Information Systems and e-Business Management (2021) 19:909–935

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10257-020-00467-3

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption

of blockchain technologies in food supply chains:
a thematic analysis

Si Chen1 · Xingchen Liu1 · Jiaqi Yan1   · Guangwei Hu1 · Yani Shi2

Received: 31 March 2019 / Revised: 14 February 2020 / Accepted: 17 February 2020 /

Published online: 27 February 2020
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Blockchain technologies have become increasingly popular and attracted great inter-
est in recent years. Beyond the financial sector, blockchain technologies are prom-
ising for addressing the current limitations in food supply chain management. As
blockchain adoption for food supply chains is still in an early stage, it is significant
to have a thematic framework to systematically understand the processes, benefits,
and challenges. This paper aims to explore the adoption of blockchain technologies
in food supply chains with a thematic analysis. Desktop research is conducted, and
data is collected from online databases, including news article (e.g. Factiva) and
research paper databases (e.g. Web of Science). Then we carry out a qualitative
thematic analysis, according to the investigation processes suggested by Creswell.
Based on the thematic analysis, we identify seven first-order themes and two second-
order themes in adoption processes; thirteen first-order themes, sixteen second-order
themes, and five third-order themes in benefits; and fourteen first-order themes and
five second-order themes in challenges. In addition, we discuss and propose how to
improve blockchain adoption in food supply chains in practice.

Keywords  Blockchain · Food supply chain · Thematic analysis

1 Introduction

As the food trade has become globalized, the food supply chain has become more
complicated, resulting in a greater likelihood of food fraud that has reduced trust
among supply chain parties and raised significant food safety concerns among
* Jiaqi Yan
jiaqiyan@nju.edu.cn
1
School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Qixia District, Xianlin Road 163,
Nanjing, People’s Republic of China
2
School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing,
People’s Republic of China

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 910 S. Chen et al.

consumers (Aung and Chang 2014; Sarpong 2014). In recent years, we have wit-
nessed global food safety issues, including the Europe 2013 horse meat scandal
resulting from food labelling fraud (Levitt 2016), the 2017 multi-state Salmonella
outbreak in the US caused by Maradol papayas (Menson 2018), and the 2017 con-
taminated egg scandal in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and 15 EU states (Boffey and
Connolly 2017). These food safety issues not only endanger people’s health, but also
affect consumers’ attitudes towards the food market.
Food supply chain management includes not only safety issues, but also origin
fraud and quality issues (Aung and Chang 2014). For complex global supply net-
works, proofs of sources are critical. However, no large-scale agencies are currently
responsible for tracking goods such as food, drugs, or consumer goods; and many
vulnerabilities exist in these agencies (Kim et al. 2018). As a result, regulators are
facing more and continuing food safety challenges. The ability to trace the history of
a food product and collect all the information related to its displacement on the sup-
ply chain in a transparent and secure way is critical for modern companies (Dabbene
et al. 2014).
The emerging blockchain technologies, which improve transparency, security, and
durability of supply chains, show promise for addressing the current limitations of
food supply chain management (Swan 2015; Abeyratne and Monfared 2016). Data
on a blockchain is permanently saved and maintained by all participants within the
supply chain network, which brings transparency and trust to complex supply chains
(Tian  2017). Blockchains make it possible to link foodborne outbreaks to their
causative food vehicle, thus reducing the number of disease outbreaks and victims
in these disasters. Moreover, blockchain helps to analyze the root cause of an out-
break more effectively, which is also conducive to future prevention work (Yiannas
2018). For governments, blockchain technologies could be used to achieve multi-
party management of food markets. Through the system that records the food market
transaction information, food supervision problems are more effectively solved (Tse
et  al. 2017). Adopting blockchain technologies will make it easier for companies
to verify the sources, production time, and production location of raw materials for
quality management purposes.
Some prominent organizations have cooperated on blockchain technology
adoption in food supply chains, improving supply chains organizationally and
technologically (Swan 2015; Abeyratne and Monfared 2016). For instance, IBM
and Walmart coupled with Chinese retailer JD.com, and Tsinghua University
founded a Blockchain Food Safety Alliance collaboration to deal with product
safety issues in food supply chains in China (Aitken 2017). Nevertheless, block-
chain adoption in food supply chains is still in an early stage and faces many
difficulties and challenges (Busby 2018). For example, for industry players such
as grocers and restaurants, blockchain adoption for food traceability has slim
profit margins. The investment on food traceability systems incurs raised costs
without necessarily increasing revenue (Kim et  al. 2018). At present, in practi-
cal applications, blockchain application cases are just small-scale pilots. Large-
scale implementation of blockchain projects involves technology scalability and

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Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 911

social scalability (Ge et al. 2017). It is important to have a thematic framework to

understand the processes, benefits, and challenges of adopting blockchain on food
supply chains. This paper aims to address these issues. We carry out an investiga-
tion of blockchain adoption processes on food supply chains and discuss and pro-
pose challenges and benefits with an outcome that promotes blockchain adoption
in practice.
The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, this study reviews blockchain
literature from the perspective of adoption in food supply chains. We employ
qualitative thematic analysis to investigate the processes, benefits, and challenges
of adopting blockchain technologies in food supply chains. Second, this study
provides practical suggestions for supply chain companies to improve adoption of
blockchain technologies. We explore the implementation of blockchain technolo-
gies, which can facilitate transformation from traditional food supply chains to
blockchain-based food supply chains in organizations.

2 literature review

2.1 Blockchain technology features

Blockchain technology, regarded as a disruptive technology that could revolution-

ize society and its operations with similar impact to the Web, is a record-keeping
distributed database of shared public ledgers where digital events are executed
and shared among the participants (Swan 2015; Crosby et  al. 2016). The primary
characteristics of blockchain include decentralization, consensus mechanism, anti-
tampering, transparency, and integrity (Nowiński and Kozma 2017; Lemieux 2016;
Ølnes et  al. 2017). Compared with conventional digital technologies, the most
obvious difference is that blockchain technology has the distributed structure–P2P
nature; in other words, rather than one party governing all the data in a centralized
way, everyone in the network has a full copy of transactions (Ølnes et  al. 2017).
Moreover, ‘consensus mechanism’, based on the idea of a decentralized consensus
protocol, is a key concept in transactions (Buterin, 2014). Nodes combine transac-
tions into a new ‘block’ every ten minutes, and this new block is added to the pre-
vious chain; therefore, each recorded block includes the data locked in the formal
block and the chain grows longer (Buterin 2014). Blockchains can be either public
or private (Beck and Müller-Bloch 2017). In public blockchains, all transactions are
accessible to everyone in the network. In contrast, private blockchains are only open
to a few selected members who have permission. Furthermore, private blockchains
can apply to a single organization as well as a consortium of participating organi-
zations (O’Leary 2017). Records of every transaction are accessible to the partici-
pants through distributed public or private ledgers, thus to remove the collectively
maintained records is impractical. (Crosby et  al. 2016). As an important property
of blockchain technology, decentralization allows for all parties to check on any

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 912 S. Chen et al.

adulteration of information; thus, there is no need to appraise the trustworthiness of

the intermediary or other participants in the network, which leads to anti-tampering,
transparency, and integrity (Nofer et al. 2017).

2.2 Blockchain technology adoption in food supply chains

Blockchain has the potential to affect cost, quality, speed, dependability, risk reduc-
tion, sustainability, and flexibility, which are the key objectives of supply chain man-
agement (Kshetri 2018). Moreover, blockchain’s ability to guarantee the reliability,
traceability, and authenticity of information, along with smart contractual relation-
ships in a trustless environment, would impact the food supply chain dramatically,
considering the desire for reliable suppliers in industries and customers’ increasing
concerns about food safety (Kshetri 2018).
To be specific, blockchain technology works on various facets to transform tra-
ditional supply chains to blockchain-based supply chains. The material flows and
supply chain products are influenced. All products have an information tag that rep-
resents an identifier connecting physical products to their virtual identities in the
blockchain (Abeyratne and Monfared 2016). In this way, all relevant actors who
have been certified by a registered auditor or certifier, such as manufacturers, retail-
ers, and customers, have direct product profile access (Baker and Steiner 2015;
Tian 2017). Before a product is transferred, both parties may meet a smart contract
requirement to authenticate the exchange. Smart contracts are able to execute real-
time temperature control, logistics monitoring, and automatic transactions when
the ownership of products changes based on the predefined conditions agreed upon
between the parties (Ndraha et al. 2018; Reyna et al. 2018).
In addition to the theoretical investigations (e.g. Brenig et  al. 2016) of block-
chain-based food supply chains, there are also some interesting explorations on
applications in practice. Tian (2016) established an agri-food supply chain traceabil-
ity system based on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and blockchain technol-
ogy based on analyzing the current safety problems in a Chinese agri-food logistics
system. The new system involves efficient tracking and tracing ability, thus guaran-
teeing the credibility of the agri-food safety information.

2.3 Technology adoption theories

Adoption theory explains how a single party in an ecosystem adopts a change; diffu-
sion theory identifies a group phenomenon, which suggests how an innovation spreads
in the ecosystem across time from a macro-perspective (Straub 2009). Therefore, inte-
grating these two theories helps understanding of how a new technology would be
adopted and diffused in an industry, because adoption will generally give rise to diffu-
sion. The DOI (Diffusion of Innovation) theory and TOE (Technology, Organization,
and Environment) framework are predominant IT adoption theories at the firm level
(Oliveira and Martins 2011). Both theories have investigated the factors that influence

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Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 913

technological innovativeness in organizations. In DOI theory, technological innova-

tion is related to the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and social sys-
tems (Rogers 2003). In the TOE framework, technological innovation decision-making
is emphasized, which is impacted by factors including the external task environment,
availability and characteristics of technology, and characteristics of organizations (Tor-
natzky and Fleischer 1990). The environmental context is considered as a new and
important part of analyzing technological innovation in the TOE framework (Olive-
ria and Martins 2011). Although the influencing factors of technology innovations are
explored, both theories mainly focus on the decision-making process, and technologi-
cal innovation processes receive little attention. DOI theory defines five adopter catego-
ries according to individual innovativeness: innovators, early adopters, early majority,
late majority, and laggards (Rogers 2003). Technological adoption is explored with a
focus on the initiation process rather than the implementation process in these prior
studies. However, the implementation process at the firm level involves a large number
of stakeholders and each plays a role in the decision process, which makes the whole
process more complicated (Oliveria and Martins 2011).
The investigation of variables related to technological adoption is emphasized in
prior studies (Zhang et  al. 2015). For example, Moser and Mosler (2008) used DOI
theory to develop the different motivations for households to adopt solar water disin-
fection technology. However, only a few studies have paid attention to the effects of
adopting innovations. Rogers (2003) classified the consequences of innovations into
three dimensions, including ‘desirable versus undesirable’, ‘direct versus indirect’, and
‘anticipated versus unanticipated’. ‘Desirable versus undesirable’ means an innovation
may be beneficial for a system but may exert bad influence on some certain individuals
in the system. ‘Direct versus indirect’ recognizes that the adopter in the system may
experience direct consequences as soon an innovation is adopted, and this consequence
may lead to indirect consequences for other individuals in the system. ‘Anticipated
versus unanticipated’ includes the uncertainty factor of innovations, which may result
from the technology itself or the change agents. Both the participants in the system and
the change agents have difficulties in predicting adoption of the innovation. All three
dimensions generally give some guidance on management in organizations after tech-
nology adoption.
To summarize, the DOI theory and TOE framework have identified a series of fac-
tors that influence technology adoption, as well as the consequences of the innova-
tions, as shown in Fig.  1. These factors are the fundamentals for analyzing the ben-
efits, challenges, and processes of blockchain adoption in food supply chains in this
study. Blockchain technology is potentially a disruptive technology for supply chain
management. Prior research on blockchain-based food supply chains mainly focuses on
how to initiate the use of blockchains, including theoretical and practical explorations.
However, few studies have reviewed and evaluated adoption processes to help improve
blockchain adoption in food supply chains. This paper investigates blockchain imple-
mentation in food supply chains. We also emphasize the challenges and benefits to
organizations after adopting blockchain in order to facilitate their transformation from a
traditional food supply chain to a blockchain-based food supply chain.

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Fig. 1  Technology adoption theories

3 Research methodology

3.1 Thematic analysis

Thematic analysis is a method of systematically identifying, organizing, and providing

insights into the themes of a dataset. The focus of thematic analysis is not identifying
unique and specific meanings and experiences found only within a single data item
(Braun et al. 2019). It is actually a qualitative analysis, which is used to analyze data
classifications and present patterns that relate to the data. And it explains the dataset
in great detail by processing different themes (Boyatzis 1998). As an independent and
reliable qualitative analysis method, thematic analysis has also been introduced as a
qualitative description method to provide researchers with core skills to do other forms
of qualitative analysis (Vaismoradi et al. 2013). The purpose of thematic analysis is
to decompose the text into smaller units of content and handle these units through
descriptive analysis (Sparkes 2005). The process of determining the themes is com-
pleted by carefully reading and rereading the data (Rice and Ezzy 1999). Therefore,
thematic analysis is essentially an exploration of themes that are important for describ-
ing phenomena (Daly et al. 1997). Thematic analysis can help researchers understand
any issue more widely (Marks and Yardley 2004). Boyatzis (1998) describes thematic
analysis as a translation between researchers using a qualitative research method and
researchers using a quantitative research method, and it enables researchers using dif-
ferent research methods to communicate with each other. A rigorous thematic analysis
can produce trustworthy and insightful discoveries (Braun and Clarke 2006).
The thematic analysis method is suitable for answering questions such as the follow-
ing: What are people’s concerns about the event? What are the reasons people use or
do not use services or programs? (Ayres 2007). For any research that attempts discov-
ery through interpretation, thematic analysis is considered to be the most appropriate

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because it provides a systematic element for data analysis (Alhojailan 2012). Based on
the following reasons, we have chosen thematic analysis as our research method:

1. Thematic analysis applies to a wide range of research questions, from people’s

experience or understanding of problems to questions about the performance and
construction of specific phenomena in a particular context (Clarke and Braun
2013). Therefore, this research satisfies the scope of the thematic analysis.
2. Good qualitative research needs to be able to interpret the dataset and be consist-
ent with the dataset. Based on this, thematic analysis can detect and identify fac-
tors or variables that influence any issue generated by the participants (Alhojailan
2012). Therefore, thematic analysis can help us better identify the factors that
influence blockchain adoption and the challenges that enterprises may encounter.
3. Thematic analysis provides a flexible approach that can be adapted to the needs
of the research, offering a rich and detailed but complex data record (Braun and
Clarke 2006). This flexibility allows any researcher to process observations col-
lected throughout the study (Alhojailan 2012).
4. Thematic analysis can be applied to different types of data, from secondary
sources such as media to transcripts of focus groups or interviews. And it can be
used to analyze large datasets as well as small datasets (Clarke and Braun 2013).
5. Thematic analysis helps to examine the perspectives of different researchers,
which highlights similarities and differences and generates unanticipated insights,
especially useful for summarizing key features of large datasets, because it forces
researchers to adopt a well-structured method to process data and produce a clear
and organized final report (Braun and Clarke 2006; King 2004).

3.2 Data collection

This study uses the desktop research method to collect text materials retrieved from
databases with free access. There are two stages of data collection. In the first stage,
we retrieved data directly related to the current status of blockchain adoption in food
supply chains from two databases, Factiva and Nexis. Factiva provides worldwide,
full-text coverage of international newspapers, business newswires, etc., which helps
the researcher get into the real business world. To supplement the articles retrieved
from Factiva, Nexis was used to find more news. Nexis is a large database that cov-
ers above 4000 business information sources, including the Financial Times and
other global news sources. Searching these two databases provided all the up-to-date
news on food supply chains. In the second stage, we searched databases for aca-
demic studies, including Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and Science Direct. Con-
sidering that blockchain keywords were first mentioned in the Bitcoin whitepaper
published in 2009, the searched news covers 11 years, from 2009 to 2019. A total of
773 news articles in Factiva, 1822 news articles in Nexis, and 115 research papers
were identified and selected for data analysis, as seen in Table 1. We also present the
changes in the number of relevant papers in the news database and journal database
from 2009 to 2019 in the form of line charts (Figs. 2, 3, 4).

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Table 1  Summary of data collection

Databases For database search (searched within title, Amount
abstract, and/or full text)

Factiva ‘Food supply chain’ and ‘blockchain’ 773

Nexis ‘Food supply chain’ and ‘blockchain’ 1822
ABI/Inform; EBSCO; Web of Science; IEEE ‘Food supply chain’ and ‘blockchain’ 115
Xplore; ScienceDirect ‘Food supply chain’ and ‘blockchain’

Factiva
400
347
300
282

200
133
100

0 11
2016 and before 2017 2018 2019

Fig. 2  Factiva data collection 2009 to 2019

Nexis
1000

800 847
683
600

400
275
200

0 17
2016 and before 2017 2018 2019

Fig. 3  Nexis data collection 2009 to 2019

Journal Databases
40 37
20 18
16
10
9 8
0 2
0 2
1
0 4 2
2016 and before 2017 2018 2019

web of science IEEE Xplore ScienceDirect

ABI EBSCO

Fig. 4  Data from five journal databases 2009 to 2019

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Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 917

These retrieved articles and materials were systematically analyzed and synthe-
sized, then used as raw materials to find the processes, benefits, and challenges of
blockchain adoption in food supply chains.

3.3 Data analysis

This research uses thematic analysis to analyze the content of secondary sources,
which is a method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting themes through reading
and rereading the data (Boyatzis 1998). In other words, thematic analysis combines
and integrates components or fragments from data, which are often meaningless
when viewed alone (Braun and Clarke 2006).
In this study, thematic analysis is carried out following six steps proposed by
Braun and Clarke (2006). The first step is to organize and prepare the data for analy-
sis and become familiar with the dataset. In this research, we sorted and arranged
the documents into different types, including newspapers and journal articles. The
researchers read the news and journal articles several times to gain a good under-
standing of the data before moving to the coding stage. Step two is generating initial
codes. In this phase, we organized our data in a meaningful and systematic way.
Instead of line-by-line coding, we encoded the data segments associated with our
research problem. In this stage, we carefully studied the content of text materials for
the analysis of naming and classification, through the process of analyzing, examin-
ing and conceptualizing and comparing the data. Step three is searching for themes.
A theme is characterized by its significance. There are hundreds of themes in the
process of open coding, so we classified similar concepts. At this stage, the catego-
ries are temporary and may be subject to change at any time due to new discoveries.
At the end of this phase, the code was organized into broader themes that illustrated
the specifics of the research question. Step four is reviewing themes. At this stage,
we read the data associated with every theme and considered whether or not the
data really supported each theme and worked in the context of the entire dataset. We
also checked whether those themes were coherent and distinct from each other. Step
five is to define and name the themes. This is the final refinement of the themes,
and the aim is to identify the ‘essence’ of what each theme is about (Braun and
Clarke 2006). At this stage, we made the relationship between the theme and the
sub-themes clear. We used the meaning or image evoked by the data to name the
theme. Step six is writing-up. Writing is an integral part of the analytical process in
thematic analysis, which includes analytical narrative and data extraction.
There were two coders for the data analysis processes, a postgraduate student and
an assistant professor. Both coders have published papers on blockchain and sup-
ply chain research and have used thematic analysis in previous work. To improve
the accuracy of thematic analysis, a sample of 115 research papers was assigned for
check-coding. Two coders independently analyzed these 115 research papers. We
use Index of Inter-coder Agreement π (Scott 1955) to report the proportion of agree-
ment between the coders, as seen in the following equation:

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 918 S. Chen et al.

Table 2  Percentage of Categories Percent of

categories all papers
(%)

Processes 11
Benefits 63
Challenges 14
Not ascertained 12

( ) ( )
𝜋 = P0 − Pe ∕ 1 − Pe .

­P0 shows the observed percent agreement, which is the percentage of judgements on
which coders agree out of the total number of judgements. In this case, after calcu-
lating the agreed codes out of the total number, ­P0 = 0.82. ­Pe stands for the expected
percent agreement for the dimension, which is the sum of the squared proportions
over all categories, as in the equation:
k
∑
Pe = P2i
i=1

As Scott (1955) argued, objective code dimensions such as ‘sex’ or ‘race’ are
more reliable than attitudinal dimensions, which require judgement. The relative
objective dimensions, i.e., processes, benefits, and challenges, are used as the cat-
egories, as shown in Table 2.
In this case, ­Pe = 0.443, and the index of inter-coder agreement π = (0.82 – 0.443)/
(1 – 0.443) = 0.68. After analyzing all the data, the coders discussed the differences
and reached a best judgement in every case of disagreement.

4 Results

Through thematic analysis of the secondary data, the results identified a range of
interrelated processes about how blockchain is applied in the supply chain and the
benefits and challenges of adoption, as shown in Table 3.
Overall, the adoption processes we identified from newspaper and journal arti-
cles for food supply chain include information collection and chain-style data stor-
age mechanisms on the supply chain. In addition, we identified five main themes
in benefits and five main themes in challenges based on the data analysis. All these
processes and related benefits and challenges are applicable to food supply chains.
Among them, some themes are particularly important for food supply chains, and
some are unique. For example, in the Processes domain, the first-order themes
Unique digital identifiers for each food item, All the information is stored, and
Record feedback and ratings demonstrate how blockchain will change information
collection in a food supply chain. These elements are crucial to food quality con-
trols. In the Benefits domain, Improve food quality management indicates block-
chain adoption is particularly important in food supply chains since the quality and

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Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 919

authenticity of materials are of high importance. The second-order theme Assist

government supervision presents how blockchain technology can help food supply
chain governance. In Challenges domain, Multiple datasets from all the different
ingredients of foods addresses how the different characteristics of the food and the
stakeholders presents a challenge to adopting blockchain technology in food supply
chains.

4.1 Blockchain adoption processes in food supply chains

Processes to adopt blockchain technology in the food supply chain are shown in
Fig.  5. We find 80 (3.1%) news articles (shown NA in the figure) and 26 (22.6%)
research articles (shown RA in the figure) in this area, which correspond to two dif-
ferent second-order themes. The theme Information collection on food supply chain
shows how the adoption of blockchain has made a series of changes to information
collection. The themes Unique identifiers for each food item and all the informa-
tion is stored refer to the improvement of information collection methods. The sen-
sors used in the supply chain facilitate a digital production record of all products
and related information in supply chains (Tian 2017; Hua et  al. 2018). Each food
item has a unique digital identifier in the supply chain, and the identities of those

Table 3  Themes table

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Table 3  (continued)
2.Benefits 2.1 Enhance efficiency 2.1.1 Manage supply chain
of the supply chain data
2.1.2 Streamline the supply
chain
2.1.3 Facilitate collaborations
on the supply chain
2.2 Quick and accurate 2.2.1 Track food from origin
traceability to store
2.2.2 A digital record is
created of every transaction
and interaction
2.2.3 Capture real-time data
2.2.4 Possible to trace a
product in seconds rather than
weeks
2.3 Reliability and 2.3.1 Real-time accessibility
transparency
2.3.2 Shared and trusted
information
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S. Chen et al.
2.1.1.1 Digitalizing entire
supply chain
2.1.1.2 Standardization of
data across the food
industry
2.1.1.3 Improve data
management between
stakeholders in the supply
chain
2.1.2.1 Faster lead times
2.1.2.2 Improve inventory
management
2.1.2.3 Weaken bullwhip
effect and improve
forecast
2.1.2.4 Quick response to
the changing market
2.1.3.1 Bridging
organizational boundaries
2.1.3.2 Solve the
complexity of
many-to-many
relationships
2.1.3.3 Build trust between
trading partners
Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 921

Table 3  (continued)

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 922 S. Chen et al.

Table 3  (continued)
3.3 Blockchain technology 3.3.1 Protection of privacy
characteristics
3.3.2 Error intolerance
3.3.3 Scalability issues
3.3.4 Transaction
capability of blockchain
3.3.5 No guarantee that the
data initially entered is
reliable
3.4 High investment in
blockchain-based systems
3.5 Absence of regulations,
legislation, and global
standard

Fig. 5  Thematic map of the adoption processes domain

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Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 923

who input data into the chain are also recorded (Antonucci et al. 2019; Casino et al.
2019). Moreover, the theme Record feedback and ratings pertains to customer feed-
back and ratings collected and recorded on the blockchain for all prospective stake-
holders, which facilitates future service improvement (Chandra et al. 2019).
The theme Chain-style data storage mechanisms refers to the way in which infor-
mation is stored on blockchain-enabled food supply chains. The first-order themes
Decentralized form and Non-reversibility mechanisms refer to the characteristics
of data storage mechanisms provided by blockchain technology, which can pre-
vent malicious modification (He et  al. 2019). Moreover, the chance of corruption
is decreased because data on the blockchain is immutable (Creasey 2017; Springer
2017; Nash 2018a). These two mechanisms of blockchain-enabled data storage drew
more attention in publications compared with the characteristics of Data access
by permission (Pearson 2019) and Smart contract triggered automatic immediate
actions on the supply chain (Tieman and Darun 2017).

4.2 Benefits of blockchain adoption in food supply chains

The publications concentrating on the benefits of blockchain adoption in

food supply chains include 657 news articles (25.3%) and 90 research articles
(78.3%), as shown in Fig. 6. It is obvious the thematic area of benefits is the most
prevalent among the three areas. Within this thematic area there are five third-
order themes, and we begin with the most frequently occurring one: Quick and

Fig. 6  Thematic map of the benefits domain

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 924 S. Chen et al.

accurate traceability. Blockchain provides a permanent record for each transac-

tion (Tse et al. 2017), and real-time data can be captured to supervise the grow-
ing, producing, processing, and selling of food products (BMI Research 2018;
Lucas 2018). With this digitalised traceability solution, food products could be
tracked from their origin to the store (Edmund 2018), which means the life cycle
of one specific item is drawn transparently. Moreover, the timing of tracing food
is enhanced to seconds rather than days (Germano 2017; Rosenbush 2018).
The theme Reliability and transparency also occurs frequently in the publica-
tions. This theme is combined with Quick and accurate traceability to discuss
the benefits that blockchain has brought to the food supply chain in many cases.
Blockchain facilitates to record and view the transaction in real-time (Chandra
et al. 2019). All the information of food products is stored in a shared and trans-
parent system, establishing a trusted source of information for all transactions
(Galvez et al. 2018; Mao et al. 2019).
The theme Improve food quality management refers to different perspectives in
which food quality management can be improved after blockchain adoption. Pub-
lications in this theme identify and explore such improvements. The three second-
order themes illustrate such improvements from three facets. Reduce food safety
risks refers to assessing the health risks of food plants at every stage in their
operations with blockchain technology (Sayer 2017). Therefore, the sources of
foodborne illnesses can be identified in case of an outbreak (Schwarzbaum 2018;
Alexandre 2018). In addition, only specific batches of tainted food would need
to be removed from shelves, rather than all of a suspected contaminated product;
thus reducing the economic costs of food recalls (Cooper 2017; CQ FD Disclo-
sure 2016). Blockchain plays an important role in preventing expired and mishan-
dled food from reaching customers, which also reduces the food safety risks. The
themes Prevent food fraud and Eliminate food waste also describe the food qual-
ity management improvement after blockchain adoption. To be specific, defec-
tive products can be located immediately and retailers notified. The food industry
could save up to 31 billion dollars in food fraud reduction in just five years (Cant
2019). Food spoilage problems can be reduced through planning the best delivery
routine and lessening delivery time for perishable food (Germano 2017; Shaffer
2017; Abrar 2018).
The theme Enhance efficiency of the supply chain focuses on a series of changes
to supply chain operations that blockchain technology could make. Publications in
this theme, including 68 news articles (2.6%) and 31 research papers (30.0%), argue
the adoption of blockchain could enhance the efficiency of food supply chains. How-
ever, fewer articles could identify in detail the ways in which efficiency could be
improved. The three second-order themes, Manage supply chain data, Streamline
the supply chain, and Facilitate collaboration, describe the specific approaches. In
management of supply chain data, IBM consultants have decreased trade document
workflow by 97% through digitalizing the supply chain in blockchain projects. Data
standardization helps to manage supply chain data efficiently across a complex net-
work of related stakeholders, and enterprise-level smart contracts protect corporate
privacy through preserving and managing food data (Spenser 2019; Wang et  al.

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Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 925

2019). Moreover, blockchain has the ability to ensure secure data sharing among
stakeholders in the supply chain and improve data management (Mao et al. 2018).
The second-order theme Streamline the food supply chain focuses on the opera-
tions of food supply chains. Automatic immediate actions on the supply chain
reduce lead times on unexpected issues. Moreover, blockchain technology facilitates
the visibility of the whole supply chain and thus improves the inbound processes
and promotes precise inventory determination (Perboli et  al. 2018; Astill et  al.
2019). In the medium and long term, blockchain technology helps to reduce the
bullwhip effect and improve the forecast for distributors (Perboli et al. 2018), as well
as responding more quickly to changing markets (Tse et al. 2017).
The second-order theme Facilitate collaboration on food supply chain refers to
the improved relationships among the actors in the food supply chain. Global food
supply chains may involve multiple nations and include thousands of suppliers.
Blockchain technologies are expected to handle the complex relationships in food
supply chains through the shared ledger (Mearian 2018; Business Wire 2017; Nash
2018b). Furthermore, considering a food system as a holistic system for every per-
son in the world, the blockchain-based trials led by Walmart and IBM attempt to
solve food safety problems under collaborative rather than competitive situations
(IBM 2017; Armonk 2017). IBM Food Trust solutions seek to collaborate and
seamlessly connect with other participants. This shows the stakeholders’ positive
attitude towards cooperation, so as to achieve the interests of a community (IBM
2018). Therefore, blockchain technology adoption is an ideal way to gain strategic
alliance and cooperative effects in the food industry. Blockchain technology helps
expand business because when all parties put their information on the chain, they
are free to choose their business partners (Mathew 2018). This could significantly
reduce the amount of money spent investigating food sources. Moreover, because all
the trading history will be stored on the chain, Tieman and Darun (2017) suggested
that the supply chain participants can be rated in terms of their performance.
The theme Benefit all the stakeholders refers to the advantages blockchain tech-
nology could bring to all the stakeholders in the food supply chain. Four second-
order themes illustrate these advantages. One of the advantages is to Eliminate the
need for intermediaries. In the food industry, especially agri-food, many companies
are intermediaries between farmers and retailers. There is no doubt that the middle-
men provide trust and promote communication and trading between parties, but they
also charge a huge fee. According to a pilot project for IFPRI and an Asian Devel-
opment Bank pilot in Uttarakhand (2009) cited in the United News of India (2018),
if farmers sell products directly to organized retailers, 25–35% of transaction costs
can be saved. Moreover, United News of India (2018) reported that the presence of
multiple intermediaries is one of the reasons that Indian farmers’ income is 30%
lower than the consumer price. With the automatic action of smart contracts and
immutable records on the chain, there is no need for banks and agencies to provide a
verified service, which means that retailers can implement direct procurement from
farmers, reducing transaction costs and increasing profits (Charlebois 2017; Loop
2016).

13
 926 S. Chen et al.

The next second-order theme concentrating on the advantages brought to

stakeholders is Great ease of payment. Farmers are often hurt by price coercion
and retroactive payments, but blockchain provides a legitimate option for them
to sell products at a reasonable price and receive timely payments (Charlebois
2017). Walmart’s Market Readiness Program has proposed a key initiative called
‘direct procurement from farmers’ in order to support the Indian government’s
goal of increasing farmers’ income (United News of India 2018). Therefore, the
endeavor to adopt blockchain technology may exert beneficial impact on farmers
and improve their reputation.
Another perspective is to Improve customer relationship management. Block-
chain technology helps consumers increase the knowledge about food provenance
(Pearson 2019; Nene et al. 2019; Baralla et al. 2019; Krzyzanowski 2019; Hein-
rich et al. 2019). For example, consumers may reconstruct the history of a prod-
uct through reading the QR (Quick Response) code. Traceability and transpar-
ency of products will improve the confidence of consumers and therefore increase
the number of loyal consumers, which further facilitates a better customer rela-
tionship (Bumblauskas et al. 2019; Nene et al. 2019; Kshetri 2019; Galvez et al.
2018).
We label the fourth second-order theme Assist government supervision. Gov-
ernments could use blockchain-based systems to collect information about vari-
ous food products and ensure food safety standards were met. Furthermore,
blockchain helps to strengthen the supervision and management of traders and
block the sale of illegal products (Tse et al. 2017; Heinrich et al. 2019).

4.3 Challenges of blockchain adoption in food supply chains

Figure 7 shows the thematic area pertaining to the challenges of blockchain adoption
in food supply chains. The publications concentrating on the challenges include 91
news articles (3.5%) and 29 research articles (25.2%). Comparing with the benefits
discussed in 657 news articles (25.3%) and 90 research articles (78.3%), it is noted
that much less attention has been paid to challenges in both newspapers and research
articles. Five second-order themes are identified based on data analysis. The theme
Complexity of integration refers to the requirements of integrating the data, systems,
and users for blockchain adoption. The first-order theme The need for industrial
cluster adoption refers to the challenge that successful adoption requires enough
players willing to collaborate (Cooper 2017). The 2019 Annual Industry Report
from MHI and Deloitte reports based on a survey of more than 1000 supply chain
professionals noted that blockchain has the lowest adoption rate, 10%, of all the dis-
ruptive technologies in the report (Blanchard 2019). All the actors in a supply chain
need to participate, which is considered as one of the most important barriers that
prevents blockchain technology from flourishing (BMI Research 2018). Single food
enterprises with individual suppliers for blockchain adoption would lead to siloes of
data (Nash 2018b).
The first-order themes Multiple datasets from all the different ingredients of foods
and A common and open data standard refer to the data integration challenges.

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Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 927

Fig. 7  Thematic map of the challenges domain

Ensuring high data quality is crucial for the success of blockchain-based systems.
Most products are manufactured by several suppliers rather than just one. For exam-
ple, biscuits are made from a variety of ingredients, the production process of which
involves several suppliers. Every involved supplier must record the production infor-
mation, such as raw materials, using blockchain technology. Therefore, integrating
these suppliers into a blockchain system can be a very difficult and costly task. In
light of this discussion, and in order to protect their own benefits, some suppliers
may not be willing to share their data, which may increase the difficulty of food
tracking and result in missed information (BMI Research 2018). In addition, apply-
ing blockchain to the supply chain involves multi-agency cooperation. The data col-
lected by each company in the supply chain may be in different forms. The food
system is complex, and each segment does business in their own way. For exam-
ple, manufacturer A records production information on paper, and manufacturer B
records production information in the form of a picture. Transferring these different
information formats from the company system to the blockchain is a problem (Nash
2018a, b; Amato-McCoy 2018). One possible solution is that enterprises in the
food supply chain negotiate with each other to define a unified data format, which is
another challenge for blockchain adoption.
The second-order themes Integrate different platforms and legacy systems and
database pertains to challenges of integrating the different systems. Many com-
panies are developing their own blockchain-based platforms and these platforms
are possibly not compatible with one another (BMI Research 2018). Moreover, if
the competitive platforms do not interact with each other, one supplier may need

13
 928 S. Chen et al.

to develop multiple blockchain-based systems for various clients (BMI Research

2018). At Starbucks, the ability to develop and implement blockchain technol-
ogy into existing infrastructure in a faster and less resource-intensive manner is a
top concern of the managers making a decision on blockchain adoption (O’Neal
2019). The public cloud giant AWS also points out building a scalable blockchain
network with existing technologies is complicated to set up and manage (Krishna
2019).
Another thematic grouping pertaining to challenges is Immature application of
blockchain technology. In the early phase of blockchain development, the theme
Low familiarity and misunderstanding of blockchain adoption is included in the
publications. Although blockchain has mostly been considered as a top priority in
the food industry, some industry leaders lack blockchain knowledge, which could
postpone adoption (Edmund 2018). On the other hand, there is also a fundamen-
tal misunderstanding of the implications of blockchain, which takes blockchain as
a magic bullet (Blanchard 2019). Both of these considerations challenge the large-
scale implementation of blockchain. Users’ acceptance also needs to be considered
during blockchain implementation. As a group of active actors in the supply chain,
farmers are rarely keen to innovative technologies (Whitehead 2019). Companies
also face the challenge of getting employees to accept blockchain technology (Maras
2019). Apart from users’ attitudes, Supportive business processes, technologies, and
applications play important roles for blockchain adoption. At the earliest phase of
blockchain implementation, enterprises need to professionalize the related infra-
structure and set up the supportive technology (Peters 2018). Businesses would risk
their software and even their business models becoming outdated without consider-
ing how to use blockchain to restructure operations (Salzman 2018). Under these
situations, the blockchain developers are important. Labor and skill shortage have
been identified as a key difficulty in the blockchain industry (Kshetri 2019).
The theme Blockchain technology characteristics pertains to the characteristics
that may prevent its acceptance and implementation in organizations. The first-order
themes No guarantee that the data initially entered is reliable, Error intolerance,
and Protection of privacy refer to challenges brought from the data storage mecha-
nisms of blockchain technology. The data stays immutable on blockchains. How-
ever, there is not any verification mechanisms to prove the authenticity of the raw
data (Galvez et al. 2018). Moreover, correcting inaccurate or fraudulent data is oner-
ous (Tan et al. 2018). An excess of information transparency would cause privacy
protection issues (He et al. 2019; Yu and Huang 2018). Some sensitive information
may be contained in agricultural products, such as production methods. Therefore,
it is difficult to handle the balance between confidentiality and transparency (Menon
2018). The first-order themes Transaction capability of blockchain and Scalability
issues refers to characteristics preventing large-scale blockchain implementation.
Currently, Bitcoin can only process seven transactions per second due to the original
block size limit and the time interval for generating new blocks and cannot handle
millions of real-time requirements simultaneously (Zheng et al. 2016). Thus, block-
chain applications are constrained by the time necessary to process each transaction
(Chang et al. 2019). Moreover, as the amount of data increases, the storage and com-
puting load will become more and more difficult. Synchronizing data requires a lot

13
Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 929

of time, and it also causes problems for the client when running the system (Karame
2016). Furthermore, more than half of the nodes need to agree to each transaction
in the blockchain, which leads to a feature of low-efficient transaction capacity (Tian
2016; Bettín-Díaz et al. 2018).
The theme High investment on blockchain-based systems has also drawn atten-
tion in publications. One of the prerequisites for using blockchain technology is that
every involved supplier must record their production information by using a digi-
tal device. However, some small suppliers still record information using pen and
paper. It is costly and time-consuming for them to replace paper and pen with digi-
tal devices (Cohen 2018). Integrating all the companies into the blockchain system
requires financial support and infrastructural investment (Menon 2018). At present,
most companies apply blockchain to food traceability, but the cost of tracking food is
higher than the value of the food itself (BMI Research 2018). One possible solution
is funding and equipment investment provided by governments (Tan et al. 2018).
Another thematic group pertaining to challenges is Absence of regulations, legis-
lation, and global standard. Blockchain technology is very complex, and its speed
of change is very fast (Cooper 2017). At present, there is no standardization or
regulation of blockchain technology (Edmund 2018; Lucas 2018). There are many
large and small suppliers in food supply chains. Without uniform standards, these
suppliers cannot share data, and technical compatibility cannot be ensured (Krause
2018). In addition to the lack of relevant standards in blockchain technology, there
are currently no laws related to blockchain. At present, 20 states in the United States
are considering establishing such laws. However, this is also a challenge because
most countries have not taken any action on laws related to blockchain. Since sup-
ply chains are increasingly global, suppliers in different countries will apply block-
chain in their own ways, since there is no agreed-upon standard. A global agreement
should clarify how blockchain needs to be formatted and its construct (The New
Zealand Herald 2018). The global supply chain operates in a complex worldwide
environment, therefore diverse laws, regulations, and institutions are involved. Over-
lapping and conflicting demands from various national regulators around the world
bring more challenges for the development of blockchain-related regulations and
laws (Galvez et al. 2018).

5 Discussion and conclusion

5.1 Major findings

This study investigates the processes, benefits, and challenges of blockchain adop-
tion in food supply chains. Based on thematic analysis of 2595 news articles and 115
research articles, we identify seven first-order themes and two second-order themes
in adoption processes; thirteen first-order themes, sixteen second-order themes,
five third-order themes in benefits; and fourteen first-order themes and five second-
order themes in challenges. The results show that in both news articles and research
articles discussing blockchain and the food supply chain, much attention has been
paid to the benefits of blockchain adoption and fewer articles have investigated the

13
 930 S. Chen et al.

adoption processes and challenges. According to the technology adoption theories,

both the dark and light side of innovations are worth consideration. An emphasis on
investigating the challenges may provide more insight for researchers and practition-
ers on blockchain adoption.
The factors that influence blockchain technology use in food supply chains are
not constrained to those factors identified in the DOI model and TOE framework.
In addition to organizational structure, people in the organizations and the IT and IS
used to promote the adoption of new technology require attention. This study identi-
fies that technology adoption is not only about the use of a single technology, but
also involves the adoption of relative technologies.
From looking deep into the themes identified, it is interesting to find that some
factors that influence blockchain adoption are double-edged swords: they provide
both benefits and implementation challenges. For example, the transparency of
information in blockchain-based systems causes issues of private protection. The
non-reversibility mechanisms of blockchain result in error intolerance. The theme
Standardization of data presents benefits of blockchain adoption, which facilitates
supply chain data management in complex food systems. However, all the stake-
holders face great challenges to define an open and standard data format so as to
obtain the benefits.

5.2 Implications for research and practice

This study has some theoretical implications. Firstly, it contributes to the block-
chain literature by identifying the processes, benefits, and challenges of blockchain
adoption in food supply chains. Rather than focusing on some specific facets, we
attempt to inventory, summarize, synthesize, and interpret both the news articles
and research articles and identify 34 first-order themes, 23 s-order themes, and five
third-order themes. Secondly, at the early stage of blockchain adoption, news arti-
cles detailing real business cases could provide important implications for research.
This study also has important practical implications for blockchain adoption
in the food industry. The results suggest that although blockchain adoption has
been initiated in several companies, further improvement of adoption processes is
required to optimize supply chain management. Although the benefits are obvious,
there are a series of challenges that organizations face. Dominant supply chain com-
panies are assumed to take the first-move strategy of blockchain technology adop-
tion in food supply chains, which could allow them to consolidate their dominant
position. High investment in blockchain adoption is a big obstacle organizations
may face. Moreover, to receive substantial benefits, all parties in the supply chain
must participate. Therefore, collaboration is a solution for stakeholders in the fore-
seeable future. Collaboration is the highest level of integration, which requires trust
among partners at a very high level (Günter et al. 2006; Holma and Salo 2007). In
order to avoid the dilemma that the technology is only accepted by a focal company,
it may have to ‘force’ its unwilling supply chain partners to accept and use block-
chain technologies. However, a truly wide adoption of blockchain technology would
happen when all participants in the ecosystem have a strong value proposition to

13
Processes, benefits, and challenges for adoption of blockchain… 931

join (Kamath 2018). Broader trials are required to determine the actual contributions
of blockchain technology.

Acknowledgement This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (NSFC No. 71701091 and No.71701043), the Chinese Ministry of Education Project of Humani-
ties and Social Science (No.17YJC870020), and the National Social Science Fund of China (18CTQ019).

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