Measuring digital payment transformation in small retail businesses: mixed-method evidence from blockchain adoption in Colombia

Abstract This study aims to evaluate how blockchain-based payment systems affect operational performance, customer-related outcomes, and organizational coordination in small retail businesses operating under institutional fragmentation and uneven digital infrastructure. Using transaction-level data from 76 small retailers in Colombia’s Caribbean region, the analysis combines pre/post comparisons, non-parametric tests, repeated-measures models, regression controls, endogeneity checks, and thematic content analysis of open-ended pre- and post-implementation questionnaire responses from participating business owners or managers. The findings show improvements in transaction speed, payment reliability, operating costs, customer retention, and perceived service quality, but they also reveal that these effects are conditioned by infrastructure quality, staff readiness, seasonality, and local market composition. Rather than treating blockchain as an isolated technological intervention, the study interprets payment adoption as a socio-technical governance mechanism that reorganizes coordination, trust, and operational routines. The article contributes to digital transformation research by offering a mixed-method framework for evaluating technology adoption in small firms where causal inference is constrained by non-random adoption, heterogeneous contexts, and imperfect administrative records.