center 1 3
Cluster 4 for changing modern trade
Organization No of No of logistics & supply chain
Documents Links
National Research base of 1 3
Business School, Worcester 2 5
intelligent manufacturing
Polytechnic institute,
services
Worcester, USA
College of Business, the 1 3 School of foreign studies, 1 3
University of Alabama in Yangtez University, Fingzhou
Huntsville, USA
College of Business, University 1 3 School of management & 2 3
of Rhode Island, Kingston economics, University of
electronic science &
Hanken School of Economics, 4 14 Technology, China
Humlog Institute, Finland

Cluster 5
Organization No of No of
Documents Links
Foisie Business School, 2 7
Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
USA
Hanken School of Economics, 2 3
Humlog Institute, Finland
Insa Hauts-de-France 1 3
University Polytechnique
Iamih Enris University 1 3
Polytechnique

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024

Cluster 6
Organization No of No of Links
Documents
Department of logistics and 2 7
supply chain management,
H.O Technical University,
Ghana
School of Management & 1 4
Economics, & Centre for
West African Studies
School of Management & 2 6
Economics, University of
Electronic Science &
Technology, China
Hanken School of 2 6
Economics, Humlog
Institute, Finland

The group with the highest publications is cluster 4 having published 8 documents together, however cluster1 has the highest
connects at 27 links.

Figure 4: A network model illustrating co-authorship among organizations regarding the integration of blockchain and AI in the
supply chain between 2021 and 2024 was developed using data sourced from the Scopus database. The visualization was
generated using VOSviewer software.

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
4.4.3 Co-authorship network of Countries
VOSviewer provides three levels of analysis within co-authorship, namely “authors,” “organizations,” and “countries.” Section
4.4.3 selected “countries Moreover, a complete counting approach was selected, assigning equal weight to each co-authorship
connection. To ensure that only the most prominent countries were mapped in this study, a criterion was set requiring each
country to have published minimum 5 documents together and 100 citations. Out of the original 98 countries, 35 met this
threshold. This resulted in 6 unique clusters, with 225 links and a total link strength of 725. Figure 5 presents a graphical model of
the aforementioned.
Table 5 illustrates the top research groups of countries contributing to integration of blockchain and AI in supplychain

Cluster 1 Cluster 2
Country No of No of
Docs Links Country No of Docs No of
Links
Austria 11 4
Bangladesh 12 7
Germany 45 9
India 299 26
Greece 15 8

Iran 25 14 Jordan 18 6

Italy 74 21
Malaysia 38 15
Lithuania 6 11
Pakistan 36 17
Netherlands 8 4

Spain 11 9 Saudi Arabia 40 18

Turkey 27 11 UAE 46 13

United 113 30
Kingdom

Cluster 3 Cluster 4

Country No of No of Country No of No of
Docs Links Docs Links
Denmark 12 13 Australia 73 20

Norway 11 12 Finland 16 10

S.Korea 22 11 Indonesia 19 9

Switzerland 8 6 Ireland 7 5

Taiwan 31 18 Sweden 10 9

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024

Cluster 5 Cluster 6

Country No of No of Country No of No of
Docs Links Docs Links
Brazil 15 3 China 355 26

Canada 27 16 Hong Kong 27 7

France 56 22 New Zealand 7 5

Moroco 26 8 USA 130 27

The group with the highest number of publications is cluster 6 having published 519 documents together, however cluster1 has the
highest connects at 121 links.

Figure 5: A network model displaying co-authorship relationships between countries regarding the integration of blockchain and
AI in the supply chain from 2021 to 2024 was constructed using data obtained from the Scopus database. The visualization was
generated using VOSviewer software.
4.4.4 Keyword Co-occurrence Analysis
To conduct a keyword co-occurrence analysis, VOSviewer employs a method where keywords are extracted from both abstracts
and titles, followed by running a clustering algorithm to establish accurate networks (Van Eck and Waltman, 2011). Initially,
bibliographic data was exported from Scopus to a CSV file and then imported into VOSviewer. Within the Co-occurrence
analysis, VOSviewer offers three units of analysis: "all keywords," "author keywords," and "index keywords." In the Co-
occurrence analysis conducted using VOSviewer, "all keywords" were selected as the unit of analysis to comprehensively
synthesize co-occurrence data. Employing a full counting method, equal weight was assigned to each co-occurrence link, with a
requirement that a keyword must be cited at least ten times to maintain relevance. Out of the initial pool of 6,169 keywords, only
198 met this criterion. This resulted in the identification of eight distinct clusters, comprising 7,062 links with a total link strength
of 32,613. Figure 6 graphically represents this analysis, while Table 6 details the frequency of the 14 most common keywords
mentioned, arranged in descending order of link strength.

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
Table 6. The most repeated keywords and their number of occurrences
Keyword No of Occurrences

blockchain 1131

block-chain 734

supply chain management 552

supply chains 544

supply chain 353

smart contract 193

blockchain technology 178

distributed ledger 155

internet of things 145

traceability 140

food supply 128

transparency 119

food supply chain 97

information management 90

From the above table, it can be inferred that the most repeated keywords in the papers are blockchain, block-chain, supply chain
management, supply chains, supply chain and smart contract. There is a high correlation among blockchain and supply chain as
blockchain and its similar or plural terms have appeared 1865 times while supply chain and its similar terms account for 1449
times. Artificial intelligence has low correlation as its mentioned directly only 28 times, however different terminologies like
machine learning have been used in place.
Figure 6 presents the network of keywords. The size of then node denotes the number of occurrence in the publications. The
relationship between different keywords is represented by the lines and the different colors represent eight different clusters. The
blockchain and supply chain are highly interconnected, as evidenced by the prominent presence of related terms in searches on
Scopus. Additionally, terms like traceability, transparency, and smart contracts are grouped together with supply chain and
blockchain, highlighting their interrelation. This suggests a close association between blockchain technology and supply chain
management. Moreover, there's a notable connection between smart contracts and information management, indicating the
significant role of smart contracts in managing information effectively. Moreover, traceability is associated with both blockchain
and information management, highlighting how blockchain can improve traceability in supply chain information management
systems.

Fig 6. The keywords and their connection network map

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 IoT Based Recent Trends Engineering and its Applications IBRTEA-2024
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
RQ1: Which affiliations and authors wield the most influence in the integration of blockchain and AI within the supply chain?
Section 4.2 and 4.3 of the study addresses these questions. Table 1 labelled as Top 10 affiliations contributing to integration of
blockchain and AI in supply chain highlights the most notable contributions. The measure CPP (Citations per Publication) is used
to measure the impact. The highest affiliation comes from The Khalifa University of Science and Technology, United Arab
Emirates (UAE). Department of electrical engineering and computer science & Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
of this university have the top publications with a CPP of 49.6 each. South China University of Technology is also one of the
leading affiliations with a CPP of 21
Section 4.3 of the study deals with author influence. Table 2 labelled as Top 10 authors to integration of blockchain and AI in
supply chain highlights the most notable contributions by the researchers. The authors with the most influential publications, as
indicated by their CPP scores, include Sarkis, J, leading with total publications (926) and CPP of 77.2, followed by Salah, K and
Jayaraman, R, each with total publications (464) and CPP of 51.6. Wang (351) Chen (319), Kumar (306) and Li (306) also made
significant contributions, with CPP scores of 39.0, 35.4, 30.6, and 30.1 respectively.
RQ2: How do authors, countries, and organizations connect in the literature about combining blockchain and AI in supply chain
management?
The answer to this query was addressed by the section 4.4.1. The findings of the interconnection revealed 3 clusters (research
groups) of authors. The group with the highest publications was found to be cluster 2 (Li, J, Liu, J. & Liu, Y.) having published 37
documents, however cluster 1 (Li, X, Li, Y & Wang, Y) has the highest connects at 11 links with the second highest publications
together (36).
The organizational interconnection as presented by table 4 indicates 6 clusters. The highest number of documents were published
by cluster 4 where Hanken School of Economics, Humlog Institute, Finland had maximum publications in this cluster (4), also the
highest link connectivity is reflected by the same (14), however on analysing the overall clusters, the maximum links were found
in cluster 1 (27) led by Foisic Business School, USA with highest connects (7), followed by equal link (5) each by other
organizations.
Finally, for country association 6 clusters were created as shown in table 5. Cluster 6 emerged as the group with the highest
number of publications having published 519 documents together where maximum publications came from China (355) ,
followed by USA (130), however cluster1 has the highest connects at 121 links, where United Kingdom had the highest connects
of 30, followed by Italy (21) and Iran (14).
RQ3: What are the key topics or themes regarding the integration of blockchain and AI in supply chain management?
Table 6 presents keyword co-occurrence analysis. VOSviewer scrutinizes abstracts, titles and keywords for co-occurrence. All
keywords were selected and out of 6,169 keywords, 198 met the defined criteria. The analysis revealed the most prominent
keywords as blockchain, block-chain, supply chain management, supply chains, supply chain and smart contract. Artificial
intelligence has low correlation as its mentioned directly only 28 times, however different terminologies like machine learning,
machine-learning, internet of things, iot, have been used.
CONCLUSION & FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTION
There have been studies discussing the integration of blockchain technology and AI, blockchain and supply chain, however there
are very few studies whose focus area has been on the combined integration of blockchain, AI and supply chain. The study was
carried primarily to provide and in-depth analysis of the key studies conducted on the given subject. The findings of the study are
instrumental having identified the leading affiliations, author influence, co-authorships, organizational and country relationships
and eventually the prominent themes. There has been a notable contribution by countries namely UAE, China, USA and India.
The study further helped in identification of the major areas in supply and their association with blockchain and AI. The
bibliometric analysis of countries offered valuable insights into research trends, collaboration networks, and impact in various
fields. The mapping of the collaboration networks helped in assessment of the international partnerships. The keyword occurrence
established the integration of blockchain, AI in supply chain. The frequently occurring keywords such as blockchain, supply
chain, supply chains, transparency, artificial intelligence, machine learning established the deep connect between the studies
undertaken. Although blockchain and supply chain were highly used words, AI showed low correlation.
Overall analysis reveals scarcity of empirical research in the given area. There is no dearth of literature on blockchain in specific,
however the integration of AI in supply chain is an area that needs further exploration. Further research can be carried to
specifically explore how AI is integrated with supply chain, its potential advantages and challenges.
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