With its inherent characteristics of decentralization, immutability, and transparency, blockchain technology presents a promising opportunity to revolutionize the South African food supply chains. Blockchain technology, with its decentralized, immutable, and secure nature, offers solutions to these challenges by improving traceability and accountability across the supply chain. This study investigates the role of blockchain technology in enhancing transparency in the food supply chain among small and medium enterprises in South Africa. SMEs form a critical part of the country’s agri-food sector but face challenges such as food fraud, inefficient inventory management, and lack of transparency, which impact food safety and trust. The research adopts a mixed-method approach, utilizing the Technology-Organization-Environment framework and Institutional Theory to explain blockchain adoption among SMEs. The results demonstrate that blockchain-enabled practices, such as smart contracts, records traceability, production tracking, and distribution monitoring, significantly enhance supply chain transparency. The findings highlight blockchain’s potential to increase operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder trust. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners, emphasizing the need for regulatory support and strategic investment in blockchain solutions to promote sustainability and competitiveness in the agri-food sector.

Currently, there is little study on managing organizational silence in Malaysia post COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to examine the determinants of organizational silence and the impacts of silence on private sectors and employees. The target respondents are two hundred individuals above 21 years old working in private sectors across Malaysia. Purposive sampling is selected for this study because the target respondents must be individuals working in private sectors across Malaysia. The strongest predictor of organizational silence is the attitudes of immediate superior, followed by attitudes of top management and communication opportunities. This study provides valuable information to the employees and management in the private sector to recognize the behaviors that will create silence within the organization.

Sustainability has turned into a critical focus for businesses, drawing considerable interest from the commercial sector and scholarly environments. While empirical investigations have been conducted regarding sustainability reporting within small and medium enterprises, only a limited number of companies are subjected to increased pressure to adopt sustainability reporting practices, thereby ensuring enhanced transparency and disclosure in their financial and sustainability disclosures. This research, framed by Institutional Theory, delves into how challenges in sustainability reporting obstruct organizations from properly evaluating and sharing their progress on sustainability aims. With an explanatory research framework in place, we circulated survey questionnaires to 400 participants, who were randomly drawn from a population of 28,927 registered SMEs in Metro Manila, Philippines. The application of Interpretative Structural Modelling and MICMAC Analysis revealed that the absence of regulatory frameworks, governmental assistance, and sustainability infrastructure constitutes the most critical obstacles impacting other determinants. In contrast, neither the deficiency in sustainability awareness nor the inadequacy of training and skills demonstrated a considerable impact on the other identified barriers. This study clarifies the complex interactions and interrelations among the obstacles to sustainability reporting, thus providing significant perspectives for organizations aiming to overcome these difficulties. The findings suggest that business leaders and stakeholders can formulate targeted strategies and interventions to facilitate the adoption of sustainability reporting practices within organizations. The application of the institutional theory framework highlights that pressures arise from a diverse array of institutional actors, including regulators, customers, and local communities, which collectively shape corporate behavior and reporting methodologies.

This study aims to examine the impact of open innovation and disruptive innovation on the financial performance of SMEs in the tourism sector in Tanjungpinang City, Indonesia. A quantitative research method was employed, utilizing a sample of 273 SMEs in the tourism sector. Data were collected through surveys and analyzed using regression and ANOVA techniques to understand the relationships between innovation, digitalization, and financial performance. The analysis revealed that both open and disruptive innovation significantly influence the financial performance of SMEs. The study found that innovation and digitalization explain approximately 79.6% of the financial performance variance in the tourism sector. The findings suggest that SMEs that adopt innovative practices and digitalization are more likely to achieve better financial outcomes, such as increased profitability and market share. Open and disruptive innovations are critical drivers of financial success for SMEs in the tourism sector. SMEs should focus on leveraging internal and external knowledge and adapting to technological changes to enhance their competitive advantage. Policymakers should create supportive environments that foster innovation and digitalization among SMEs. This could include providing access to technological resources, training programs, and incentives for innovative practices.