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Blockchain technology (BCT) has emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing transparency and trust. However, the relationship between the benefits of BCT and agri-food supply chain performance (AFSCperf) remains underexplored. Therefore, the current study investigates the influence of BCT on AFSCperf and sustainability issues.

Through a comprehensive literature review, various benefits of BCT are identified. Subsequently, a research framework is proposed based on data collected from questionnaire surveys and personal visits to professionals in the agri-food industry. The proposed framework is validated using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The findings reveal that BCT positively impacts AFSCperf by improving traceability, transparency, food safety and quality, immutability and trust. Additionally, BCT adoption enhances stakeholder collaboration, provides a decentralised network, improves data accessibility and yields a better return on investment, resulting in the overall improvement in AFSCperf and socio-economic sustainability.

This study offers valuable practical insights for practitioners and academicians, establishing empirical links between the benefits of BCT and AFSCperf and providing a deeper understanding of BCT adoption.

Stakeholders, managers, policymakers and technology providers can leverage these findings to optimise the benefits of BCT in enhancing AFSCperf. Moreover, it utilises rigorous theoretical and empirical approaches, drawing on a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing food operations and supply chain literature, public policy, information technology, strategy, organisational theory and sustainability.

With the rise in demand and adoption of smart city initiatives, it is imperative to plan the railway infrastructure, as it will have a huge positive impact if adequately integrated into the planning process. Given the complexities involved, a whole systems thinking framework provides a useful platform for rail transport planners.

This paper proposes a simple, adoptable framework utilising systems thinking concepts and techniques taking into cognisance the key stakeholders. Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom is the adopted case study.

Selected systems thinking tools and techniques are adopted to develop a framework for mapping stakeholders and attributes when developing sustainable rail transport systems, taking note of their core functionalities and the complex systems wherein they exist.

The desire to build future (smart) cities is to effectively match infrastructural resources with a rapidly growing population, and the railway sector can play a strategic role in building a much more competitive low-carbon-emission transport system, which is a driving force for sustainable development.

The urban rail service has become vital to urban development as railway stations serve as hubs for sustainable mobility to meet local requirements. Moreover, it takes extra effort to input railway development into smart city plans, as it is a herculean task to get governments to focus on it with clarity of purpose in passing legislation.

The developed framework reduces complexities when planning and designing rail transport systems compared to many of the existing reductionist planning approaches. The simplicity of the framework would also make it easily adoptable by a wide range of users.