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.

In the past twenty years, market dynamics have had a substantial impact on different industrial sectors, ultimately influencing their level of competitiveness. The field of operation management in terms of halal logistics has gained considerable attention and recognition among scholars and researchers in the academic community, as evidenced by the growing body of literature in the field of management. This article presents a bibliometric examination of scholarly literature pertaining to the halal supply chain in the domain of business. In addition, bibliographic material is organized and analyzed through the utilization of software tools such as VOSviewer, R Studio, and Microsoft Excel. A comprehensive analysis was conducted on a dataset comprising 278 scholarly papers that had been indexed by Scopus. The process of identifying and categorizing relevant research on the topic was carried out using certain criteria, including journal publications, articles, authorship, and geographical origin. The results suggest a significant rise in scholarly investigations carried out in this specific domain during the previous two decades. Our study also acknowledges several countries as the most productive domains of halal supply chain studies. It is imperative to recognize, though, that scientific advancement continues in this field, as well as in all other areas of study, and that data undergoes significant changes over time. This article examines potential avenues for future research, incorporating quantitative analysis and collaborative inquiry undertaken by researchers.

This research explores the interactions within supply chains in the manufacturing sector, with a special emphasis on the distinctive obstacles encountered by the mosquito coil industry. The study is motivated by the need to comprehensively understand and address the multifaceted challenges encountered by manufacturers in their supply chain processes. The mosquito coil industry holds significant importance in Malaysia, primarily due to the country’s tropical climate, which is conducive to mosquito proliferation and the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases. Nowadays, there are growing complexities and disruptions experienced by the mosquito coil sector’s supply chain, prompting an in-depth investigation. The main objective is to identify the challenges and resilience strategies employed by manufacturers in this sector, providing an understanding that contributes to the broader discourse on supply chain dynamics. Employing a qualitative case study methodology, this research engages in extensive data collection through interviews, document analysis, and direct observations within the selected mosquito coil manufacturing entity. This methodology allows for an immersive exploration of the challenges faced, revealing insights into the factors influencing the supply chain dynamics. The study reveals a wide array of challenges, from obtaining raw materials to managing distribution logistics, underscoring the unique complexities specific to the sector. As a result, the research identifies and analyzes resilience strategies implemented by the mosquito coil manufacturer to mitigate challenges, such as procurement challenges faced in financial related issues, logistical complexities occurred from recent years’ worldwide pandemic, production disruptions from company’s human resource-related issues, global factors from the company’s competitors and market challenges, and technology integration from rapid technological advancements. Thus, implications of this study extend beyond the mosquito coil sector, contributing valuable knowledge to the academic community, practitioners, and policymakers involved in supply chain management. The research not only addresses the identified challenges but also serves as a foundation for enhancing the overall understanding of manufacturing supply chain dynamics, thereby fostering informed decision-making for improved industry resilience.

The purpose of this study is to explore factors influencing the blockchain adoption in agricultural supply chains, to make a particular focus on how security and privacy considerations, policy support, and management support impact the blockchain adoption intention. it further investigates perceived usefulness as a mediating variable that potentially amplifies the effects of these factors on blockchain adoption intention, and sets perceived cost as a moderating variable to test its influence on the strength and direction of the relationship between perceived usefulness and adoption intention. through embedding the cost-benefit theory into the integrated tam-toe framework and utilizing the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method, this study identifies the pivotal factors that drive or impede blockchain adoption in the agricultural supply chains, which fills the gap of the relatively insufficient research on the blockchain adoption in agriculture field. the results further provide empirical evidence and strategic insights that can guide practical implementations, to equip stakeholders or practitioners with the necessary knowledge to navigate the complexities of integrating cutting-edge technologies into traditional agricultural operations, thereby promoting more efficient, transparent, and resilient agricultural supply chains.

This study aimed to examine and assess the impact of the logistics industry’s environment, entry-level graduates’ characteristics and the logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) program design on the transformation of knowledge and skills at Sohar port in the Sultanate of Oman. The study employed a pragmatic research philosophy involving a structured questionnaire. The sample size included 49 mid-managers from the logistics industry who were working at Sohar Port. The study found that entry-level graduates’ characteristics and LSCM program design positively and significantly influenced the transformation of knowledge and skills. However, the organisational environment had a negative and insignificant impact on the transformation. This study revealed several dimensions that may require further research. It is pertinent to broaden the research scope to other towns, ports, and other countries in the Gulf Council Countries (GCC) to broaden the scope and generalisability of the results. According to the study findings, several recommendations are proposed for the logistics and supply chain sector in Oman to enhance the transformation of knowledge and skills by entry-level graduates, as well as for higher education institutions (HEIs). To meet the sector requirements, HEIs may improve the current university-industry collaborations by increasing the inputs of the industry in designing and developing the LSCM program. The organisational environment must reconsider the knowledge and skills transformation by entry-level graduates in their strategic plan of resources management, which must be emphasised by the remuneration system and career paths incentive. While other studies have explored knowledge and skill transformation in the context of employee training, this study aims to fill a specific research gap by focusing on the transformation of knowledge and skills by entry-level graduates, an area which has not been extensively studied before. Furthermore, this study is unique as it examines the impact of the industry’s environment, entry-level graduates’ characteristics and the LSCM program on the transformation of knowledge and skills within the unique context of Oman. This novel approach provides an opportunity to understand the specific challenges and opportunities faced by entry-level graduates in Oman and suggests strategies for addressing them.