Agri-food Supply Chain Governance Optimization

With the deepening of agricultural industrialization,agri-food supply chain in the form of "company + peasant household","company + intermediary + peasant household",and "quasi-integrated organization" continue to develop.The inter-subject relationship,organizational structure,and governance mechanism in the agri-food supply chain is significant for establishing a stable agri-food supply chain collaboration relationship.The essence of agri-food supply chain governance is to suppress opportunism caused by information asymmetry and limited rationality.To this end,agri-food supply chain governance has introduced formal mechanisms such as contracts and informal mechanisms such as reputation and trust to curb opportunistic behavior.New institutional economists' research shows that opportunism stems from information asymmetry(information constraints)and limited rationality(cognitive constraints).Under this premise,it is inevitable that opportunism has become an endogenous defect in the governance of agri-food supply chain.At present,the trend of agricultural development is more intelligent,intensive,and digital due to the new generation information technologies such as blockchain,Internet of Things,big data,cloud computing,artificial intelligence,etc..The agri-food supply chain is mapped into a digital network world,which presents many new formats such as agricultural product e-commerce,smart agricultural product logistics,and digital traceability of agricultural products.Furthermore,the information asymmetry(information constraints)and limited rationality(cognitive constraints)in the governance of agri-food supply chain is also expected to be broken with the support of the new generation of information technology.The blockchain,known as the "trust machine",has unique institutional and technical attributes in collaborative governance.Its deintermediation,detrust,smart contract and other characteristics provide brand-new digital governance ideas for agricultural product supply chain governance.Accordingly,blockchain technology can be explored to optimize the governance of the agricultural product supply chain and stabilize the cooperative relationship of the agricultural product supply chain.First of all,this article gives the realistic background of agricultural product supply chain governance by describing the evolution of the organization and governance of the agri-food supply chain to suppress opportunism from the perspectives of institutional economics.Secondly,this article discusses the connotation of “institutional technology” of the blockchain and the induced changes of the blockchain in terms of property rights,transactions and contracts,organization and governance in the context of the digital economy.Thirdly,based on the above analysis and discussion,the dual governance of “Technology + Institution”(the integration of blockchain digital network governance and agricultural product supply chain organization governance)has been established according to the practical problems in the agri-food supply chain governance,and the logic mechanism analysis embedding the blockchain technology in the agri-food supply chain for governance optimization and the overall functional structure of the agri-food supply chain governance has been designed based on the blockchain.The trust mechanism,reputation mechanism and contract mechanism of the agri-food supply chain were specifically optimized in this functional framework.Fourthly,in terms of empirical analysis,this paper adopts grounded theory to code,analyze and summarize the multi-case materials,andextracts the practical experience of optimizing the governance of agri-food supply chain by embedding blockchain.Finally,"Shanliang Taste",a blockchain-based sharing farm is taken as typical empirical case to analyze the rice supply chain governance model and mechanism change path under the dual logic of "technology + system".The "technology + institution" dual governance optimization of "Shanliang Taste" rice supply chain and the organizational changes brought by technology embedding are analyzed in detail.Overall,through theoretical analysis and empirical analysis,this research finds that blockchain technology embedding will optimize the governance of agri-food supply chain.The institutional technical features of blockchain(such as de-intermediation,trust,and smart contract)will have a profound impact on agri-food supply chain governance,induce it to change in many aspects such as application operations,governance mechanisms,and organizational models.Blockchain-based agri-food supply chain will form a governance system under the dual logic of "technology + system".In terms of application operations,the operations of all links will change in the agri-food supply chain such as planting/farming,processing,logistics,sales and financial services.With the support of blockchain technology,data,labor,agricultural land,capital,social networks and other factors that affect the agri-food supply chain will be more integrated.Accordingly,it can resolve practical problems such as food safety,the agri-food supply chain finance,and the connection between small farmers and large markets.In terms of governance mechanisms,the formal and informal mechanisms for the governance of agri-food supply chains are integrated in a blockchain-based digital environment.What's more,informal governance elements such as trust and reputation are quantifiable and tradable in this environment,and therefore a unified governance mechanism is formed with smart contracts when the informal governance is formalized.In terms of organizational model,the traditional model of agri-food supply chain organization which focuses on business entities like processing companies or logistics companies will be changed.The position of data-based management in the agri-food supply chain embedded in the blockchain will be more prominent.Thus,it is worthwhile to explore "data platform + farmers",a flatter organizational model for agri-food supply chain.In summary,research methods such as literature research method,interdisciplinary research method,case analysis method,qualitative analysis method and game analysis method are used to explore the logical mechanism of blockchainto optimize the agri-food supply chaingovernance.Based on the institutional economics theory and blockchain technology theory,specific governance frameworks,models and methods are degined,which will enrich the theoretical system of agri-food supply chain governance,and provide theoretical exploration for the transformation and upgrading of China's agriculture under the background of digital economy.