Enhancing olive oil communication through blockchain agri-food traceability

A large part of society remains unaware of agri-food blockchain traceabilitys' value as an additional certification for ensuring the authenticity, safety and quality of several food products through their life cycle processes. Consequently, communication can help consumers by informing them about blockchain advantages orienting their trust, acceptance and purchase intentions. Communication of blockchain traceability can also help the agri-food sectors to differentiate their food products in their supply chain and consumer markets by mitigating the existing information asymmetry. Identifying the blockchain attributes communicated by olive oil organizations'websites, this study aims to analyze specific profiles of these agri-food operators who adopt this technology. Through a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) we analyze the blockchain attributes in order to determine the business drivers that influence the extent to which food traceability communication is associated with the corresponding strategic and business profile of olive oil organizations. Being that olive oil is one of the most counterfeited Mediterranean foods in global trade with a recent boost in global demand, our findings can help orient the management of the olive oil sector towards setting up a business and communication strategy with adoption of blockchain traceability system, thus capitalizing the added value of its certification. Filling a lack of literature in olive oil blockchain communication, this study offers an extended framework of blockchain attributes that can be applied to other agri-food sectors, thus opening up a new line of research.