Investigating the role of blockchain-enabled drivers on consumers’ organic food consumption: a stimulus-organism-response perspective

Abstract The role of blockchain technology in the organic food supply chain remains largely unexplored. This study leverages insights from the stimulus-organism-response theory to examine how blockchain-driven traceability and transparency affect consumer trust and organic food purchasing behavior. Moreover, it also explores how personal trust and system trust mediate and interact harmoniously and disparately with each other to result in consumers’ purchase decisions. Utilizing a purposive sample of 5,326 consumers in Vietnam, the recent study adopts multiple linear regression and polynomial regression with response surface analysis to assess the hypothesized model. The results reveal that both blockchain-driven traceability and transparency significantly enhance personal trust and system trust, which in turn positively influence organic food purchase behavior. The study also finds that a balance between personal and system trust is crucial for maximizing purchase behavior, while an imbalance in either direction leads to a decrease in purchase behavior. Personal and system trust is also found to significantly mediate the effects of blockchain features on purchase behavior. Based on the findings, several key recommendations have been provided for producers, regulatory bodies, and policymakers.