Blockchain or Not? Optimal Decisions for Food Retailers Considering Consumer Expertise

Abstract

This paper studies the benefit of the blockchain food traceability system (BFTS). Based on game theory and the willingness-to-pay model, pricing models are formulated considering important factors like the proportion of consumer with high expertise in traceability, risk attitude to doubtful traceability information and perceived convenience of traceability information checking. By compared the optimal total welfare under the BFTS and that under the traditional food traceability system in valuation analysis, conditions where applying the BFTS is more valuable than applying the TFTS are figured out. Finally, insightful management implications are given.

Consumer adoption of blockchain food traceability: effects of innovation-adoption characteristics, expertise in food traceability and blockchain technology, and segmentation

“…Consumers' expertise is distinguished from their previous product/service-related experiences (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987). Previous studies indicate that consumer expertise pertaining to a product/service has a significant effect on their current or future choice of it (including food traceability systems) (Hu et al ., 2021; Lanseng and Sivertsen, 2019; Wang et al ., 2017).…”