Designing a food supply chain improvement model with a focus on blockchain

Supply chain members are interdependent through financial, material and information flows. In addition to conferring benefits for the chain, this dependence brings uncertainty and risks. The extent of such challenges makes collaborative interactions and improvement of supply chain performance confront significant problems. Therefore, managers are encouraged to embrace new technologies to settle these problems. The new blockchain technology offers advantages such as traceability, decentralization, encryption, immutability and transparency of data transfer. In this way, the things that are necessary to create trust and integrity in a supply chain are provided by a blockchain. The purpose of this study is to systematically analyze how blockchain technology is placed in the supply chain network of the food industry and present the potential challenges of its implementation. In this research, the qualitative data foundation method and MAXQDA20 software are applied to determine the antecedents and processes of blockchain deployment. In the following, the resulting paradigm model is validated using the partial least squares technique (PLS), and SMART PLS software. The results of this study indicate that the drafting of the law and the support of the government create an impact on the establishment of blockchain in the food supply chain. Moreover, with the development of technological infrastructure, the chain will be improved and ultimately gain a competitive advantage and economic development of the country even with the imposition of sanctions.