Blockchain adoption in the maritime supply chain: Examining barriers and salient stakeholders in containerized international trade

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between blockchain adoption barriers and identified the salient stakeholders for blockchain adoption in containerized international trade. The interpretative structural modelling and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification analyses indicated that the most impactful among the eight barriers are lack of support from influential stakeholders, lack of understanding regarding blockchain, and lack of government regulations. The stakeholder mapping analysis demonstrated that the high salient stakeholders among 11 legitimate stakeholders are container lines, ports, beneficial cargo owners, freight forwarders/third party logistics, and customs authorities. The study is original and contributes to theory and practice as it uncovers both impactful barriers and critical stakeholders by adopting a stakeholder theory perspective and offers significant implications to practice, policy, and theory by combining these two analyses.