TITLE:
Staff and User Attitudes and Behaviors toward Digital Supply Chain Technology Adoption in Zimbabwe’s Public Health Sector: Awareness, Acceptance, and Readiness
AUTHORS:
Takesure Kudai
KEYWORDS:
Transparency, Efficiency, Corruption, Procurement, Capacity, Attitudes
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.11,
November
21,
2025
ABSTRACT: This systematic review explores staff and user attitudes and behaviors towards the adoption of digital supply chain technologies within the public health sector in Zimbabwe, focusing on awareness, acceptance, and readiness. The adoption of digital solutions is crucial for enhancing healthcare resilience and resource management in the face of infrastructural and economic adversity typical of developing economies. Despite the potential benefits—like improved transparency, efficiency, and supply chain resilience—adoption remains hampered by challenges like low digital literacy, infrastructural deficits, financial resource scarcity, and resistance to change. The review synthesizes existing literature, highlighting the central role of human factors, organizational culture, and policy environments in shaping technology adoption. The Technology Acceptance Model, Diffusion of Innovations, and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology frameworks guided an integrated conceptual framework for the Zimbabwean context, with reference to individual attitudes and organizational readiness. Recommendations allude to a requirement for large-scale capacity-development programs, infrastructure investment, and visionary leadership in order to create an enabling environment for digitalization. Constraints such as poor network infrastructure, high costs, and socio-economic inequalities exacerbate disparities in digital access, sabotaging effective implementation. Conversely, government and international efforts to strengthen health logistics present opportunities for the use of emerging technologies such as blockchain to promote supply chain transparency and efficiency. The review identifies addressing attitudinal barriers, enhancing digital literacy, and developing enabling policies as key to successful technology adoption. Lastly, a combined approach comprising infrastructural development, targeted training, and stakeholder engagement is essential to unleash the transformational potential of digital supply chain solutions in the public health system in Zimbabwe to attain sustainable health outcomes in resource-limited settings.