A critical review of formal analytical modeling for blockchain technology in production, operations, and supply chains: Harnessing progress for future potential

Blockchain technology use cases for supply chains—strategically and operationally—have been highlighted in practice and in research. In this respect, various applications of analytical models have been introduced to understand, analyze and make decisions related to blockchain phenomenon in production, operations, and supply chains. This work has received extensive—and some would argue unprecedentedly--rapid attention within the scholarly community. This early growth sets the stage for large-scale academic research and commercialization. Acknowledging this level of popularity, we provide a critical review of analytical models analyzing the current state-of-the-art research. This includes a synthesis of works that classify different research areas and general analytical model application within each research area. Bibliometric and network analysis tools help identify critical research contributions, key research areas, relationships among analytical models and research areas. Major findings include: (1) analytical models in this field are expanding rapidly; (2) the International Journal of Production Economics has been central to the analytical and production economic modeling research discourse; (3) ten research areas including antecedents, actions, scenarios and consequences are identified from a network analysis; and (4) the relationship between analytical models and research areas is evolving with insight into why and in which direction this work is likely to continue. We identify significant research gaps with great potential for scholarly advancement.