Blockchain traceability and customer premium willingness to pay for geographic indication agricultural products

Purpose With the application of blockchain traceability in the supply chain of geographic indication(GI) agricultural products, the price of these products has increased annually and whether customers are willing to pay higher prices for the sake of the new digital technology raises concerns. The purpose of this paper is to analyses in what circumstances and why customers are willing to pay higher prices for GI-agri products. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a literature review and one online survey conducted with customers who have had experience with GI-agri products purchases. Findings The results of this study demonstrate that blockchain traceability of GI-agri products positively affects customer self-expansion, perceived quality and premium willingness to pay; customer self-expansion positively affects perceived quality and customer premium willingness to pay; customer perceived quality positively affects customer premium willingness to pay; and customer self-expansion and perceived quality play the role of parallel mediators and chained mediators between blockchain traceability and customer premium willingness to pay of GI-agri products. Originality/value This study conducts an in-depth analysis of the impact of blockchain traceability on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for GI-agri products from the perspective of self-expansion and constructs a “information-self expansion-quality perception-premium” chain, which provides a new perspective for the research on consumers’ cognition of blockchain traceability of agricultural products. The research results show that blockchain traceability can enhance consumers’ perceived quality of GI-agri products by stimulating their self-expansion cognition and ultimately make them willing to pay a higher price. This research conclusion provides an important reference for the application of blockchain traceability in enterprises engaged in GI-agri products.