SME blockchain adoption falters on skills shortages and upfront costs

Blockchain has been billed as a fix for some of logistics’ thorniest problems such as documentation bottlenecks, error-prone handoffs, and opaque chains of custody. Yet the road from pilots to production remains uneven for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where budgets are tighter, skills are scarcer, and coordination is harder. A new peer-reviewed analysis maps the most decisive obstacles and ranks their strength, using Vietnam’s logistics sector as a focused case study of these global headwinds.

The study "Barriers to Blockchain Technology Implementation in Small and Medium-Sized Logistics Enterprises", published in SAGE Open (July–September 2025), investigates why adoption lags despite widely cited gains in efficiency, transparency, and operational accuracy. The paper identifies and quantifies six barriers, offering a prioritized playbook for managers and policymakers.

The authors build and test a structural model tailored to logistics SMEs. Their headline finding is clear: all six barriers significantly depress the likelihood of implementation, and the most powerful drag originates inside firms rather than in balance sheets or regulations. The study pinpoints technological resistance, high initial investment costs, lack of human resources and specialized skills, limited government support, small enterprise scale, and weak cooperation among supply-chain participants as the statistically significant obstacles.

Which barriers matter most and how do they rank?

The analysis shows technological resistance as the strongest inhibitor of blockchain implementation. Fear of disruption to established processes, perceived complexity, and unfamiliarity with blockchain’s mechanics combine to reduce adoption odds more than any other factor. Close behind are the high upfront costs of hardware, software, integration, and project expertise, followed by shortages of skilled professionals in blockchain, cybersecurity, and data analytics. Limited government support, small firm size, and lack of partner cooperation also exert negative, albeit comparatively smaller, effects. All six relationships with implementation are negative and highly significant.

The cost story is particularly acute in SME logistics. Beyond licenses and infrastructure, firms face escalating expenses when custom systems, cloud platforms, and specialist personnel are added to the bill. The scarcity of talent inflates wages and training outlays, while professional services for integration and trials add further pressure - an equation that pushes many SMEs to defer or abandon implementation.

These results reinforce a crucial distinction: cultural and behavioral readiness can outweigh even capital constraints. By isolating “resistance” from knowledge gaps or infrastructure deficits, the study underscores how perceptions of complexity and change risk suppress uptake, even where business cases exist. That conceptual clarity matters because it directs interventions toward people and processes, not just hardware and code.

Shortages of skilled staff further compound the problem. SMEs struggle to compete with larger firms for blockchain, data, and security talent, increasing implementation complexity and delaying integration with legacy systems. Without strategic investment in human capital, through targeted training and partnerships with education providers, firms risk falling behind as the digitalization curve steepens.

Environmental factors also bite. Inconsistent or unclear regulatory guidance, thin incentives, and gaps in public logistics infrastructure shape a risk-averse environment for SMEs. In parallel, inter-firm mistrust, misaligned standards, and disparate IT stacks complicate the supply-chain orchestration that blockchain requires to deliver value beyond a single enterprise.

How did the researchers test these effects?

The analysis is based on the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, a widely used lens for innovation adoption. They classify barriers across technological (e.g., resistance), organizational (e.g., costs, talent, firm size), and environmental (e.g., policy support, partner collaboration) contexts, then link those constructs to a concrete adoption outcome. Data were gathered via an online survey of logistics SMEs, in partnership with the Vietnam Logistics Association, targeting leaders, managers, and employees involved in blockchain-related work.

The instrument used validated multi-item scales mapped to TOE, and responses were collected on a five-point Likert scale. Confirmatory factor analysis tested dimensionality and consistency before estimating the structural model. Categories of respondents covered top management, division managers, and staff across warehousing, transportation, and services, offering a diverse view of operational realities inside logistics SMEs.

Model estimation relied on structural equation modeling. The authors report valid goodness-of-fit and uniformly significant paths from the six barriers to reduced implementation likelihood, aligning methodological rigor with practical interpretability. The result is not just a checklist of concerns but a ranked, evidence-based map of which levers move adoption the most in the SME logistics context.

What should managers and policymakers do now?

Because technological resistance tops the list, change management belongs front-and-center in any roadmap. Managers should finance structured training, hands-on pilots, and internal communication that normalize new workflows and build credible champions. That investment in people and process can improve the odds that subsequent spending on infrastructure and integration translates into durable adoption.

Cost barriers demand staged deployment and smarter financing. Phased rollouts, shared platforms, and strategic alliances can compress unit costs and spread risk, particularly for smaller firms with thin margins. The same collaborative logic addresses the “cooperation” barrier: interoperable standards, trust frameworks, and clear data-sharing protocols reduce friction across supply-chain partners and move blockchain beyond isolated pilots.

Policy clarity is the other force multiplier. The study links limited incentives and ambiguous legal frameworks to muted adoption. Targeted measures, tax credits, concessional finance, training subsidies, and standardized compliance pathways, can shift cost-benefit calculations for SMEs and lower perceived regulatory risk. Industry associations can accelerate diffusion by translating policy into practice and convening partners around common technical baselines.

Why this case study matters beyond Vietnam

Although the analysis is based on Vietnam’s logistics ecosystem, the pattern of barriers will be familiar to SME operators in many markets. Where IT maturity is uneven and supply-chain networks are fragmented, resistance to change, budget constraints, talent scarcity, and coordination gaps tend to reinforce one another. The authors caution against over-generalization, and they call for comparative and mixed-methods research to probe managerial motivations, cultural dynamics, and the interactions among barriers over time.

For executives and policymakers, the takeaway is actionable: tackle resistance with training and credible internal champions; reduce cost hurdles through phased investments and shared platforms; build workforce pipelines for scarce skills; and provide regulatory certainty and incentives that reward early movers. Addressed together, these steps unlock a practical path from pilot to production for SMEs. Ignored, they keep blockchain’s promise stuck at the proof-of-concept stage.