Empirical Adoption of Explainable AI and Distributed Ledger Architectures in Higher Education and Developing Public Administration
CISR Journal of Innovation and Technology • 1 • 2026
This paper examines the institutional and behavioral determinants influencing the implementation of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) and blockchain-enabled verifiable credentials across tertiary universities and municipal agencies in developing South Asian economies. Utilizing a stratified structural equation modeling (SEM) design across 412 academic administrators and ICT officers, the empirical findings reveal that technological transparency and regulatory congruence significantly mitigate algorithmic aversion, resulting in a 41.2% higher adoption readiness. Policy frameworks for ethical AI governance in public service are formulated.