Potential of the blockchain technology for operational risk management in high reliability organizations - An empirical analysis for the pharmaceutical industry.

Abstract

The objective of this master’s thesis is to identify the potential of blockchain technology for oper-ational risk management in high reliability organizations (HROs). The theory section examines why the pharmaceutical industry, which has not previously been regarded as an HRO, can be considered an HRO. Furthermore, a systematic literature review for the HRO areas healthcare and pharmaceutical is conducted to identify the blockchain applications for operational risk management there. In the empirical section, the operational risk of counterfeit drugs identified from the literature review and the potential of blockchain are discussed in the form of three expert interviews. For this purpose, the expert opinion is obtained from the Lead Counterfeit Protection from Bayer AG, the PharmaLedger Project Leader from Novartis AG, and the Supply Chain Excellence representative from MSD who is contributing to the EU-funded PharmaLedger project, too. The results of this work show that the HRO theory can be extended to the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, 52 blockchain applications for operational risk management in the HROs healthcare and pharmaceutical are identified in the literature review. The result of the empirical section is that the pharmaceutical industry is working on further blockchain solutions in addition to the blockchain applications for the operational risk of counterfeits drugs. Further research is needed to confirm the pharmaceutical industry as an HRO and to elaborate the potential of blockchain for operational risk management in other HROs.