Consumers have now been able to purchase whatever food they wish in the
21st century. Not all the food that is purchased is consumed, resulting in food waste.
About a third of the food produced is wasted in the world. Humans are the main
culprits of food waste. The problem is worsening by each day, with different attempts
failing to counter the problem. The study investigates factors affecting the adoption of
emerging technologies to reduce food waste by SMEs in the food industry. The TOE
framework was used for this purpose. The study adopted a systematic literature review
to explore the factors affecting the adoption of emerging technologies to reduce food
waste by SMEs in the food industry. The results from the study suggest that
complexity, security, usability, cost, and flexibility are important technological factors
that affect the adoption of emerging technologies. Furthermore, the results from the
study suggest that organisation size and organisation resistance are important
organisational factors affecting the adoption of emerging technologies to reduce food
waste by SMEs in the food industry. Lastly, the results from the study suggest that IT
policy and legislation are important environmental factors affecting this technology
adoption. Further studies may consider adopting other research methods to explore
factors affecting adopting emerging technologies in reducing food waste by SMEs in
the food industry.
Keywords: Digital supply, Emerging technologies, Food waste, Food industry, TOE framework.
