Blockchain and Sensor-Based Reputation Enforcement for the Support of the Reshoring of Business Activities

Abstract

A common ground for many small businesses which are based and operate in Europe, capable today of standing against the waves of the globalization and the online economy, is the added value given by: (a) the quality of their services/products, and, (b) the trust they receive from their customers. Interestingly, such businesses are capable, in many cases, of maintaining the fidelity of a customer base, which is willing to pay more for their services or products when compared to what it would be paying when resorting to other channels. Such competitive advantage may be maintained as long as the quality of such services is high, one of the key factors that may also encourage and sustain the reshoring of many businesses to Europe. However, the quality of the products of many businesses is often hard to detect for a customer. Many exemplar cases may be individuated in organic farming and sustainable fashion and textiles. For instance, an average buyer may experience a very hard time when trying to distinguish at first sight an apple which has been obtained following organic protocols from one that has been produced following industrial procedures (e.g., use of chemical fertilizers). The same can be said for clothes, how may a consumer say whether given ethical rules and quality standards have been employed while weaving, knitting, felting, and braiding textiles? Because of these problems, in order to guarantee customers no malicious exploitations have been perpetrated, many of such companies resort to centralized and private certification programs. Unfortunately such certification programs can be expensive, long to implement, and even dishonestly exploited. In this scenario, we propose an integrated approach, based on two distinct and well-known ICT technologies, the Blockchain principle and sensor platforms, as a practical solution to preserve trust, increase the value of products and/or services and hence to encourage the reshoring of business activities. In particular, the model we here propose well applies to those business sectors whose actors share some type of immaterial asset related to the values that they convey with their products, which also, in many cases, represents their shared vulnerability point. Two exemplar business sectors where the proposed approach may be applied are represented by organic and sustainable productions in addition to all those which benefit from their association with specific geographical areas whose products, for given categories, are highly valued by customers (e.g., Made in Italy for fashion products). Because of the latter, the proposed approach may represent a viable pathway for the reshoring of companies from abroad.