Governing for Transparency: The Case of TradeLens - How and Why New Digital Blockchain Technology Will Impact Business in the Container Shipping Industy?

We present blockchain technology with the case of TradeLens targeting international container shipping. With offset in the theories of technology-fit and a specific focus on its application in a network, we investigate how and why the new digital blockchain technology should become a game changer for supply chain management. There is wide consensus that digitalization of the administration can improve the overall efficiency of the business. Most organizations within the container shipping industry have already digitalisation initiatives in place and have digitized their documents. If shared among organizations, such digitalized information can create transparency across the supply chain whereby both logistic coordi nation and value co-creation can improve the overall efficiency of the overall business. While the benefits of transparency thus appear intuitively clear, there are still challenges. One major challenge is that organizations are reluctant to share information digitally. Accordingly, specific commitments and investments in creating transparency may contrast to the individual value gained by it. This leads us to address the question why in particular digital technology specifically blockchain technology should be better suited to overcome these challenges than existing technologies such as “control tower” solutions and thus support value co-creation among and across the organizations in the container shipping industry?