关键词: 有机农产品, 区块链技术, 市场竞争, 生鲜电商平台

Abstract: In the organic agricultural product supply chain, the lack of a comprehensive traceability and regulatory system to ensure product quality and safety often leads to consumer doubts when purchasing organic products. Consumers are uncertain about whether the organic products they buy are produced strictly according to organic standards. Moreover, organic agricultural products generally sell at higher prices than at conventional ones, which makes it challenging for them to compete effectively with conventional agricultural products, despite their superior quality. Therefore, providing consumers with access to reliable traceability information is essential for the growth of organic agricultural enterprises. Blockchain, a widely adopted digital technology, offers decentralization, transparency, openness and immutability, ensuring full lifecycle traceability of organic agricultural products. In a competitive market, organic agricultural products can leverage blockchain technology to track and share quality data throughout the supply chain. This enhances their differentiation from conventional products, strengthens brand image, and builds consumer trust.
   However, adopting blockchain technology can be costly, and market competition may result in inconsistent willingness among upstream and downstream firms. Additionally, the disclosure effectiveness of blockchain can be affected by Internet of Things (IoT) devices. In other words, organic agricultural enterprises must carefully balance among costs, trust enhancement effects and market competition when making blockchain adoption decisions.
   Therefore, this study focuses on the organic agricultural product supply chain in a competitive market, where both organic and conventional farmers sell products through fresh e-commerce platforms. We develop a Stackelberg game-theoretical model to analyze the incentives of organic farmers and e-commerce platforms to adopt blockchain technology. By comparing the scenarios before and after adopting blockchain technology, we analyze the adoption strategies of both parties and their impacts on pricing decisions, supply chain member profits and social welfare.
   We find that the adoption of blockchain technology in the organic agricultural supply chain is mainly driven by the product brand value added by blockchain and the investment cost of blockchain adoption. When the brand value added is low, both organic farmers and fresh platforms can only benefit if the investment cost is also low. However, when the brand value added is high, it outweighs the negative impact of the investment cost, allowing both parties to benefit from blockchain adoption. Considering the competition with conventional agricultural products, the organic farmer is more inclined to adopt blockchain, while the e-commerce platform shows less willingness. As competition intensifies, the organic farmer’s willingness to adopt it increases, while the platform’s willingness decreases. Interestingly, blockchain adoption can benefit both the organic farmer and platform without negatively affecting the conventional farmer. In certain scenarios, such that when the brand value added is weak but investment cost is moderate, or when the brand value added is strong and the investment cost is high, blockchain adoption can lead to a win-win-win outcome for the organic farmer, conventional farmer and platform. Whether the blockchain adoption can improve consumer surplus and social welfare is also influenced by the brand value added and the investment cost of blockchain. Blockchain adoption can improve consumer surplus and social welfare when both the organic farmer and e-commerce platform benefit from it.
   This study provides decision support and management insights for promoting the application of blockchain technology in the agricultural product supply chain. However, the model assumes a scenario where agricultural output is determined and farmland is sufficient. In reality, factors like climate and pests can affect agricultural product output, potentially limiting production. Future research could explore how output fluctuation and production constraint affect blockchain adoption strategy in the organic agricultural product supply chain.

Key words: organic agricultural products, blockchain technology, market competition, fresh e-commerce platform