How do supply chain finance platforms adopt blockchain to achieve better service performance? An information processing perspective

Purpose This study aims to investigate how supply chain finance (SCF) platforms adopt blockchain technology (BCT) to improve service performance. The benefits of using BCT to enhance SCF efficiency are understood, but the mechanisms through which BCT drives service performance remain underexplored. This study seeks to clarify the role of BCT in aligning platforms’ information processing capacities with their task-related requirements. Design/methodology/approach Building on information processing theory, this study used a multi-case approach that included 54 semi-structured interviews across four SCF platforms. This study redefines SCF uncertainties – task characteristics, environment and interdependence – that shape information processing requirements and identifies technological and organizational barriers that exacerbate these uncertainties. Findings The findings reveal that BCT enables a “fit” between platforms’ information processing capacity and information processing requirements, thereby improving the service performance of the platform. Upstream SCF platforms adopt BCT directly. Downstream platforms tend to integrate BCT with the Internet of Things (IoT) to handle more complex data flows. This study proposes an acceptance-based evaluation framework that assesses SCF service performance from the perspectives of multiple actors, such as banks, small- and medium-sized enterprises and focal firms. Originality/value This study makes three novel contributions. First, it is the first to reveal that differences in information characteristics across SCF businesses and give rise to distinct BCT adoption pathways that enable platforms to achieve a “fit” between information processing requirements and capacities: direct BCT adoption for upstream receivables-based financing and IoT-integrated BCT for downstream collateral-based financing. Second, it proposes an acceptance-based measurement of SCF service performance and demonstrates that achieving a “fit” between information processing requirements and capacities leads to service performance improvement. Third, it contextualizes and extends information processing theory to a blockchain-enabled SCF setting by specifying SCF-specific uncertainties and showing how blockchain enables information processing capacity to achieve fit to the information processing requirements across stakeholders.