Barriers to blockchain adoption for supply chain finance: the case of Indian SMEs

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India are suffering from the long-standing challenges related to asymmetric information, high transaction costs, SMEs’ opacity and limited access to credit. Blockchain technology, which is still in its infancy in terms of adoption in India, can facilitate SMEs to counter these challenges. Fuelled by this motivation, the study aims to investigate the significant barriers to blockchain adoption in supply chain finance practices by Indian SMEs. Using fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process, sensitivity analysis, and fuzzy-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory this paper identifies the blockchain barriers, prioritises them and examine their cause and effect relationships. The results of the study indicate that technology barriers are the most influential barriers that impede blockchain adoption. The findings will help the policymakers and practitioners to take suitable measures to overcome these barriers and fuel the adoption of blockchain in Indian SMEs.

Challenges of blockchain implementation in SMEs’ supply chains: an integrated IT2F-BWM and IT2F-DEMATEL method

“…Among these, the technological obstacles showed the highest degree of importance. The third group of studies exclusively relied on ordinary fuzzy formats [38,39,44,52,80]. However, to handle uncertainty and to help experts and decision-makers, it would be necessary to extend such fuzzy approaches.…”

“…Yet, security and technology obstacles, which included scalability, showed the highest degree of importance. Kaur et al [52] utilized AHP and fuzzy DEMATEL, finding technological, organizational, security, knowledge, external, and financial barriers. Among these, technological barriers accounted for the most serious challenges while scalability barriers fell under the technological dimension.…”

“…As such, none of the investigations has clearly defined the challenges of blockchain implementation or carefully examined supply chain uncertainty in SMEs. The only research that has examined the blockchain challenges in SMEs' supply chain better than the rest is the one conducted by [52]. This research examines the challenges of blockchain financing in India, identifying the most important and influential challenges based on the FAHP and FDE-MATEL methods.…”

Small businesses and FinTech: a systematic review and future directions

“…While discussing the barriers and challenges of blockchain adoption for supply chain finance in SME, Kaur et al [ 86 ] have identified technological, organizational, security, knowledge, external and financial barriers. Among these technological barriers, tech infrastructure, lack of automation and standardization, etc., are the most significant.…”

Are emerging technologies unlocking the potential of sustainable practices in the context of a net-zero economy? An analysis of driving forces

“…And a conceptual framework is drawn to show the significance of I4.0 Singh et al ( 2022 ) The primary clients for the study are from industries and suppliers, which are the sustainable medium. The external pressures are created by society, the community, consumers, and the government Kaur et al ( 2022 ) This study indicates the technological barriers in the blockchain adoption process Chauhan et al ( 2022 ) The authors discussed technologies like machine learning and internet of things as beneficial for the CE. Several barriers were identified in the study.…”