From Counterfeit Detection to Supply Chain Resilience: How Converged Digital Trust Technologies Secure Third-Party Logistics Supply Chains

Counterfeit goods create economic, security, and sustainability risks for supply chains, yet blockchain, radio-frequency identification (RFID), and artificial intelligence (AI) have mostly been studied as separate technologies. This study conceptualises their joint adoption as Logistics Anti-Counterfeiting Digital Technology (LACD) adoption, a converged capability combining identification, traceability, and analytical detection. Drawing on Rational Choice Theory and Deterrence Theory within a perspective informed by the Technology-Organisation-Environment framework, it examines the antecedents and outcomes of LACD adoption and the moderating role of government regulation. Survey data from 232 medium and large third-party logistics (3PL) firms in China were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling. Perceived benefit, deterrent severity, and deterrent certainty were positively associated with LACD adoption, whereas perceived complexity and cost were negatively associated with it; sanction celerity was not significantly associated with adoption. LACD adoption was positively associated with logistics security effectiveness and supply chain resilience. Government regulation strengthened the effects of perceived benefit, deterrent severity, and deterrent certainty and weakened the negative effect of perceived cost, but did not moderate the effects of perceived complexity or sanction celerity. The study also proposes, as an untested proposition, that LACD may provide traceability infrastructure for circular supply chain practices.