Digital Readiness and Blockchain Adoption in E-Commerce SMEs: A Configurational Analysis of Perceived Benefits and Costs

Blockchain offers significant potential to enhance transparency, traceability, and trust in e-commerce supply chains, yet adoption among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains uneven due to its simultaneous advantages and implementation complexity. This study conceptualizes blockchain adoption as the outcome of an organizational evaluative system shaped by digital readiness and dual cognitive assessments. Using survey data from 548 Chinese e-commerce SMEs, we examine how AI familiarity, representing digital preparedness, shapes perceived benefits and perceived costs, thereby influencing adoption intention. Structural equation modeling shows that AI familiarity increases perceived benefits, reduces perceived costs, and strengthens adoption intention both directly and indirectly, suggesting that prior technological exposure recalibrates internal benefit–cost evaluations. Perceived benefits promote adoption intention, whereas perceived costs inhibit it, confirming the central role of evaluative integration. Response surface analysis reveals that adoption intention depends on the configuration of benefits and costs: intention rises when benefits exceed costs, and benefits exert a stronger influence, indicating asymmetric weighting. Multi-group SEM suggests that the structural relationships remain broadly stable across domestic- and internationally oriented firms. By modeling blockchain adoption as a structured evaluative process conditioned by digital readiness, this study contributes to a more integrated understanding of organizational technology adoption under digital complexity.