From pressure to potential: how SMES leverage blockchain for sustainability under institutional, paradoxical, and resource constraints

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