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Abstract

Agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) need to become more sustainable, and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is a crucial enabler. However, various barriers make adopting I4.0 technologies to achieve AFSC sustainability challenging. Few previous studies have examined China's agri-food industry. Through a literature review and consultation of Chinese experts, we identify 27 barriers in six categories and prioritize these using a group-based fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to produce novel results. First, we identify six new I4.0 adoption barriers closely linked with China's economic, social and cultural environments, including acquisition of intelligent agricultural equipment subsidies based on guanxi. Second, our prioritization of barriers reveals that the key challenges to applying I4.0 are the increased cost of terminal logistics, acquisition of intelligent agricultural equipment subsidies based on guanxi, low compatibility of I4.0 technologies with existing agricultural equipment, and problems with the government subsidy model. These results have managerial implications for governments and knowledge dissemination organizations.

Publication Date

2024-08-25

Publication Title

Business Strategy and the Environment

ISSN

0964-4733

Keywords

agri-food supply chain sustainability, barriers to identification and prioritization, China's economic, grand theory, group-based fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, Industry 4.0 adoption, social and cultural environments

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