This is a self-archived – parallel published version of this article in the 

publication archive of the University of Vaasa. It might differ from the original. 

Use of non-fungible tokens in operations and 

supply chain management 

 

Author(s): Helo, Petri; Hao, Yuqiuge; Gunasekaran, Angappa 

Title: Use of non-fungible tokens in operations and supply chain 

management 

Year: 2025 

Version: Accepted manuscript 

 

Copyright 

© 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis 
Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published 
by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production 
Research on 22 Jan 2025, available at: 
https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2025.2449588  

 

Please cite the original version: 

 Helo, P., Hao, Y. & Gunasekaran, A., (2025). Use of non-fungible 

tokens in operations and supply chain management. 

International Journal of Production Research. 

https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2025.2449588  

 

 

 



1 
 

 

Use of non-fungible tokens in operations 

and supply chain management 
 

 

 

 

 

Petri Helo, School of Technology and Innovations, University of Vaasa, PO Box 700, FI-65280 Vaasa, Finland, 

email: phelo@uwasa.fi * 

Yuqiuge Hao, School of Technology and Innovations, University of Vaasa, PO Box 700, FI-65280 Vaasa, 

Finland 

Angappa Gunasekaran, School of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg, 

Middletown, PA, USA 

 

 

 

 

Abstract 

Non-fungible tokens (NFT) are secured storage method for unique and non-interchangeable data items. While 

NFTs are commonly associated with digital arts and the cryptocurrency market, the paper explores their 

potential in industrial applications, particularly within operations and supply chain management. The paper 

introduces the technology and key processes of NFTs, providing a foundation for understanding their 

application in operations and supply chains.  The design science method is employed by conducting 

requirement collection with a small group of experts and based on this a set of potential applications for 

operations and supply chain management is outlined. Five use case applications are presented from the 

requirements management point of view. The artifact developed in the process is a sample implementation, 

demonstrating how NFTs can be practically employed to address specific operational requirements. The results 

indicate that physical components, digital assets, uniqueness of the entity, contracts, security, and multiple 

stakeholders collectively enable various use cases where NFTs can provide value. 

 

Keywords: non-fungible tokens, blockchain, operations, supply chain 

SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure 

mailto:phelo@uwasa.fi


2 
 

 

1. Introduction 
 

Non-fungible tokens (NFT) are blockchain-based technology for storing unique and non-interchangeable piece 

of data. NFTs are based on blockchain technology and present tradable digital assets (Wilson et al. 2021). 

Blockchain technology is rooted on cryptocurrencies, but the distributed immutable ledger technology has 

been applied to real processes such as operations and supply chains. Distributed ledgers have solved several 

problems in tracking and tracing of supply chains by offering a technological solution based on consensus of 

replicated synchronized data dispersed around the world on different servers. The key strength of blockchain 

is its ability to secure data from tamper (Kugler 2021). 

Apart from the cryptocurrency applications, blockchain technology has solved problems, which are related to 

digital signatures and stamping. Non-fungible tokens have primarily emerged in digital arts and other digital 

media such as video collectibles (Trautman 2021), where their use has been predominantly to proof to represent 

the ownership of the unique digital item. In other words, NFTs ensure that there is only one authentic copy of 

a digital asset, verifiable through blockchain technology (Sestino et al. 2022). 

NFTs offer a promising technology for applications beyond the digital art, much like blockchain has expanded 

beyond cryptocurrency (Bao and Robaud 2022). A non-fungible token is a digital representation of real-world 

assets such as art, music, or any other document (Charlmers et al. 2022). Non-fungible tokens are based on 

blockchain technology and are stored as blocks on the blockchain structure. Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs 

are not fungible, meaning NFTs cannot be interchanged with any other item or asset. Each token contains its 

own unique identification code and metadata, enabling it to be distinguished from other NFTs. The blockchain 

structure allows for the content of the NFT to be viewed and shared but does not alter the ownership data stored 

in the token. 

An ongoing debate surrounds the actual value of NFT technologies. The excessive prices have created 

speculative markets for digital assets and automated mass creation of NFTs for the sake of creating digital 

assets to be sold has not helped the situation. One of the criticisms has been targeting to the lack of tangible 

value of the assets. Linking the digital assets to physical assets which would have already existing value could 

solve this problem. The question of possible NFT applications has been studied before. Gonserkewitz et al. 

(2022) outlined research addenda based on a systematic literature review. The most discussed items according 

to this study were related to art collectibles, gaming and metaverse assets. Hammi et al. (2021) described the 

technological structure of NTF and outlined four possible applications, which are closer to industrial 

applications. These areas were metaverse, digital twins, proof of property, and authentication applications. 

However, a more specific potential applications within the industrial context has not been studied extensively. 



3 
 

The developments in the field of operations and supply chain management have been driven by information 

technology (Holmström et al. 2019) including cloud computing (Cao et al 2017), tracking and tracking 

applications (Liu et al 2021), machine learning (Agrawal et al 2024), and Internet of Things (Ben-Daya et al. 

2019). The Industrial 4.0 is characterized by exponential technological advancements which have the potential 

to alter how we perform our daily activities. The operations and supply chain management needs to evolve and 

adapt to these developing technologies to maintain the ability of workers to perform reliable and quality 

operations. This literature has shown that the industry is continuously looking for technologies to keep pace 

with the developments of industrial revolution, especially to have better visibility of operations, improvement 

of efficiency, reduction of costs and emissions, and ensuring a reliable delivery of goods. The operations 

process involves inspecting and verifying documents related to specifications and origin of raw materials or 

process steps. These documents are highly susceptible to fraudulent activities such as the manipulation of 

information or destruction. In recent times there has been a surge in corporate fraud cases.  

The purpose of this paper is to study the key characteristics of NFT technology and proposes potential 

applications for industry. There have been only few studies suggesting supply chain applications for non-

fungible tokens. Far et al. (2022) suggested tracking of assets, Joy et al. (2022) proposed the technology as 

expansion of luxury goods. These papers present the concept in high level, but the actual implementation 

details are not outlined. We believe that non fungible tokens have a much wider potential. The research 

problem we set for this study converted into two normative research questions: (RQ1) What are the key features 

of NFT which can provide solutions to operations and supply chain management? (RQ2) What are the possible 

NFT applications for the operations and supply chain management? The research method employed for the 

study is an implementation of design science. Firstly, the requirements are collected from experts or 

stakeholders and then an artifact – or a technical solution is designed and implemented for the analysis and 

evaluation. The benefits of this approach are problem-solving orientation, which enables further development 

based on initial version. The developed artifact should have practical relevance. 

The reminder of the paper is as follows: Technology overview, NFT process and current applications are 

presented. Based on the literature review, we outline the features for NFT technology. Then by using a design 

science approach with a small expert panel workshop a set of possible application areas are developed. 

Potential applications are outlines by analysing a set of cases and their requirements. Technical solutions are 

designed to fulfil the requirements and the solutions are evaluated. Finally, the results are concluded, and a 

summarizing framework of potential applications is presented.  

 

2. Technology overview 
This section an overview of NFTs, their current applications, and their potential link to operation and supply 

chain management. NFTs are a derivative of blockchain technology, which has been applied to various fields, 

including sustainability in supply chains (Saberi et al. 2019; Sarkis and Ibrahim 2022; Wang et al 2021; Wang 



4 
 

et al 2019), intralogistics (Bai and Sarkis 2022), cybersecurity building block for zero security supply chains 

(Collier and Sarkis 2021), and global supply chains (Chaing et al 2020). While blockchain is still maturing, 

NFTs have some distinct features that differentiate them from other blockchain applications, and making it 

important to study specific use cases in supply chains. 

 

2.1 Non-fungible tokens 
 

NFTs are digital assets characterized by two key features: uniqueness and secure ownership verification. Each 

NFT represents a unique item, secured through blockchain’s signature creation and verification process, 

enabling their use in commercial transactions such as royalties and transfers (Wilson et al 2021). In economic 

terms, fungibility refers to the interchangeability of items with a market and value. Commodities like oil, metal 

ingots, wood, frozen pork belly are examples of physical fungible items. Cash money and cryptocurrencies are 

examples of digital fungible items with known and widely available aftermarkets (Wilson et al 2021; Chalmers 

et al 2022).  

On the other hand, non-fungible items are based on uniqueness and thus resulted non-exchangeability. A 

painting, a statue, a real estate property are examples of unique items which have value but are not 

exchangeable in a sense that an oil barrel has same value as another oil barrel. Digital non-fungible items are 

typically similar – a piece of artwork, master record of music or the original video clip of an event. Then main 

issue is that the value of the non-fungible item is connected to its scarcity (Chohan 2021).  

The key properties of NFTs include indivisibility, transferability and security. NFTs are stored on blockchains, 

which are immutable distributed ledgers initially developed for cryptocurrency but have since found 

applications in areas like supply chain traceability (Helo and Hao 2019). The structure of a blockchain is based 

on data elements called blocks, which are citing each other by using a hash checksum to previous link of the 

chain. Each node is stored in the block. Figure 1 illustrates this in a high level. 

 



5 
 

 

 

Figure 1. Blockchain structure as a container for information. 

Figure 1. Alt-text. A figure showing an example of blockchain structure, three blocks with payload content, 

timestamp and cryptographic nonce, then each block citing to previous block hash reference. 

 

Technologically, NFTs are primarily based on Ethereum blockchain and follow the EIP-721 standard, which 

outlines an interface how to track and transfer NFTs (EIP-721). This technology is based on the stack of 

Solidity contracts. According to EIP-721 standard, the system has been developed to support ownership of a 

digital or a physical asset, including but not limited to (1) physical properties, (2) virtual collectibles and (3) 

liabilities - assets with negative values. ERC-721 compatible smart contract should implement certain 

interfaces to implement transfer, approval related queries. 

In addition to Ethereum network-based implementations also Flow (Flow 2022) and Tezos (2022) based 

applications have been presented. Low-latency and usability of the protocol has been presented as benefits of 

these technologies compared to Ethereum/Solidity. As new applications are emerging and better 

implementations are needed for example ticketing, it is expected that the technology will evolve fast in the 

near future. One of the potential challenges related to NFT technology is that scalability in terms of large 

quantities of assets may be limited by the blockchain network (Park et al. 2021). 

To create and utilize the NFTs, at least two key processes of NFT transactions are required. These are, firstly, 

the creation of a new NFT asset from a digital file, and secondly, buying an NFT from a marketplace, which 

is technically a change of ownership of a digital asset. Other supporting processes include verification, 

borrowing and loaning, or even termination of the asset. The process steps are illustrated in Figure 2. A specific 

case of buying and selling is swapping which is similar transaction of ownership combining two sales 

transactions with zero currency exchanged. 



6 
 

 

Figure 2. The process steps for creation and buying an NFT digital assets. 

Figure 2. Alt-text: Process chart 1: showing steps to create a new NFT: prepare file, store file, pricing decision, 

token mining, creation complete, Process chart 2: showing steps for buying NFT from a marketplace - prepare 

wallet, choose the marketplace, buy, change of ownership, completion. 

 

From practical implementation point of view, many blockchain related technologies have had issues with 

scalability and performance. In order to present improvements, Layer 2 solutions have been presented to 

improve this. This refers to parallel processing and merging transactions to scale up the network performance. 

In practice this technology includes Rollups and State Channels which are technological implementations build 

on top of blockchain layer (Mandal et al. 2023). 

 

2.2 Current applications 
The best known NFT implementations are related to digital art sales (Kugler 2021). World record sales price 

for NFT artwork has been “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” which is an artwork authored by artist Beeple. 

Christies auction house sold the NFT 69.3 million USD or 39134 ETH by a wealthy collector. A novel 

cryptocurrency-based market transaction has attracted attention to this technology. Peaking sales valuation of 

proven unique digital assets have borrowed logics from arts sales.  

Only few studies about the NFT market have been conducted. Nadini et al. (2021) analysed several NFT 

networks and described the trading networks and the key metrics of the then four-year-old market booming. 

Soaring prices of virtual assets have attracted speculators and there have been all kinds of non-healthy market 

phenomena. As market of virtual arts are not widely understood, massive amount of automatically generated 

pixel art has been introduced for speculative markets (Pepescu 2021). In some cases, prices have been pumped 



7 
 

up by selling the asset between linked partners, sometimes even the seller and buyer, have been in reality the 

same actor. Scams have also been reported and this all has put a bad name for NFTs and market. According to 

Nadini et al. (2021) 90% of the total volume exchanged on NFTs was related to arts, gaming, and metaverse 

objects. For this reason, we aim to focus on more operational applications of NFTs in this paper and leave the 

less actual value adding, or even irrational, activities aside. 

The applications of NFTs in business and management has been studied by Anjum and Rehmani (2022). The 

common factor for the current applications is related to distribution of digital unique files in business: these 

could be images, audio, video; virtual models, fashion. The e-commerce applications, which has been seen the 

public are: 

• Original digital artworks (Bsteh and Vermeylen 2021) 

• Music (Husin et al. 2021) 

• Domain names (Sun 2022) 

• Event tickets (Regner et al. 2019). 

• Fashion products, virtual and physical limited number items (Rodriguez Sanchez and Garcia-Badell 

2023). 

• Virtual game accessories (Raman and Raj 2021) 

Marketplaces for NFTs such as OpenSea have typically a brokering type of business model where they charge 

2.5% of the final sale value, and there is no gas cost to create a new NFT item in the market. For successful 

applications, this kind of centralized marketplace seems to be needed for transparent market pricing (White et 

al. 2022). A good review of possible use cases is presented by Singh (2022) demonstrating applications beyond 

the digital arts. Chalmers et al. (2022) also speculated potential applications related to creative industries. 

When moving toward mass-produced items, researchers of consumer studies have identified the possibility to 

link NFT with the experience of purchasing or owning a unique item (Alkhudary et al. 2022), which could link 

to mass customisation of products and smart connected software defined products (Schulz et al 2023). 

The implementations of NFTs have not been spread in great speed.  The challenges identified by the literature 

(Ali et al. 2023) include similar barriers seen with blockchains, including slow and expensive processing 

(Wang 2021), privacy (Uribe and Waters 2020), legal (Rehman et al. 2021), and security related (Menezes 

2018) matters, as well as concerns of environmental impacts (Jiang 2021). This might be the reason also for 

that despite industrial applications have been presented too, but many of these are laboratory experiments or 

proofs of concepts. Chiacchio et al. (2022) presented an NFT based solution for the tracking and tracing items 

in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Similar approach was piloted by Omar and Basin (2020) in the same 

industry. Cybersecurity of Internet of things also requires methods, where linking the virtual and real objects 

could add value. Arcenegui et al. (2021) have presented a concept how IoT devices mapping can be done safely 

by using NFTs. 



8 
 

Several related concepts are looking for applications. Web3 is an umbrella concept covering several related 

technologies (Ray 2023), including (1) NFT - Non-Fungible Tokens, the scope of this paper, but also (2) 

DApps - Decentralised Applications, which aims for development of decentralized software applications often 

related to exchange of blockchain based assets, (3) DeFi – Decentralized Finance, which refers to protocols 

and other supporting technology alternative financial exchanges, and (4) DAO - Decentalized Anonymous 

Organisation, which are organisations that can govern certain operations such as purchasing assets 

anonymously. The common factor behind all these is a set of new decentralized applications for the web, often 

based on blockchain technologies, but for different purposes. As probably the widest concept is decentralized 

society (DeSoc) is a concept considering other social related bonds that financial transactions (Ohlhaver et al. 

2022).  

When moving closer to domains of operations and supply chains, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure 

Networks (DePIN) is a practical concept. This refers to distributed ledgers technology combined with crypto-

economic elements combined somehow with physical networks. This could be related to the governance of 

information technology-based assets such as telecommunication systems, cartography assets, energy networks. 

Schuhmacher and Hummel (2016) demonstrated the concept with intralogistics in a learning factory. 

Technology has been also proposed for logistics collaboration (Pan 2024), and decentralized governance of 

autonomous cyber-physical systems (Nabben et al. 2024). 

Physical Internet can be considered as a related concept (Sternberg and Norrman 2017), although it does not 

necessarily need DePIN technology to be implemented but such implementations have been presented in 

several application areas., for example logistics (Meyer et al. 2019), production and inventory system (Liu et 

al. 2024), Internet of Things (Tran-Dang et al. 2020). 

 

2.3 Technology in operations and supply chains  
These digitalization technologies offer significant potential to transform operations and supply chains, driving 

operational excellence, cost reduction, improved customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage. 

Organizations can strategically adopt and integrate advanced technologies based on their specific needs and 

objectives to gain a competitive edge in the evolving digital landscape. Digital twin is a central component of 

Industry 4.0 driven by modelling, data fusion, collaboration, and service. Digital twin contains dimensions of 

physical asset, virtual and connecting parts (Tao et al. 2018). The concept has been applied in manufacturing 

(Kritzinger et al. 2018), design and service applications (Liu et al. 2021), where digital models are maintained 

up to date with the physical installations current state (Schleich et al. 2017). The requirement of having a 

virtual simulation of the physical asset has been discussed (Tao et al. 2018), but generally there is a consensus 

about the key characteristics of digital twin approach (Liu, 2021; Jones et al. 2020).  

The enabling technologies for the digital twin include physical, model, connectivity, service, and data 

technologies (Qi et al. 2021). These five elements build the five-dimension digital twin model, which provides 



9 
 

the links between virtual models, physical entities, and services by using digital twin data. In practice, this 

means IoT type of data collection, edge and cloud storage of the data, software architecture to process data and 

provide a control mechanism to interact between virtual and physical models. 

On the other hands, in is very important to secure the virtual replicas and verifiable ownership of the virtual 

copy.  NFTs associated with digital twins can store information about the asset's specifications, maintenance 

history, performance data, and other relevant details. Mouris and Tsoutsos (2022) have introduced a concept 

where NFTs are used to protect ownership of 3D models used in engineering the products. This approach 

suggests linking NFT to licencing the manufacturing of physical products. The challenges of circular economy 

and product life cycles is a problem identified by Van Nguyen et al. (2023). Based on a literature review, they 

propose that use of smart contracts technology in non-fungible tokens could be applied handling royalties for 

second hand product sales for closed-loop supply chains. Table 1 presents the research gaps identified in the 

literature. The use of non-fungible tokens in operations and supply chain management remains low, with only 

a limited number of real-life applications currently being used. Despite the potential, real-life implementations 

of blockchains, smart contracts and non-fungible tokens in industrial application has been less than anticipated. 

The identified barriers identified in the literature include scalability, transaction risks, market risk and 

regulatory risks (Biwas & Gupta, 2019). Technology adoption related barriers have also been identified as an 

important factor for slow progress (Kouhizadeh et al. 2021).  

  



10 
 

Table 1. Non-fungible token literature gaps identified. 

Topics identified Research gap References 

Implementation challenges of 

NFTs 

Solutions are needed for 

blockchain related governance, 

intellectual property rights, 

security, technology maturity. 

 

Ali, O., Momin, M., Shrestha, A., 

Das, R., Alhajj, F., and Dwivedi, 

Y. K. (2023) 

 

Hammi, B., Zeadally, S., & Perez, 

A. J. (2023). 

 

Future possibilities Literature review shows potential 

uses cases in categories of digital 

collectibles, arts, video games, 

metaverse. 

 

Gonserkewitz, P., Karger, E., and 

Jagals, M. (2022). 

 

Davies, J., Sharifi, H., Lyons, A., 

Forster, R, and Elsayed, O. K. S. 

M. (2024).  

Application examples Fruit supply chain tracking 

example 

 

Pharmaceutical supply chains 

 

Menanno, M., Savino, M. M., and 

Accorsi, R. (2023) 

 

Chiacchio, F., D’Urso, D., 

Oliveri, L. M., Spitaleri, A., 

Spampinato, C., and Giordano, D. 

(2022). 

 

 

 

We can conclude from the recent works that the literature gap in existing research on NFTs in operations and 

supply chains remains underexplored compared to other blockchain technologies. Technology developments 

are taking place, which can enable innovation in product authentications and finance related solutions. From 

the operations and supply chain management application side point of view, there is a need for demand for 

visibility and transparency and especially sustainable practices and product safety. 

 

3. Materials and method 
Use of blockchains in operations and supply chain management has been discussed widely. Technical solutions 

have been proposed for ensuring the validity of transactions (Helo and Hao, 2019), transparency (Francisco 

and Swanson 2018), project installations (Helo and Shamsuzzoha, 2020) and sustainability (Saberi et al. 2019), 

and security (Xu et al. 2021). Much less proposals have been given for NFTs application. 

 

3.1 Design science research method 
This study employs design science approach. Design science is a research method developing and validating 

prescriptive knowledge in operations management and information systems (Johannesson and Perjons 2014). 

The approach focuses on how things should be by introducing artifacts that aim to solve the presented problem 

(Dresch et al. 2015). The approach is useful providing systematic and robust methods for developing artifacts, 



11 
 

such as concepts, methods, and tools for practical implementation. The approach is human-centric and aligns 

with service design research. Design science is known for its usefulness for relevance for practice and is 

sometimes referred to as problem-solving research (Holmström et al. 2009). 

The process aims to develop solutions for real-life problems and follows six steps (Figure 3). The first step is 

problem definition, where the aim and the scope of the problem is defined. The second step sets criterion for 

the solutions, requirements in other words. The third step is the design of the technical solution, the artifact, 

which is followed by the fourth step is the implementation of the design. The fifth step is the evaluation of the 

artifact against the requirements, or the criterion set in the step number two. This step is done often merged 

with the communication step (# 6). 

 

 

Figure 3. Process of design science (Von Brocke et al. 2020). 

Figure 3. Alt-text: A process chart showing the six steps of design science approach - problem definition, 

objectives, design the artifact, demonstration, evaluation, communication. 

 

Some of the earlier papers, such as Van Nguyen et al. (2023) have outlined potential blockchain and non-

fungible tokens based on analysing literature. Design science approach has been used to create technical 

solutions related to specific problems related to blockchains, for example event processing at IKEA company 

(Sund et al. 2020), and cloud manufacturing for sheet metal (Helo et al. 2021).  The research approach of this 



12 
 

study aims to continue this work and identify a potential set of real-life problems and propose technical 

implementations. In this process five domain experts working with information systems related to 

production/operations management and supply chains were selected and interviewed with semi-structured 

interview questions and asked to generate potential use cases, where NFT could provide a solution for a 

problem in the field. One can argue that this may cause a bias in responses, but on the other hand, understanding 

the NFT possibilities requires certain information system knowledge. The purpose of the setup was to generate 

and implement potential applications based on possible needs which could be highlighting the technical 

possibilities of NFTs. 

The first session took two hours and after four weeks the solutions were presented for the evaluation and 

communication. All experts had background in managing software development projects in operations and 

supply chain for more than five years and had a technological understanding of NFT technology. None of the 

experts had actual implementation experience of non-fungible tokens in operations and supply chain. 

The first step of method employed for this study was organised as a focus group interview, which aimed to 

generate possible use cases where NFT technology could present solutions.  In this step, supply chain 

operations reference model SCOR, as seen in table 2, was shown to participants to highlight the five elements 

of management processes. Then the participants were asked to develop possible use cases for non-fungible 

tokens which could be developed as proof of concept.  

  



13 
 

 

Table 2. Supply Chain Operations Reference model processes SCOR (2017). 

Management process Description Examples 

Plan Planning the supply chain operations to 

balance demand and supply 

Forecasting 

Scheduling 

Production planning 

 

Source Processes related to procuring materials Sourcing 

Supplier selection 

Purchasing  

Logistics/transportation 

Make Processes related to production of goods Production/operations 

Quality control 

Product serial numbers 

Bill of materials 

Labelling 

Deliver Processes related to delivery of goods Order fulfilment 

Inventory control 

Warehousing 

Customer delivery process 

Product traceability 

Return Return material flow from customers to 

manufacturing and vendors 

 

Logistics/transportation 

Circular economy 

Enable Process related to management of supply 

chains 

Business management 

Key performance indicators 

Contracts 

Risk management 

 

3.2 Problem identification and requirements collected 
 

Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework has been widely discussed in the context of 

blockchain adoption in supply chain management (SCM) (Chittipaka et al., 2023), and it provides a good 

insight that different factors influence the adoption of emerging technologies. In alignment with previous 

research, this study also integrates the TOE framework into the design of the study’s methodology. By doing 

so, the experts were asked about the key factors impact the adoption of NFTs in SCM. The technological 

dimension focuses on the capabilities and advantages of NFTs, while the organizational dimension considers 

the firm's readiness and leadership support. The environmental context considers external pressures such as 

regulatory requirements and market competition. This approach allows for a structured investigation, ensuring 

that all relevant aspects of NFT adoption are addressed within the scope of our research.  

The first step in the process is the problem identification. Based on ideas collected from the group, a set of five 

potential use cases were selected. Then the requirements were outlined for each use case and short description 

describing the objectives and details of the problem. The selected problems to be solved were the following: 



14 
 

• Use case 1: Unique products - additive manufacturing 

• Use case 2: Serialization of products 

• Use case 3: Certificates 

• Use case 4: Internet of Things 

• Use case 5: Letter of Credit 

 

The requirements collection was done according to framework of considering the following items: physical 

component, digital files, uniqueness, contract, security, and stakeholders involved. Figure 4 was created to 

show a flow picture of supply chain and how potential technology implementations of NFTs could take place 

on various operations. 

 

 

Figure 4. The potential use cases of using NFT in operations and supply chain management. 

Figure 4. Alt-text: A figure showing the potential use cases in a form of a supply chain connecting IT solution 

providers, the manufacturer, logistics, retailers, end consumers, and designers. 

 

The selected areas were presented by the expert panel, and it is obvious that this does not cover all possible 

applications of non-fungible tokens in supply chain management. One could expect to consider additional 

possibilities related to such as demand forecasting, procurement, inventory management, production planning, 

manufacturing, quality control, and other examples provided in table 2. 

Based on the requirements analysed for each case, a simple technical implementation was proposed for each 

case and the implementation team-built examples. In practice this means, developing a simple Solidity contract 

based NFT and what properties and functionality each use case would need. The reason for this technology 



15 
 

selection was that Solidity contract technology is accessible for both development environments as well as test 

networks for piloting the software implementations. 

4. Results – development of artifacts and analysis 
 

The problem identification and description phases were followed by a design and implementation phase where 

selected use cases were solved by creating an artifact, a smart contract using non-fungible token modelling. 

Then, based on the implementation, the use case was evaluated according to five key feature criteria of non-

fungible tokens. 

 

4.1 Additive manufacturing – unique product instances 
Unique product instances are commonly used in mass customization type of production. A production line 

may produce a great volume of goods, which all have a unique individual configuration enabled by assembly-

to-order type of production or other postponement type of practices (Boone et al. 2007). Typically, the products 

have a serial number, and “as-built” bill-of-materials is stored for the future needs of maintenance.  Non 

fungible tokens could be used as a unique digital twin part of a unique product.  

Problem identification and description. Use of additive manufacturing technology brings the customization 

of production into a new level (Gao et al. 2015). For this reason, it was selected to highlight the case of 

uniqueness of the product in operations. Additive manufacturing is method for characterized by conversion of 

digital model to physical product. Managing intellectual property of such geometry may be financially 

important for the company owning the rights for the design. A geometry file with running parameters is very 

valuable as it contains the exact manufacturing information (see Figure 5). The challenge related to managing 

manufacturing information of additive manufacturing is that geometry files of the products are often easily 

converted to 3D printing and thus safe managing intellectual property may be a complex task. One might argue 

that additive manufacturing is not a mainstream problem in operations/supply chain management. However, 

the technology is emerging, and it can be considered as a disruptive one. Chevet (2018) anticipated that 

blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens would be reshaping value chains in creative industries. 

Currently this has emerged in arts field. Current manufacturing portals are often based on sharing 3D printing 

sample parts for free. Licensing the right to manufacture a product is challenging as there is very limited ways 

to ensure that the file has been used only once or for another amount of allowed verbatim copies. Digital rights 

management is a challenge for distributed global manufacturing also safety and security reasons. Pirated parts 

present a problem in aerospace and automotive industries. For pharmaceuticals industry it may a question of 

life and death. 

 



16 
 

 

 

Figure 5. An example of complex unique geometry generated for additive manufacturing and link to non-

fungible token.  

Figure 5. Alt-text. A figure of component which looks like a mesh type of structure. 

 

Based on discussion, the focus group described a potential problem which an NFT applications for additive 

manufacturing could solve. The key idea was to provide a solution for digital asset management – how 

ownership of and unique design could be transferred to additive manufacturer. The ownership of the asset 

should be verified easily the system should consider of potentially managing a limited series of manufacturing 

of the asset. In this case the digital asset is the STL file carrying the geometry of the part to be printed and the 

physical part is the printed part. Table 3 shows the requirements for the use case 1. 

 

Table 3. Requirements for the Additive Manufacturing use case.  

Requirement NFT possible solution 

Physical component Product manufactured, stamped or engraved 

identification code. 

Digital files Manufacturing data for additive manufacturing; 

geometry file 

Uniqueness Each product instance created from the model, e.g. 

parts which are produced as unique copies 

engineered for certain specification. 

Contract Licensing manufacturing rights from copyright 

holder to make a product. 

Security Illegally produced product instances 

 

Stakeholders Designer 

Manufacturer 

 

 

NFTs are often used to represent ownership of unique digital objects that do not have real object equivalents, 

e.g. digital art. But this new technology also allows the tokenized ownership of a 3D model equivalent of a 



17 
 

real and unique object. These two entities are interlinked; one represents the real and the other represents the 

virtual. There can only be one authentic NFT equivalent of any real object. 

Design and implementation of the artifact. Based on the requirements collected a simple implementation of 

NFT for managing a single file package for additive manufacturing was created (see code snippet below 

Figure). The implementation has been done with Solidity and the contract includes fileName, which should 

refer to an STL file used for 3D printing; as well as description (e.g. part dimensions, suggested materials, 

copyright) and owner property information. The constructor function initializes the properties once the asset 

is created.  

As demonstrated in Appendix I, the creator of NFT can sell or give the asset by using transferOwnership 

function. Printing a copy could be integrated to transferring the ownership of the asset back to its creator. A 

more sophisticated code could also implement a counter for prints so the number of prints could be limited to 

e.g. 100 pcs and the consumption would be maintained in the file. This kind of functionality requires 

integration to machinery. 

Evaluation and communication. The limitation of this approach is that NFT does not solve the problem of 

protecting physical access or making illegal copies. Digital right management type of tools are still needed in 

the digital twin. Non fungible token solves just part of the process, linking safely the digital asset stored in 

NFT with the physical asset. For this reason, the conclusion is that NFT provides a partial solution for the 

problem but still requires a deep integration with other systems. Use of an NFT for every single product 

instance may not be feasible solution in all cases. It would probably generate a lot of data and in some cases 

just blockchain based serial numbering could fulfil the requirements. However, in case of uniquely engineered 

design as described in mass customization, combining the raw material traceability for demanding applications 

and possibility to combine this with life-cycle data of using the part long time, would justify a digital twin 

stored in non-fungible token form. 

 

4.2 Serialization 
Serialization in the context of production/operations is originating from pharmaceutical industry where 

regulation has forced the industry to improve the traceability of product into the consumer-packaged primary 

packaging level. Counterfeit medicines and sale of expired medicine in fake packages has caused severe 

problems and reduced trust in the products. Serialization has solved these problems as tracking and tracing can 

be from the downstream of the supply chain. 

Problem identification and description. Tokenization of physical assets is a possible implementation area 

for smart connected products and blockchains (Weingärtner 2019). Secure anti-counterfeit actions in the 

pharmaceutical industry are a potential applier of non-fungible tokens (Omar and Basir 2020). Each product 

can be assigned a unique identifier or serial number, which can be converted into an NFT. This NFT can store 

information about the product, including its manufacturing details, component sources, quality certifications, 



18 
 

and any relevant documentation. This helps track the product throughout its lifecycle and enables verification 

of its authenticity. 

A generic supply chain-based serialisation application was suggested by the group members as a potential 

application to solve the traceability. In this example, each product package is linked from primary package 

(such as pill plate) to secondary retail packaging (cardboard consumer box) to wholesale packages (bundles, 

cases) which are linked to pallet level tracking. Figure 6 shows the hierarchy from logistics point of view. 

 

 

Figure 6. Pharmaceutical serialization levels and bill of materials structure. 

Figure 6. Alt-text. A figure of pills connecting to box, connected to a plastic crate connected to a pallet by bar 

codes. 

 

Table 4 shows the requirements for this use case. The key stakeholders are manufacturer of the product and 

the end consumer, but also all participants along the supply chain, vendors, transportation companies, 

warehouses, wholesalers, retailers could contribute the creation of data and verify the authenticity of the 

product and package.  

  



19 
 

 

Table 4. Requirements for the serialization.  

Requirement NFT possible solution 

Physical component A unique material handling unit: for example, crate, 

box, container, pallet. 

Digital files Product serial number data and manufacturer 

information related to this 

Uniqueness Each product instance created from the model, 

validity of the product 

Contract Verification of source of the product origin 

Security Counterfeit products 

 

Stakeholders Manufacturer 

End-consumers 

Other stakeholders in the supply chain 

 

 

 

Design and implementation of the artifact. This Solidity contract defines a struct called Product, which 

stores the information for our pharmaceutical product. The mapping tokenIDToProduct links the NFT toked 

ID to the right Product. The manufacturer uses function createProductNFT to create new serial number 

implementations (NFTs). This function links manufacturing information into the payload. This type of contract 

can be extended to handle ownership transfer to other stakeholders in the supply chain. The code for this 

function is shown in Appendix II. 

Evaluation and communication. The implemented smart contract was very plain and straightforward. It 

solves creation of link between product serial number and the shipping data. More complex functionality could 

have been designed to support several production steps in the supply chain. This implementation stores only 

the key information. In the discussions, it was noted that such implementation in real-life would need links to 

enterprise resource planning systems, manufacturing execution systems, transportation management systems 

or something similar responsible for the master data in the production process. Another critical note for this 

use case was the processing speed of creation of new contracts. In case of high-volume manufacturing, such 

as the pharmaceutical example, the performance and the cost of using Ethereum network would not be feasible.  

 

4.3 Certificates 
Certificate of authenticity (COA) is related to trade and logistics of many finished goods, components, and 

raw materials. Certificate of authenticity may be needed for several reasons. Traditional examples from supply 

chain are related to show evidence that product is original, made in a certain location, approved for the use and 

produced according to certain standards to proof those custom fees and taxes are completed as required. 



20 
 

Problem identification and description. Sustainability data is an increasingly important driver for certificates. 

Companies need to ensure their customers and end-users that sustainability has been considered along the 

supply chain. There are three types of concerns related to sustainability: 

• Socially sustainable sourcing aims to show that society is considered in the supply chain. Use of slaves, 

prisoners or child labour are major concerns for some labour-intensive industries. 

• Environmental traceability is driven by reported GHG emissions. Companies want to show that 

calculated GHG emissions are traceable in the supply chain. Additionally, firms aim to show that no 

natural resources such as water, forest has not been used extensively in places which could endanger 

nature. 

• Economic sustainability is related often to fair trade. Companies want to show that people working in 

low-cost operations, factory workers, farms are getting decently paid. 

Certifications, compliance documents, and licenses related to operations and supply chains can be transformed 

into NFTs. These NFTs can securely store the necessary information, such as certification authorities, 

expiration dates, and audit records. By associating NFTs with compliance documents, stakeholders can easily 

access and verify the authenticity of certifications and compliance-related information. Another related 

possible technology is product passport, which is an EU driven initiative to standardise environmental 

reporting for products and report the footprint in a standard format – Digital Product Passport (Walden et al. 

2021). Technical interoperability is enabled by common requirements and standard layouts (Jensen et al 2023). 

However, product passport does not link to unique product instance level as in the serialisation example 

proposed in this use case. Table 5 shows the requirements collected in a high-level use case.  

Table 5. Requirements for the Certificate use case 

Requirement NFT possible solution 

Physical component QR code printed in the physical product, T-shirt, 

jersey, coffee bag, vintage wine bottle. 

Digital files Certificate of material used, process used, 

workforce, resources 

Uniqueness Each product item or production batch with a long 

life-cycle and possibility of being traded later. 

 

Contract Certificate of authenticity 

Security The product has the features promised 

 

Stakeholders Source (vendor, mine, harvest) 

Manufacturer 

End-consumer 

 

 

Design and implementation of the artifact. The implementation in Appendix III shows a sample contract of 

coffee bean bag certificate of origin implementation in Solidity. This code creates a certificate of origin which 

links producer name, the country of origin, lot number for production and certain processing parameters such 



21 
 

as harvest date and roast date. The information is linked to a person who processed the manufacturing 

operations. The hypothetical certificate can be verified by the end users.  

Evaluation and communication. The implementation of Certificate of Origin is closely related to previous 

serialisation use case. The key differences are that instead of product package level link a lot or batch number 

may be used, and the main purpose is to authenticate the product itself. A possible limitation of this 

implementation is that product labelling system needs to be built to support the link to non-fungible token. A 

possible enabling feature is that financial transactions, such as wholesale level buying and selling of assets 

may be linked to batch level certificates. 

 

4.4 Asset ownership of IoT device 
Internet of Things is changing operations and supply chains by introducing smart connected products. One of 

the key features of end products is that IoT enables changing the functionality of the product by software 

updates. A user may have a license to operate equipment under certain terms and condition for a period agreed 

in the service level contract. Software and the functionality may be updated over the air. This kind of features 

have been visible in products ranging from smart watches to new passenger cars. Safe use of equipment 

required licensed software distributions and matching hardware to software link (OTA updates). 

Problem identification and description. Industrial Internet of Things is a domain, which has requirements 

of security related to asset management. NFTs can be used to represent ownership and transfer rights of IoT 

within the supply chain, such as equipment, machinery, or inventory. By associating an NFT with an asset, the 

ownership and transfer of that asset can be securely recorded on the blockchain, providing a tamper-proof and 

auditable record of ownership history. Arcenegui et al (2021) presented an approach to bind physically IoT 

devices to NFTs by using physically unclonable functions. Sghaier and Basir (2020) have introduced an NFT 

based approach for decentralized cybersecurity framework for authentication, authorization, and accounting 

(AAA). Wang et al. (2022) demonstrated a blockchain-based digital twin management architecture to ensure 

information sustainability for physical IoT devices. 

The focus group selected IoT applications and cybersecurity of assets as third potential use case of the NFTs. 

Table 6 illustrates the requirements collected for the connected smart product with IoT.  

  



22 
 

 

Table 6. Requirements for the IoT use case. 

Requirement NFT possible solution 

Physical component IoT tracking device or smart connected product 

with a serial number. 

Digital files Certificate of material used, process used, 

workforce, resources 

Uniqueness Each software has been distributed to run on a 

certain hardware. 

 

Contract Use of software license  

Security Avoiding illegal software copies. 

Non tampered software configuration to avoid 

cyber security attacks. 

 

Stakeholders Software vendor 

End-consumer edge device 

 

 

Design and implementation of the artifact. A simplified NFT implementation of the solution was developed 

to link the device and its current software (Appendix IV). The licencing may have locations and possible range 

of uses linked to the hardware. In this example, for the software update functionality, there is no separate 

method, but a new NFT contract is created overriding the old one. 

Evaluation and communication. The proposed solution needs to be deployed in a cloud-based server solution 

managing the connectivity and data collection from IoT devices. Technically, the proposed smart contract may 

solve the functional needs described, but regular software updates in a large fleet of devices may present a 

challenge of expensive Ethereum network utilisation. For this reason, other contract types should be 

recommended for real-life applications. 

It should be noted that a standard blockchain implementation could fulfil some of the requirements very well. 

A more special use case would be when user purchases a complex smart connected device from the 

manufacturer an NFT would be transferred to digital walled confirming the validity of license of using the 

device and its services. In case the ownership of the device would be changed to another organisation, the 

records of asset history would be transferred to the new owner. NFTs are originally designed to include rich 

metadata and large data payloads. This could perhaps also enable more complex ownership structures such as 

fractional ownership. 

 

4.5 Letter of Credit 
Finance related applications of blockchain have been typically related to cryptocurrencies. Potential uses cases 

for the auditing point of view have been presented by Dingelstad (2021). There are speculations and the non-



23 
 

fungible tokens can present central building blocks for value systems in so called parallel societies (Wang et 

al 2021). 

Problem identification and description. The fourth application of supply chain side proposed was a letter of 

credit, which could be used for releasing payment based on receiving goods by using decentralized finance. 

This is an operational tool in supply chain management used to control triggering the release of goods from 

one point to another. This is also an important part of supply chain finances in the global operations (Gomm, 

2010). Typically, this part is heavily governed by banking industry and includes heavy service fees, which 

might present a business itself for the supply chain operators and enabling transactions between multiple 

stakeholders without a broker or middleman. Supply chain finance studies are few, but it should be noted that 

blockchain based trading systems having the release of goods functionality has been proposed by 

Rajashekaragouda et al. (2020) and Chang et al. (2019). Table 7 shows the requirements collected for the letter 

of credit use case. 

 

Table 7. Requirements for the Letter of Credit use case. 

Requirement NFT possible solution 

Physical component 

 

N/A – or the released goods 

Digital files Payment of goods 

 

Uniqueness Shipping batch of goods, e.g. container number 

 

Contract Release goods once financial transaction has been 

received. 

 

Security Ensuring  

 

Stakeholders Selling vendor 

Buying customer 

Clearinghouse 

 

 

Design and implementation of the artifact. Appendix V shows the solution proposal code snipped of the 

smart contract. The key functionality is related to creating the letter of credit with basic data and then the 

fulfilment process, which releases the good upon safe receiving of the funds. The letter of credit can be used 

only once and cannot be transferred to other stakeholders.  

Evaluation and communication. The conclusion from the evaluation discussion was that the implementation 

needs to be approved by both buyers and sellers as well as financial institutions processing the payment. 

Standardized structure should be followed instead of the simplified proposed in the implementation. From 

smart contract processing cost and speed point of view Ethereum based NFT may present a real-life solution. 

 



24 
 

4.5 Analysis of results 
The developed artifacts created to solve the problems presented by the expert panel are all somewhat limited. 

The applications need to be integrated to external information systems and the business cases may have 

requirements which the Solidity contract running on Ethereum network may not solve in real-life. These 

performance outcomes can limit the practical applicability of the technology proposed in this study. However, 

similar principles may be implemented with other technologies.  

From outcomes and impact point of view, the use cases and the artifacts show that non-fungible tokens can 

impact authentication of goods, transparency and traceability of supply chains throughout the product life cycle. 

The serial number level linking to physical asset should also reduce issues with illegal licences and counterfeit 

products. Financial transactions in the supply chains can drive more advanced and innovative solutions for 

traditional documents such as letter of credit. Table 8 summarises the five case studies and the potential for 

processes and decision making. 

  



25 
 

 

Table 8. Summary of design science process steps for each use case identified in the problem identification.  

 Use case 1: 

Unique products - 

additive 

manufacturing 

Use case 2: 

Serialization of 

products 

Use case 3: 

Certificates 

Use case 4: 

Internet of 

Things 

Use case 5: 

Letter of 

Credit 

Step 1 – 

Problem 

identification 

Managing 

production rights 

for unique 

designs. 

Traceability of 

products from 

manufacturing 

to consumers 

Ensuring the 

authenticity 

of the 

product 

Managing 

authorized 

IoT device 

assets 

International 

trade, 

releasing 

payment 

Step 2 – 

Definition of 

objectives 

Link to physical 

asset, digital asset 

management of 

designs 

Linking 

material 

handling units 

and unique 

product serial 

number in a 

safe way  

Physical 

product 

linked to the 

origin  

Right to 

use a 

software or 

service in a 

computing 

device 

Safe 

automated 

way to 

release 

payment 

upon 

receiving 

goods 

Step 3 – Design 

of artifact 

Smart contract for 

claiming 

ownership of STL 

file 

Smart contract 

providing 

possibility to 

verify the 

validity of the 

product 

Smart 

contract for 

creating a 

certificate of 

authenticity, 

verification 

of the 

document 

Linking 

software 

version 

and IoT 

computer, 

verification 

of software 

licence 

Letter of 

credit 

document as 

a smart 

contract 

Step 4 – 

Demonstration 

Additive 

manufacturing 

design - 

Ownership 

transfer function 

Pharmaceutical 

Linking 

product 

manufacturer, 

batch number, 

shipping date 

and material 

handing unit 

numbers,  

verification 

Coffee - 

Smart 

contract 

creating the 

link between 

origin, lot 

number and 

name of 

manufacturer, 

verification 

of certificate 

IoT – 

device, 

licencing 

agreement 

for using 

software 

and service 

in a smart 

connected 

device 

Finance 

document 

for releasing 

goods 

Step 5 – 

Evaluation 

Partial technical 

solution for 

digital rights, 

does not solve the 

actual file copy 

problem. 

Partial 

technical 

solution, 

which needs 

integration to 

operational 

ERP systems. 

Processing 

speed of 

creating an 

asset and 

verification. 

Product 

labelling 

system needs 

to be built to 

support the 

link to non-

fungible 

token. 

Managing 

a large 

fleet of IoT 

devices 

and 

frequent 

software 

updates 

may 

generate 

expensive 

network 

use 

Partial 

solution, 

needs to be 

integrated 

with actual 

banking 

system 

Step 6 - 

Communication 

 



26 
 

The technological progress of blockchain applications in operations and supply chain management has been 

limited. There have been critical notes about the actual applicability, and it is important to reflect these to non-

fungible tokens, which is a clear derivative solution from blockchains. NFTs are a specific application of 

blockchain technology, but there are notable differences in how these two are applied and adopted in the 

context of supply chains. 

While non-fungible tokens technology present possibilities for applications related to operations and supply 

chains, there are several factors which are reducing the speed of real-life implementations. The technology is 

relatively new and still rooted heavily to digital arts. The users may also perceive limited value due to 

technological reasons. There are very few implementation frameworks available, and these are mainly based 

on Ethereum framework. This means that cost of running the network and the performance may present barriers. 

Running the service on Ethereum network may involve costs such as gas fee, smart contract deployment and 

minting costs for NFTs. The cost per NFT could be varying between 0.05 EUR to 200 EUR, which might be 

significant cost in higher volumes. Also, latency in Ethereum network is significant factor. Even on lower 

congestion times, processing an NFT may take several minutes, and worst-case scenario could be several hours. 

This reduces practical usability. Other solutions such as Solana or Hyperledger may present better cost 

effectiveness, but use of these technologies require deep understanding of software. Lack of standardization 

and regulatory scrutiny also present barriers. 

 

 

 

 

5. Discussions 
Several papers have demonstrated various non-finance applications based on blockchain technology. Non-

fungible tokens present an interesting opportunity to utilise blockchain in a combination with digital assets. 

The research problem of this paper was to analyse potential applications of NFTs for operations and supply 

chain management.  We identified the key features (RQ1) of non-fungible tokens in supply chain management. 

The results show that NFT structures find their strength in their five main benefits, namely: enhanced security, 

greater transparency, instant traceability, increased efficiency and speed, and its potential for automation. The 

specific features of NFT which solutions may be expected in the future are often combining the physical assets 

and virtual design space or other information related value-added item. Table 9 shows a typology for 

development for potential application areas based on two dimensions: tangible/intangible product, and 

fungible-hybrid-non-fungible product feature. NFTs are related to both non-fungible and hybrid dimension. 

Blockchain applications can be used for fungible solutions. 

 



27 
 

Table 9. Typology for application areas. 

Fungible/non-

fungible item 

 

Tangible/intangible 

Fungible item Hybrid Non-fungible item 

Tangible physical 

item 

Commodity product Certified physical 

product: CoA 

Unique physical product 

with serial number 

Hybrid Commodity product 

with CoA: gold ingot, 

certified wood,  

Product service systems 

– contract tokens for 

producing branded 

goods 

Licensed unique product 

created with additive 

manufacturing 

Intangible Coin, token Token for authorized 

software access 

Software licensed for a 

certain product 

 

The literature analysis and the use case development analysis allowed us to develop potential operations and 

supply chain management related applications for the NFTs. This experimentation has shown that: 

(1) NFT and BC have different characteristics – A lower number of transactions compared to SCM are 

often related to non-fungible items, at the same time the required life cycle of the data may be several years as 

non-fungible items are durable and high value. 

(2) Value creation is linked to uniqueness of the physical item, which is a non-fungible feature. Value 

creation may be related to assets value or transactions which are elements producing asset value. 

 

Five different applications were proposed based on expert interview and for each use case a sample application 

was proposed for the area of operations and supply chain management (RQ2). By using this approach, we 

proposed (1) additive manufacturing licencing mechanism to manage production, (2) serialisation system for 

pharmaceutical products linking the shipping information to product manufacturing data, (3) Certificate of 

origin for products where authenticity is importance, e.g. coffee bean example, (4) a system to manage cyber 

security of smart connected IoT devices, and (5) a letter of credit system to release payments upon a successful 

approval of the receiver. The potential of non-fungible tokens can be compared with previously published 

blockchain applications. Blockchain has been applied to similar types of applications as presented in this paper. 

Global trade tracking and tracing applications are mentioned in the literature reviews (Chang et al. 2020). Also 

specific industrial needs in pharmaceutical (Ghadge et al. 2022) and food related products (Li at al. 2021). The 

wider expected impacts on transportation industry (Koh et al. 2020) and the structural changes in global 

networks (Dolgui and Ivanov 2020) have also potential. The challenge is that academic research has been 

carried out but during the past years but adoption of blockchain based technologies in operations and supply 

chain management has been limited (Kamble, Gunasekaran, and Arha 2019). Empirical studies related to 

blockchain adoption have shown that facilitating conditions, technology readiness and technology affinity of 



28 
 

the company are the factors which moderate the effects of using blockchain technology in supply chain context 

(Wong et al 2020). 

Combining these piloting results with the findings of literature review we suggest three propositions for the 

future research in the field of operations and supply chain management.  The technology builds on top of the 

blockchains but has its unique features, which can enable some possible outcomes. Firstly, security in the 

supply chains needs new types of mechanisms supported by scalable technology (Cheung et al., 2021). The 

concept of zero trust supply chains aims to build structures to support such needs (Collier and Sarkis 2021). 

Use case 3: Certificates and use case 4: Internet of Things are examples of hardening of security in supply 

chain operations by use of NFTs. We propose that: 

(P1) Proposition 1. NFT technology is a potential security and authentication of origin and processing 

steps. 

Authentic and verified origins of raw materials, licensing rights (Giegling 2022), and product service system 

links are needed for enhanced products and circular economy needs (Walden et al., 2021). Product data such 

as emission records, service history or ownership history have all requirement of storing immutable 

information for a long period of time. Use cases 1: unique products for additive manufacturing and number 2 

serialization of products are examples of such applications. Based on this we propose: 

(P2) Proposition 2. NFTs can provide a technology backbone for product passports and intellectual 

property of product service systems. 

Product identity needs to be managed often at a level of serial numbers instead of production batches. 

Tokenization and serialization of products has been presented in medical industry to fight the counterfeit 

products (Rajora, 2022) and improving recycling of plastics (Wankmüller et al. 2023). Expensive commodities 

have similar types of needs. On our analysis part use case 2 serialization of products and use case 5: Letter of 

Credit presents potential solutions for these types of problems. We suggest the following: 

(P3) Proposition 3. NFT is a potential technology for tokenization of products and assets for supply 

chain finance transactions. 

However, it is important to note that the implementation of NFTs in supply chain operations requires careful 

consideration of data privacy, security, and interoperability with existing systems. Additionally, collaboration 

among supply chain stakeholders and standardization efforts are crucial to maximize the benefits of NFTs in 

operations and supply chain management. The expected challenges related to implementation are in line with 

prior literature. Usability of the non-fungible tokens is limited by slow confirmation process and gas related 

costs, privacy and data inaccessibility, legal and governance related open questions, various security concerns, 

extensibility in the long run, environmental aspects due to mining impacts and intellectual property rights (Ali 

et al., 2023). 



29 
 

An additional remark related to implementation challenges of NFTs in the context of operations and supply 

chain management was that the alignment of NFT technologies and the great number of international standards 

on digital supply chain data requires more planning. Currently, standards such as GS1 Serial Shipping 

Container Code or data exchange related standards have not considered this technology. For this reason, it 

would be expected to have first successful implications with large corporations having a significance control 

power over their supply chains. Later, other industries can adapt the best practices from these industries. 

6. Conclusions 
The paper has aimed to made contributions by exploring the use cases of NFTs in the context of operations 

and supply chain management. The examples provided demonstrate that NFTs offer intriguing opportunities 

for industrial applications within these domains. With the increasing importance of digital components in 

product development, manufacturing, and supply chain related systems, NFTs can play an important role in 

authenticating licenses for accessing unique operation features. The possible impact of non-fungible tokens on 

operational processes is comparable to blockchains. Security of intangible tokens can provide solutions where 

centralised solutions are not feasible due to long life-cycle of the physical asset or changing stakeholders in 

the market. Non-fungible tokens can link to financial transactions, such as change of ownership, rights to 

manufacture, rights to use software or a service, or automated transactions or material release. Linking non-

fungible identification with serial numbers of parts and products can provide a long-term documentation for 

authenticity, origin and manufacturing details related to safety, security and sustainability. 

The results of this study can be compared to studies conducted in the field of blockchain applications in 

operations and supply chains. It can be expected that the barriers for implementation are similar in non-fungible 

tokens as technology has similar challenges in implementation and cost of processing (Mathivathanan, 2021). 

This study has limitations. The implementation of proposed use cases has not been very thorough as the 

purpose has been to develop a proof-of-concept type of descriptions to answer the research question. Most 

definitely, all possible application areas have not been identified in this paper. Also, in terms of implementation, 

one can say that most use cases described follow a similar pattern, generating a sequential number in response 

to a minting request. This approach is rather trivial and does not address specific challenges like validation of 

the minter provided information, detection of minting multiple NFTs based on the same data, which would be 

needed for actual wide scale application implementation. Also, the functionality of the contracts is limited. 

The sample codes could generate hash values based on input instead of using sequential numbers and access 

control, permissions could have been enhanced. 

Further research is needed to study the propositions presented, but the possibilities of non-fungible tokens 

should be explored further in practical applications. For example, it can be argued that non-fungible tokens are 

not needed for all applications. Blockchain itself can solve several related use cases. However, non-fungible 

tokens can improve traceability, visibility, safety and security when the need is uniquely representing the 

production and operations. This should be the case when ownership and life-cycle related features are 



30 
 

important for the product instance level tracking and tracing. Non-fungible tokens can add value compared to 

plain blockchain implementation when the cases are related to high level uniqueness, e.g. for authenticity, 

ownership transfer, intellectual property of licensing, product safety, or other special value tied to product 

service bundle. Safety of pharmaceuticals, luxury items, expensive wines, intellectual property of a custom-

made unique 3D prints and special software installed on an IoT device are examples of possible domains where 

a higher resolution solution could be highly appreciated. The case examples presented were developed based 

on expert panel proposals and it must be admitted that some of the cases could be implemented with plan 

blockchain implementation. The conceptual difference presented in the framework aims to help to evaluate 

when use of non-fungible tokes should make sense and when use of it would be an overkill. 

By identifying and exploring the potential use cases of NFTs in operations and supply chain management, this 

paper sets the stage for future research and development in this area. It highlights the need for practical 

implementation studies and the importance of understanding how NFTs can bring tangible benefits to various 

stakeholders within the operations and supply chain ecosystem. However, further research is necessary to 

develop and test these applications in real-world settings. Conducting proof-of-concept studies will provide 

valuable insights into the feasibility and practicality of implementing NFTs within operations and supply 

chains. Additionally, understanding the managerial implications of utilizing NFTs can pave the way for their 

effective integration into existing systems. 

 

Data availability statement 

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable 

request. 

 

References 
 

Agrawal, N., Cohen, M. A., Deshpande, R., and Deshpande, V., 2024. “How Machine Learning Will 

Transform Supply Chain Management”. Harvard Business Review, 103(3-4), 128-137. 

Ali, O., Momin, M., Shrestha, A., Das, R., Alhajj, F., and Dwivedi, Y. K.  2023. “A review of the key 

challenges of non-fungible tokens”. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 187, 122248. 

Anjum, N. A., and Rehmani, M. H. 2022. “Non-Fungible Tokens in Business and Management--A 

Review”. arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.04836. 

Arcenegui Almenara, J., Arjona, R., Román Hajderek, R., and Baturone Castillo, M. I. 2021. “Secure 

combination of iot and blockchain by physically binding IoT devices to smart non-fungible tokens using 

pufs”. Sensors, 21 (9), 3119. 

Bai, C., and Sarkis, J. 2022. “A critical review of formal analytical modeling for blockchain technology in 

production, operations, and supply chains: Harnessing progress for future potential”. International 

Journal of Production Economics, 108636. 



31 
 

Ballandies, M. C., Wang, H., Law, A. C. C., Yang, J. C., Gösken, C., and Andrew, M. 2023. “A Taxonomy 

for Blockchain-based Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN)”. In 2023 IEEE 9th 

World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT) (pp. 1-6). IEEE. 

Bao, H., and Roubaud, D. 2022. “Non-Fungible Token: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda”. Journal 

of Risk and Financial Management, 15(5), 215. 

Ben-Daya, M., Hassini, E., and Bahroun, Z. 2019. “Internet of things and supply chain management: a 

literature review”. International Journal of Production Research, 57(15-16), 4719-4742. 

Biswas, B., and Gupta, R. 2019. “Analysis of barriers to implement blockchain in industry and service sectors”. 

Computers & Industrial Engineering, 136, 225-241. 

Boone, C. A., Craighead, C. W., and Hanna, J. B. 2007. “Postponement: an evolving supply chain 

concept”. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 37(8), 594-611. 

Bsteh, S., and Vermeylen, F. 2021. “From Painting to Pixel: Understanding NFT Artworks”. Retrieved June, 

15, 2021. 

Cao, Q., Schniederjans, D. G., and Schniederjans, M. 2017. “Establishing the use of cloud computing in supply 

chain management”. Operations Management Research, 10, 47-63. 

Chalmers, D., Fisch, C., Matthews, R., Quinn, W., and Recker, J. 2022. “Beyond the bubble: Will NFTs and 

digital proof of ownership empower creative industry entrepreneurs?”. Journal of Business Venturing 

Insights, 17, e00309. 

Chang, S. E., Chen, Y. C., and Wu, T. C. 2019. “Exploring blockchain technology in international trade: 

Business process re-engineering for letter of credit”. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 119(8), 

1712-1733. 

Chang, Y., Iakovou, E., and Shi, W. 2020. “Blockchain in global supply chains and cross border trade: a critical 

synthesis of the state-of-the-art, challenges and opportunities”. International Journal of Production 

Research, 58(7), 2082-2099. 

Cheung, K. F., Bell, M. G., and Bhattacharjya, J. 2021. “Cybersecurity in logistics and supply chain 

management: An overview and future research directions”. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics 

and Transportation Review, 146, 102217. 

Chevet, S. 2018. “Blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens: Reshaping value chains in creative 

industries”. Available at SSRN 

Chiacchio, F., D’Urso, D., Oliveri, L. M., Spitaleri, A., Spampinato, C., and Giordano, D. 2022. “A Non-

Fungible Token Solution for the Track and Trace of Pharmaceutical Supply Chain”. Applied 

Sciences, 12(8), 4019. 

Chohan, U. W. 2021. “Non-fungible tokens: Blockchains, scarcity, and value”. Critical Blockchain Research 

Initiative (CBRI) Working Papers. 

Collier, Z. A., and Sarkis, J. 2021. “The zero-trust supply chain: Managing supply chain risk in the absence of 

trust”. International Journal of Production Research, 59(11), 3430-3445. 

Davies, J., Sharifi, H., Lyons, A., Forster, R., and Elsayed, O. K. S. M. 2024. “Non-fungible tokens: The 

missing ingredient for sustainable supply chains in the metaverse age?”. Transportation Research Part 

E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 182, 103412. 

Dingelstad, K. 2021. “Potential Uses and Limitations of Non-Fungible Tokens in the Auditing Profession, A 

South African Context”. African Journal of Corporate Governance Research, 126-145. 



32 
 

Dolgui, A., & Ivanov, D. 2020. “Exploring supply chain structural dynamics: New disruptive technologies and 

disruption risks”. International Journal of Production Economics, 229, 107886. 

Dresch, A., Lacerda, D. P., Antunes Jr, J. A. V., Dresch, A., Lacerda, D. P., & Antunes, J. A. V. 2015. “Design 

science research” (pp. 67-102). Springer International Publishing. 

EIP-721 (2021). EIP-721: Non-Fungible Token Standard. Access https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-721  

Far, S. B., Bamakan, S. M. H., Qu, Q., and Jiang, Q. 2022. “A Review of Non-fungible Tokens Applications 

in the Real-world and Metaverse”. Procedia Computer Science, 214, 755-762. 

Flow 2022. “Flow web page”. https://www.onflow.org/ 

Francisco, K., & Swanson, D. 2018. The supply chain has no clothes: Technology adoption of blockchain for 

supply chain transparency. Logistics, 2(1), 2. 

Gao, W., Zhang, Y., Ramanujan, D., Ramani, K., Chen, Y., Williams, C. B., ... and Zavattieri, P. D. 2015. 

“The status, challenges, and future of additive manufacturing in engineering”. Computer-Aided 

Design, 69, 65-89. 

Ghadge, A., Bourlakis, M., Kamble, S., and Seuring, S. 2022. “Blockchain implementation in pharmaceutical 

supply chains: A review and conceptual framework”. International Journal of Production Research, 1-

19. 

Giegling, J. 2022. “In Blockchain We Trust? Certificates of Origin as a Case for Distributed Ledger 

Technologies”. Journal of Law, Market & Innovation, 1(1), 66-96. 

Gomm, M. L. 2010. “Supply chain finance: applying finance theory to supply chain management to enhance 

finance in supply chains”. International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, 13(2), 133-

142. 

Gonserkewitz, P., Karger, E., and Jagals, M. 2022. Non-fungible tokens. Use cases of NFTs and future research 

agenda. Risk Governance & Control: Financial Markets & Institutions, 12(3). 

Hammi, B., Zeadally, S., and Perez, A. J. 2023. “Non-fungible tokens: a review”. IEEE Internet of Things 

Magazine, 6(1), 46-50. 

Helo, P., & Hao, Y. 2019. “Blockchains in operations and supply chains: A model and reference 

implementation”. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 136, 242-251. 

Helo, P., Hao, Y., Toshev, R., & Boldosova, V. 2021. ”Cloud manufacturing ecosystem analysis and design”. 

Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 67, 102050. 

Helo, Petri, and A. H. M. Shamsuzzoha. 2020. "Real-time supply chain—A blockchain architecture for project 

deliveries." Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing 63 (2020): 101909. 

Holmström, J., Holweg, M., Lawson, B., Pil, F. K., and Wagner, S. M. 2019. “The digitalization of operations 

and supply chain management: Theoretical and methodological implications”. Journal of Operations 

Management, 65(8), 728-734. 

Holmström, J., Ketokivi, M., & Hameri, A. P. 2009. ”Bridging practice and theory: A design science approach”. 

Decision Sciences, 40(1), 65-87. 

Husin, N., Budiyanto, A., Karjono, A., Christiningrum, M. F., Yurindera, N., Nuryanti, D., ... & Wicaksono, 

B. W. 2022. “Analyzing the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) Implementation in Digital Music Industry: A 

Mix Method Study”. In 2022 10th International Conference on Cyber and IT Service Management 

(CITSM) (pp. 1-7). IEEE. 

https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-721
https://www.onflow.org/


33 
 

Jensen, S. F., Kristensen, J. H., Adamsen, S., Christensen, A., and Waehrens, B. V. 2023. “Digital product 

passports for a circular economy: Data needs for product life cycle decision-making”. Sustainable 

Production and Consumption, 37, 242-255. 

Jiang, S., Li, Y., Lu, Q., Hong, Y., Guan, D., Xiong, Y., and Wang, S. 2021. “Policy assessments for the carbon 

emission flows and sustainability of Bitcoin blockchain operation in China”. Nature communications, 

12(1), 1-10. 

Johannesson, P., and Perjons, E. 2014. “An introduction to design science” (Vol. 10, pp. 978-3). Cham: 

Springer. 

Jones, D., Snider, C., Nassehi, A., Yon, J., and Hicks, B. 2020. “Characterising the Digital Twin: A systematic 

literature review”. CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology, 29, 36-52. 

Joy, A., Zhu, Y., Peña, C., & Brouard, M. 2022. Digital future of luxury brands: Metaverse, digital fashion, 

and non‐fungible tokens. Strategic change, 31(3), 337-343. 

Kamble, S., A. Gunasekaran, and H. Arha. 2019. “Understanding the Blockchain Technology Adoption in 

Supply Chains-Indian Context.” International Journal of Production Research 57 (7): 2009–2033. 

Koh, L., Dolgui, A., and Sarkis, J. 2020. “Blockchain in transport and logistics–paradigms and transitions”. 

International Journal of Production Research, 58(7), 2054-2062. 

Kouhizadeh, M., Saberi, S., and Sarkis, J. 2021. Blockchain technology and the sustainable supply chain: 

Theoretically exploring adoption barriers. International Journal of Production Economics, 231, 107831. 

Kritzinger, W., Karner, M., Traar, G., Henjes, J., and Sihn, W. 2018. “Digital Twin in manufacturing: A 

categorical literature review and classification”. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 51(11), 1016-1022. 

Kugler, L. 2021. “Non-fungible tokens and the future of art”. Communications of the ACM, 64(9), 19-20. 

Li, K., Lee, J. Y., and Gharehgozli, A. 2021. “Blockchain in food supply chains: A literature review and 

synthesis analysis of platforms, benefits and challenges”. International Journal of Production Research, 

1-20. 

Lin, Z., Wang, T., Shi, L., Zhang, S., and Cao, B. 2024. “Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network 

(DePIN): Challenges and Opportunities”. arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.02239. 

Liu, H. Y., Ji, S. F., and Ji, Y. Y. 2024. ”Blockchain-enabled integrated model for production-inventory-

delivery problem in Physical Internet”. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 187, 109740. 

Liu, M., Fang, S., Dong, H., and Xu, C. 2021. “Review of digital twin about concepts, technologies, and 

industrial applications”. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 58, 346-361. 

Liu, X., Barenji, A. V., Li, Z., Montreuil, B., and Huang, G. Q. 2021. “Blockchain-based smart tracking and 

tracing platform for drug supply chain”. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 161, 107669. 

Mandal, M., Chishti, M. S., and Banerjee, A. 2023, December. “Investigating Layer-2 Scalability Solutions 

for Blockchain Applications”. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing 

& Communications, Data Science & Systems, Smart City & Dependability in Sensor, Cloud & Big Data 

Systems & Application (HPCC/DSS/SmartCity/DependSys) (pp. 710-717). IEEE. 

Mathivathanan, D., Mathiyazhagan, K., Rana, N. P., Khorana, S., and Dwivedi, Y. K. 2021. ”Barriers to the 

adoption of blockchain technology in business supply chains: a total interpretive structural modelling 

(TISM) approach”. International Journal of Production Research, 59(11), 3338-3359. 

Menanno, M., Savino, M. M., & Accorsi, R. 2023. “Digitalization of Fresh Chestnut Fruit Supply Chain 

through RFID: Evidence, Benefits and Managerial Implications”. Applied Sciences, 13(8), 5086. 



34 
 

Menezes, A. J., Van Oorschot, P. C., & Vanstone, S. A. 2018. Handbook of applied cryptography. CRC press. 

Meyer, T., Kuhn, M., & Hartmann, E. 2019. “Blockchain technology enabling the Physical Internet: A 

synergetic application framework”. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 136, 5-17. 

Mouris, D., & Tsoutsos, N. G. 2022. “NFTs For 3D Models: Sustaining Ownership In Industry 4.0”. IEEE 

Consumer Electronics Magazine. 

Nabben, K., Wang, H., & Zargham, M. 2024. “Decentralised Governance for Autonomous Cyber-Physical 

Systems”. arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.13566. 

Nadini, M., Alessandretti, L., Di Giacinto, F., Martino, M., Aiello, L. M., & Baronchelli, A. 2021. “Mapping 

the NFT revolution: market trends, trade networks, and visual features”. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-11. 

Ohlhaver, Puja and Weyl, Eric Glen and Buterin, Vitalik, 2022. “Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul” 

(May 10, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4105763 or 

http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4105763 

Omar, A. S., and Basir, O. 2020. “Secure Anti-Counterfeiting Pharmaceuticals Supply Chain System Using 

Composable Non-Fungible Tokens. In Blockchain for Cybersecurity and Privacy” (pp. 243-259). CRC 

Press. 

Pan, S. 2024. “Blockchain Technology for Logistics Collaboration in Physical Internet”. In The 2024 IEEE 

International Conference on Automation in Manufacturing, Transportation and Logistics. 

Park, A., Kietzmann, J., Pitt, L., and Dabirian, A. 2022. “The evolution of nonfungible tokens: Complexity 

and novelty of NFT use-cases”. IT Professional, 24(1), 9-14. 

Popescu, A. D. 2021. “Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) – Innovation beyond the craze”. In 5th International 

Conference on Innovation in Business, Economics and Marketing Research. 

Qi, Q., Tao, F., Hu, T., Anwer, N., Liu, A., Wei, Y. and Nee, A. Y. C. 2021. Enabling technologies and tools 

for digital twin. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 58, 3-21. 

Rajashekaragouda, G. S., and Dakshayini, M. 2020, February. “Blockchain Implementation of Letter of Credit 

based Trading system in Supply Chain Domain”. In 2020 International Conference on Mainstreaming 

Block Chain Implementation (ICOMBI) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. 

Rajora, N. 2022. “Dynamics of Pharmaceutical Drugs Serialization”. Universal Journal of Pharmacy and 

Pharmacology, 43-49. 

Raman, R., and Raj, B. E. 2021. “The World of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens): The Future of Blockchain and 

Asset Ownership”. In Enabling Blockchain Technology for Secure Networking and Communications 

(pp. 89-108). IGI Global. 

Ray, P. P. 2023. Web3: A comprehensive review on background, technologies, applications, zero-trust 

architectures, challenges and future directions. Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems, 3, 213-

248. 

Regner, F., Urbach, N., and Schweizer, A. 2019. “NFTs in practice–non-fungible tokens as core component 

of a blockchain-based event ticketing application”. 

Rehman, W., e Zainab, H., Imran, J., and Bawany, N. Z. 2021, December. “NFTs: Applications and 

challenges”. In 2021 22nd International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT) (pp. 1-7). 

IEEE. 



35 
 

Rodriguez Sanchez, M., and Garcia-Badell, G. 2023. “Dressing the Metaverse. The Digital Strategies of 

Fashion Brands in the Virtual Universe”. In International Fashion and Design Congress (pp. 387-397). 

Springer, Cham. 

Saberi, S., Kouhizadeh, M., Sarkis, J., and Shen, L. 2019. “Blockchain technology and its relationships to 

sustainable supply chain management”. International Journal of Production Research, 57(7), 2117-

2135. 

Sarkis, J., and Ibrahim, S. 2022. “Building knowledge beyond our experience: integrating sustainable 

development goals into IJPR’s research future”. International Journal of Production Research, 60(24), 

7301-7318. 

Schleich, B, Answer N, Mathieu L., and Wartzack S. 2017. "Shaping the digital twin for design and production 

engineering." CIRP Annals 66, no. 1 (2017): 141-144. 

Schuhmacher, J., & Hummel, V. 2016. “Decentralized control of logistic processes in cyber-physical 

production systems at the example of ESB logistics learning factory”. Procedia Cirp, 54, 19-24. 

Schulz, C., Kortmann, S., Piller, F. T., and Pollok, P. 2023. “Growing with smart products: Why customization 

capabilities matter for manufacturing firms”. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 40(6), 794-

816. 

SCOR. 2017. APICS Supply Chain Operations Reference Model SCOR Version 12.0 

Sestino, A., Guido, G., and Peluso, A. M. 2022. ”Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)”. Springer Books. 

Sghaier Omar, A., & Basir, O. 2020. “Capability-based non-fungible tokens approach for a decentralized AAA 

framework in IoT”. In Blockchain Cybersecurity, Trust and Privacy (pp. 7-31). Springer, Cham. 

Singh, C. 2022 The Ultimate Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Guide: Use Cases, Ecosystem, Benefits & 

Challenges| HackerNoon. https://hackernoon.com/the-ultimate-non-fungible-tokens-nfts-guide-use-

cases-ecosystem-benefits-and-challenges 

Sternberg, H., & Norrman, A. 2017. “The Physical Internet–review, analysis and future research agenda”. 

International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 47(8), 736-762. 

Sun, K. 2022. “Digital Asset Valuation: A Study on Domain Names, Email Addresses, and NFTs”. arXiv 

preprint arXiv:2210.10637. 

Sund, T., Lööf, C., Nadjm-Tehrani, S., and Asplund, M. 2020. “Blockchain-based event processing in supply 

chains—A case study at IKEA”. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 65, 101971. 

Tao, F., Zhang, H., Liu, A., and Nee, A. Y. 2018. “Digital twin in industry: State-of-the-art”. IEEE 

Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 15(4), 2405-2415. 

Tezos. 2022. Tezos: A blockchain designed to evolve. Access: https://tezos.com/  

Tran-Dang, H, Krommenacker N, Charpentier P., and Kim D. 2020. "Toward the internet of things for physical 

internet: Perspectives and challenges." IEEE Internet of Things Journal 7, no. 6 (2020): 4711-4736. 

Trautman, L. J. 2021. Virtual art and non-fungible tokens. 

Uribe, D., & Waters, G. 2020. “Privacy laws, genomic data and non-fungible tokens”. The Journal of The 

British Blockchain Association. 

Valaštín, V., Košt’ál, K., Bencel, R., & Kotuliak, I. 2019, September. “Blockchain based car-sharing platform”. 

In 2019 International Symposium ELMAR (pp. 5-8). IEEE. 

https://tezos.com/


36 
 

Van Nguyen, T., Cong Pham, H., Nhat Nguyen, M., Zhou, L., & Akbari, M. 2023. “Data-driven review of 

blockchain applications in supply chain management: key research themes and future directions”. 

International Journal of Production Research, 61(23), 8213-8235. 

Vom Brocke, J., Hevner, A., & Maedche, A. 2020. “Introduction to design science research”. Design science 

research. Cases, 1-13. 

Walden, J., Steinbrecher, A., & Marinkovic, M. 2021. “Digital product passports as enabler of the circular 

economy”. Chemie Ingenieur Technik, 93(11), 1717-1727. 

Wang, C., Cai, Z., & Li, Y. 2022. “Sustainable blockchain-based digital twin management architecture for IoT 

devices”. IEEE Internet of Things Journal. 

Wang, F. Y., Qin, R., Yuan, Y., and Hu, B. 2021. “Nonfungible Tokens: Constructing Value Systems in 

Parallel Societies”. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 8(5), 1062-1067. 

Wang, Q., Li, R., Wang, Q., and Chen, S. 2021. “Non-fungible token (NFT): Overview, evaluation, 

opportunities and challenges”. arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.07447. 

Wang, Y., Chen, C. H., & Zghari-Sales, A. 2021. “Designing a blockchain enabled supply chain”. International 

Journal of Production Research, 59(5), 1450-1475. 

Wang, Y., Han, J. H., and Beynon-Davies, P. 2019. “Understanding blockchain technology for future supply 

chains: a systematic literature review and research agenda”. Supply Chain Management: An 

International Journal, 24(1), 62-84. 

Wankmüller, C., Pulsfort, J., Kunovjanek, M., Polt, R., Craß, S., and Reiner, G. 2023. “Blockchain-based 

tokenization and its impact on plastic bottle supply chains”. International Journal of Production 

Economics, 257, 108776. 

Weingärtner, T. 2019. “Tokenization of physical assets and the impact of IoT and AI”. In European Union 

Blockchain Observatory and Forum (Vol. 10, pp. 1-16). 

White, B., Mahanti, A., and Passi, K. 2022, April. “Characterizing the OpenSea NFT marketplace”. 

In Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2022 (pp. 488-496). 

Wilson, K. B., Karg A., and Ghaderi H. 2021 "Prospecting non-fungible tokens in the digital economy: 

Stakeholders and ecosystem, risk and opportunity." Business Horizons (2021). 

Wong, L. W., Tan, G. W. H., Lee, V. H., Ooi, K. B., and Sohal, A. 2020. “Unearthing the determinants of 

Blockchain adoption in supply chain management”. International Journal of Production Research, 

58(7), 2100-2123. 

Xu, P., Lee, J., Barth, J. R. and Richey, R. G., 2021. “Blockchain as supply chain technology: considering 

transparency and security”. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 

51(3), pp. 305-324. 

Zhu, Q., Bai, C., and Sarkis, J. 2022. “Blockchain technology and supply chains: The paradox of the 

atheoretical research discourse”. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 

164, 102824.