Abstract
Firms in the agri-food sector have started implementing blockchain technology to both provide transparency over the supply chain transactions and to make trust attributes visible to consumers. Besides the well-known public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, private- and consortium-type blockchain platforms exist. The latter ones are being operated in the agri-food ecosystem contributing to the vertically cooperated supply networks that are coordinated by a focal firm. Stakeholders’ attitude and behavioral intentions toward the use of the blockchain technology impact their use behavior. The results show that permissioned blockchain governance mechanisms with consensus and incentives to motivate stakeholders are lacking in private and consortium blockchains. This study closes a research gap as understanding how the stakeholder management approach can compensate for the lack of consensus mechanisms can provide managerial guidance toward the development of an effective stakeholder management strategy, which eventually can be provided for a competitive advantage. As there is little research on the role of blockchain as a novel governance mechanism, this research will contribute to the scholarly discussion toward a common understanding.
Highlights
Blockchain technology is a meta-technology that has the potential to change business models and supply chain networks (SCN) in the agri-food industry
It was demonstrated that public blockchain technology platform type (BCTPT) permits any entity to participate in the network governance and transactions can be validated by every participating entity
We found that performance expectancy (PE), EE, facilitating conditions (FC), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and AT positively influence the usage of blockchain technology (BCT) in the coffee production process independent of age, gender, job function, and professional experience
Summary
Blockchain technology is a meta-technology that has the potential to change business models and supply chain networks (SCN) in the agri-food industry. Based on a distributed computing architecture, the blockchain protocol in its current form enables the provision of provenance information as well as tracking and tracing to support supply chain management. Its implementation in vertically cooperated food supply chains (FSC) has started. FSCs are typically managed centrally with a focal firm being responsible for the coordination of the network [1]. Sensitized by food poisoning cases, consumers nowadays require provenance information and transparency about the production of the food item [2]. Adopters in the coffee industry are building on blockchain technology (BCT) solutions to provide better visibility about the journey of the coffee product in their supply chain [3].
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