Reinforcing or weakening? The role of blockchain technology in the link between consumer trust and organic food adoption

Blockchain is viewed as a trust machine that may change the way firms building consumer trust through social relationship. A clear understanding of how blockchain creates and delivers value to consumers is important for firms. Drawing upon cognitive theory, this study explores how blockchain-based trust alters the role of social trust (more specifically, both personal trust in organic producers and system trust in government) in consumers' purchasing decisions in the context of organic food. A discrete choice experiment with 1037 valid responses in China produced interesting results. Blockchain serves as a weakening role for personal trust, whereas a rein-forcing role for system trust on consumers' intention to purchase organic food. Interestingly, conventional traceability technology does not have similar effects. This study contributes to empirically verifying the role of blockchain in facilitating value creation to consumers and how it alters social trust building process. The findings also have implications for practitioners.