Amanollahnejad, Albert, Izadi, Javad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5607-5077 and Nedaei, Bahareh Hosseinnezhad (2025) From pressure to potential: how SMES leverage blockchain for sustainability under institutional, paradoxical, and resource constraints. International Journal of Environmental Sciences, 11 (11S). ISSN 2229-7359

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Abstract

Blockchain technology (BCT) has garnered significant attention as a catalyst for advancing sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, extant research has often relied on single-theory perspectives or has emphasized either technological potential or compliance imperatives, thereby overlooking the complex and context-dependent nature of BCT adoption. This study develops an integrative conceptual framework that synthesizes institutional theory, paradox theory, and the resource-based (RBV)view to elucidate the dynamics underpinning BCT adoption for sustainability in SMEs. The framework posits that adoption is not solely driven by external institutional pressures such as regulatory, normative, and mimetic forces but is fundamentally facilitated by the internal paradoxical tensions SMEs face and their distinctive organizational resources and capabilities. By highlighting the coexistence of opportunity and risk including enhanced transparency, traceability, technical complexity, and environmental impacts this study reveals that SME blockchain adoption is best understood as a dynamic, non-linear, and context-sensitive process. The framework advances the literature by demonstrating how the ability to navigate institutional and paradoxical pressures is contingent upon firm-level learning orientation, adaptive capacity, and resource endowments.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.64252/fnjcq025
Keywords:	Blockchain adoption; Sustainability; Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); Institutional theory; Paradox theory; Resource-based view; Digital transformation
Depositing User:	Mary Blomley
Date Deposited:	08 Sep 2025 14:18
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2025 14:32
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14048

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