To be traceable and responsive: blockchain adoption and information sharing in a fresh produce supply chain

Abstract This study targets a fresh produce supply chain that includes a retailer owning private demand information, a supplier who may adopt blockchain, and a 3PL (Third Party Logistics) engaging in freshness keeping. By developing a multi‐stage game model, we study the blockchain adoption strategy and the information‐sharing strategy considering information transmission between the 3PL and the supplier and analyze the interaction of these strategies. We find that under the case of moderate blockchain cost, the retailer could encourage the supplier to adopt blockchain by sharing information strategically. In that case, the retailer would actively share with the supplier and the 3PL for fresh produce with low freshness sensitivity and serious consumer distrust. Otherwise, due to the dominant impact of information transmission, the retailer has to keep private information if consumers are less concerned about freshness, while it has to share information if consumers are more concerned about freshness.