Examining the Factors Affecting the Sustainable Supply Chain with the Blockchain Approach Based on Cognitive Map

In the present era, the management and control of sustainable supply chains, in the global dimension, seems difficult. Blockchain technology, as a digital computing technology that ensures transparency, traceability and security, can help in providing a sustainable supply chain management solution. The purpose of this research is to design a sustainable supply chain model based on the blockchain approach in the steel industry, which has been carried out in the steel factories of Kerman province. The current research is applied-developmental in terms of its purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of data collection. The statistical population of the current research is 18 experts of the steel industry. The sample was randomly selected by snowball method and semi-structured interview was used to collect the data. Indicators were also extracted based on previous studies in the field of blockchain effectiveness on sustainable supply chain and fuzzy cognitive mapping method was used. Therefore, 15 factors affecting the sustainable supply chain were identified and investigated based on the blockchain approach. The results showed that the environmental performance improvement factor has the highest centrality with 6.844 degrees and the transparency factor has the lowest centrality with 0.958 degrees. Also, improving the environmental performance had the most impact and the most effectiveness. According to the results of this research, managers are advised to pay special attention to the emerging blockchain technology for performance transparency, cost reduction, increased trust in transactions and better security</em>.</em>