scholarly journals Systematic Literature Review of Challenges in Blockchain Scalability

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 9372
Author(s):  
Dodo Khan ◽  
Low Tang Jung ◽  
Manzoor Ahmed Hashmani

Blockchain technology is fast becoming the most transformative technology of recent times and has created hype and optimism, gaining much attention from the public and private sectors. It has been widely deployed in decentralized crypto currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin is the success story of a public blockchain application that propelled intense research and development into blockchain technology. However, scalability remains a crucial challenge. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are encountering low-efficiency issues with low throughput, high transaction latency, and huge energy consumption. The scalability issue in public Blockchains is hindering the provision of optimal solutions to businesses and industries. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) on the public blockchain scalability issue and challenges. The scope of this SLR includes an in-depth investigation into the scalability problem of public blockchain, associated fundamental factors, and state-of-art solutions. This project managed to extract 121 primary papers from major scientific databases such as Scopus, IEEE explores, Science Direct, and Web of Science. The synthesis of these 121 articles revealed that scalability in public blockchain is not a singular term. A variety of factors are allied to it, with transaction throughput being the most discussed factor. In addition, other interdependent vita factors include storages, block size, number of nodes, energy consumption, latency, and cost. Generally, each term is somehow directly or indirectly reliant on the consensus model embraced by the blockchain nodes. It is also noticed that the contemporary available consensus models are not efficient in scalability and thus often fail to provide good QoS (throughput and latency) for practical industrial applications. Our findings exemplify that the Internet of Things (IoT) would be the leading application of blockchain in industries such as energy, finance, resource management, healthcare, education, and agriculture. These applications are, however, yet to achieve much-desired outcomes due to scalability issues. Moreover, Onchain and offchain are the two major categories of scalability solutions. Sagwit, block size expansion, sharding, and consensus mechanisms are examples of onchain solutions. Offchain, on the other hand, is a lighting network.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Oppi ◽  
Cristina Campanale ◽  
Lino Cinquini

PurposeThis paper presents a systematic literature review aiming at analysing how research has addressed performance measurement systems’ (PMSs) ambiguities in the public sector. This paper embraces the ambiguity perspective that PMSs in public sector coexist with and cope with existing ambiguities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a literature review in Scopus and ScienceDirect, considering articles published since 1985, and the authors selected articles published in the journals included in the Association of Business Schools' Academic Journal Guide (Chartered ABS, 2018). Of the 1,278 abstracts that matched the study’s search criteria, the authors selected 131 articles for full reading and 37 articles for the final discussion.FindingsThe study's key findings concern the elements of ambiguity in PMSs discussed in the literature. The study’s results suggest that ambiguity is still a relevant problem in performance measurement, as a problem that is impossible to be solved and therefore needs to be better understood by researchers and public managers. The analysis allows us to summarize the antecedents and consequences of ambiguity in the public sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe key findings of the study concern the main sources of ambiguity in PMSs discussed in the literature, their antecedents and their consequences. The study results suggest that ambiguity exists in performance measurement and that is an issue to be handled with various strategies that can be implemented by managers and employees.Practical implicationsManagers and researchers may benefit from this research as it may represent a guideline to understand ambiguities in their organizations or in field research. Researchers may also benefit from a summary list of the key issues that have been analysed in the empirical cases provided by this research. Social implicationsThis research may provide insights to limit ambiguity and thus contribute to improve performance measurement in the public sector.Originality/valueThis research presents a comprehensive review on the topic. It provides insight that suggests what future research should attend to in helping to interpret ambiguity, considering also what should be done to influence ambiguity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10566
Author(s):  
Mohammad Nabipour ◽  
M. Ali Ülkü

The emergence of a new pandemic, known as COVID-19, has touched various sections of the supply chain (SC). Since then, numerous studies have been conducted on the issue, but the need for a holistic review study that highlights the gaps and limits of previous research, as well as opportunities and agendas for future studies, is palpable. Through a systematic literature review on blockchain technology (BCT) deployment in supply-chain management (SCM) concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, this research seeks to add to the content of previous studies and to enlighten the path for future studies. Relevant papers were found using a variety of resources (Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and ProQuest). Seventy-two articles were systematically selected, considering the PRISMA procedure, and were thoroughly analyzed based on BCT, methodologies, industrial sectors, geographical, and sustainability context. According to our findings, there is a significant lack of empirical and quantitative methodologies in the literature. The majority of studies did not take specific industries into account. Furthermore, the articles focusing on the sustainability context are few, particularly regarding social and environmental issues. In addition, most of the reviewed papers did not consider the geographical context. The results indicate that the deployment of BCT in several sectors is not uniform, and this utilization is reliant on their services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the concentration of research on the impacts of the BCT on SCM differs according to the conditions of various countries in terms of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also show that there is a direct relationship between the deployment of BCT and sustainability factors, such as economic and waste issues, under the circumstances surrounding COVID-19. Finally, this study offers research opportunities and agendas to help academics and other stakeholders to gain a better knowledge of the present literature, recognize aspects that necessitate more exploration, and drive prospective studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanina Chevtchouk ◽  
Cleopatra Veloutsou ◽  
Robert A. Paton

Purpose The marketing literature uses five different experience terms that are supposed to represent different streams of research. Many papers do not provide a definition, most of the used definitions are unclear, the different experience terms have similar dimensionality and are regularly used interchangeably or have the same meaning. In addition, the existing definitions are not adequately informed from other disciplines that have engaged with experience. This paper aims to build a comprehensive conceptual framework of experience in marketing informed by related disciplines aiming to provide a more holistic definition of the term. Design/methodology/approach This research follows previously established procedures by conducting a systematic literature review of experience. From the approximately 5,000 sources identified in three disciplines, 267 sources were selected, marketing (148), philosophy (90) and psychology (29). To address definitional issues the analysis focused on enlightening four premises. Findings This paper posits that the term brand experience can be used in all marketing-related experiences and proposes four premises that may resolve the vagaries associated with the term’s conceptualization. The four premises address the what, who, how and when of brand experience and aim to rectify conceptual issues. Brand experience is introduced as a multi-level phenomenon. Research limitations/implications The suggested singular term, brand experience, captures all experiences in marketing. The identified additional elements of brand experience, such as the levels of experience and the revision of emotions within brand experience as a continuum, tempered by repetition, should be considered in future research. Practical implications The multi-level conceptualization may provide a greater scope for dynamic approaches to brand experience design thus providing greater opportunities for managers to create sustainable competitive advantages and differentiation from competitors. Originality/value This paper completes a systematic literature review of brand experience across marketing, philosophy and psychology which delineates and enlightens the conceptualization of brand experience and presents brand experience in a multi-level conceptualization, opening the possibility for further theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary promise.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 7810
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdelaziz ◽  
Vitor Santos ◽  
Miguel Sales Dias

The high level of energy consumption of buildings is significantly influencing occupant behavior changes towards improved energy efficiency. This paper introduces a systematic literature review with two objectives: to understand the more relevant factors affecting energy consumption of buildings and to find the best intelligent computing (IC) methods capable of classifying and predicting energy consumption of different types of buildings. Adopting the PRISMA method, the paper analyzed 822 manuscripts from 2013 to 2020 and focused on 106, based on title and abstract screening and on manuscripts with experiments. A text mining process and a bibliometric map tool (VOS viewer) were adopted to find the most used terms and their relationships, in the energy and IC domains. Our approach shows that the terms “consumption,” “residential,” and “electricity” are the more relevant terms in the energy domain, in terms of the ratio of important terms (TITs), whereas “cluster” is the more commonly used term in the IC domain. The paper also shows that there are strong relations between “Residential Energy Consumption” and “Electricity Consumption,” “Heating” and “Climate. Finally, we checked and analyzed 41 manuscripts in detail, summarized their major contributions, and identified several research gaps that provide hints for further research.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuj Batta ◽  
Mohina Gandhi ◽  
Arpan Kumar Kar ◽  
Navin Loganayagam ◽  
Vignesh Ilavarasan

Purpose Blockchain technology has fascinated researchers and industry professionals. Since its birth, the attention for blockchain has been exponentially increasing, however, most of the industries are still skeptical in adoption for value creation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the actual level of implementation and diffusion of blockchain technology within the logistics and transportation industry by comparing and using the collective intelligence of academic literature and industry practices of implementation of blockchain in this domain. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the methodology of systematic literature review along with inductive reasoning. The systematic literature review of academic and industry frontiers together has brought a bigger and real picture into consideration. Findings The results highlight that, within the transportation sector, currently there is a very low diffusion of blockchain, although applications show immense promises for the future. The various application where blockchain technology can make a significant impact are also identified. Research limitations/implications Due to the early stage of experimentation with blockchain technology, high-quality data which is relevant to the optimized usage of this technology in the logistics and transportation industry is not available. Practical implications The study will help the practitioners in identifying additional avenues in which they could implement blockchain for the effectiveness, efficiency and growth of the logistics and transportation industry. Originality/value The analysis of mixed sources of information for undertaking systematic literature review by assessing academic and trade publications is a novelty of this study.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonika Sethi ◽  
Rosie Bhogal ◽  
Susana Luengo ◽  
Nishma Gokani ◽  
Sharukh Zuberi ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Engagement strategies used within the NHS, to reach out to the public and internal stakeholders, have continuously changed over time. Communication with each other is happening through more user-generated information being shared through social media (SM). The advent of SM has shifted the information-seeking behaviour of society, including healthcare. The ability of SM to engage people in the community and overcome traditional separation barriers gives SM the invaluable power of helping in the transition towards a more community and prevention focused health care delivery involving multiple stakeholders. OBJECTIVE A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to explore how SM is currently being used in the NHS using current literature. This was under the general theme of use of SM in the NHS, and strategies to engage the public in the NHS. METHODS Literature searches were performed in PubMed, MEDLINE and EMBASE between 2004-2017. The relevance of articles were screening using a pre decided inclusion and exclusion criteria. The papers included were critically appraised using the PRISMA Statement. Two separate search strings were created to cover both SM use in the NHS and engagement strategies in the NHS. RESULTS The search string yielded 3145 papers in total. After screening by initial limits, de-duplicating, screening by title, abstract and inclusion/exclusion criteria, a total of 55 papers were reached. These were all critically appraised and were divided based on the theme they covered. The themes found amongst these 55 papers were use of SM in: the NHS, nursing, healthcare research, conferences, gaining insights to patient perspectives and trends, recruitment, patient and medical education, successful Twitter campaigns and engaging patients. CONCLUSIONS Literature has shown two main views apparent on the use of SM in the NHS. The effectiveness of SM use in the NHS is uncertain, but SM specific uses acknowledges the potential of SM in engaging with the public and therefore helping to achieve the ambitious Five Year Forward View. Whilst limited, the literature has shown that SM in NHS has been used in research, conferences, and education of other doctors and patients. Engagement strategies in the NHS have mostly taken the form of awareness campaigns in key areas, such as lung cancer, nutrition and antibiotics use. 22% (12/55 papers) shows that the use of SM in the NHS has still far to go before it achieves full implementation and utilization.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazen El-Masri ◽  
Eiman Mutwali Abdelmageed Hussain

PurposeBlockchain is evolving to become a platform for securing Internet of things (IoT) ecosystems. Still, challenges remain. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight the applicability of blockchain as a medium to secure IoT ecosystems. A two-dimensional framework anchored on (1) IoT layers and (2) security goals is used to organize the existent IoT security threats and their corresponding countermeasures identified in the reviewed literature. The framework helped in mapping the IoT security threats with the inherent features of blockchain and accentuate their prominence to IoT security.Design/methodology/approachAn approach integrating computerized natural language processing (NLP) with a systematic literature review methodology was adopted. A large corpus of 2,303 titles and abstracts of blockchain articles was programmatically analyzed in order to identify the relevant literature. The identified literature was subjected to a systematic review guided by a well-established method in IS research.FindingsThe literature evidently highlights the prominence of blockchain as a mean to IoT security due to the distinctive features it encompasses. The authors’ investigation revealed that numerous existent threats are better addressed with blockchain than conventional mechanisms. Nevertheless, blockchain consumes resources such as electricity, time, bandwidth and disk space at a rate that is not yet easily accessible to common IoT ecosystems.Research limitations/implicationsResults suggest that a configurational approach that aligns IoT security requirements with the resource requirements of different blockchain features is necessary in order to realize the proper balance between security, efficiency and feasibility.Practical implicationsPractitioners can make use of the classified lists of convention security mechanisms and the IoT threats they address. The framework can help underline the countermeasures that best achieve their security goals. Practitioners can also use the framework to identify the most important features to seek for in a blockchain technology that can help them achieve their security goals.Originality/valueThis study proposes a novel framework that can help classify IoT threats based on the IoT layer impacted and the security goal at risk. Moreover, it applies a combined man-machine approach to systematically analyze the literature.


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