Interval-Valued Hesitant Fuzzy DEMATEL-Based Blockchain Technology Adoption Barriers Evaluation Methodology in Agricultural Supply Chain Management

Blockchain technology is emerging and has high potential to improve and transform the agricultural supply chain. This study investigates the critical barriers to blockchain technology adoption in the Vietnamese agricultural supply chain using a novel interval-valued hesitant fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (IVHF-DEMATEL) approach. The IVHF-DEMATEL technique is applied to identify cause-and-effect relationships and draw the influence-relations map of the barriers. In contrast to prior work, which converts fuzzy sets into crisp sets and then uses crisp set operations, this study is the first study to investigate the Vietnamese agricultural supply chain that uses fully hesitant fuzzy operations representing experts' assessment without information loss during the conversion. Our results show that 'lack of government regulation', 'lack of scalability and system speed', 'a large amount of resource and capital requirements', and 'lack of trust among agro-stakeholder or public perception' are the main barriers. Consistent with previous studies, 'lack of government regulation' is the most significant barrier. The results also indicate the hesitant degree of each barrier and better inform decision-makers about uncertain situations. Moreover, a priority order for tackling barriers is proposed to accelerate blockchain adoption in the Vietnamese agricultural supply chain.

Automated summary

This study explores the barriers to the adoption of blockchain technology in the Vietnamese agricultural supply chain using a unique IVHF-DEMATEL approach. The findings highlight the lack of government regulation, scalability and system speed issues, resource and capital requirements, and lack of trust as the main barriers. The study also proposes a priority order for addressing these barriers to promote blockchain adoption in the Vietnamese agricultural supply chain.