Analysis of Blockchain's enablers for improving sustainable supply chain transparency in Africa cocoa industry

Abstract

Blockchain technology can improve supply chain transparency to solve many problems in agricultural supply chains, such as lack of social responsibility and poor environmental performance. However, how to enable the transparency and sustainability of supply chain through blockchain technology is indeed a complex decision-making problem. Based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theoretical framework, this paper develops a hierarchical enablers framework for improving sustainable supply chain transparency (SSCT) by blockchain technology in the cocoa industry. Then, the best-worst method (BWM) is used to evaluate the weights of main enablers and sub-enablers by a real case of cocoa supply chain in an emerging African economy. The case results indicate the most important main enabler is “Technical Characteristics”, and the top three sub-enablers are: “blockchain smart contract”, “blockchain security,” and “tracking product components”, respectively. The framework and method of this study can help decision-makers and supply chain managers develop strategies to promote the effective application of blockchain to improve SSCT. As far as we know, this paper is one of the first studies to evaluate blockchain's enablers for SSCT, especially in the context of African emerging economies.