Abstract
Blockchain, a peer-to-peer, controlled, distributed database structure, has the potential to profoundly affect current business transactions in the construction industry through smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, and reliable asset tracking. The construction industry is often criticized for being slow in embracing emerging technologies and not effectively diffusing them through its supply chains. Often, the extensive fragmentation, traditional procurement structures, destructive competition, lack of collaboration and transparency, low-profit margins, and human resources are shown as the main culprits for this. As blockchain technology makes its presence felt strongly in many other industries like finance and banking, this study investigates the preparation of construction supply chains for blockchain technology through an explorative analysis. Empirical data for the study were collected through semistructured interviews with 17 subject experts. Alongside presenting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT), the study exhibits the requirements for and steps toward a construction supply structure facilitated by blockchain technology.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 547–563 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Frontiers of Engineering Management |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 13 May 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access - This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.The images or other third party material in this article are included in the
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Funding: This work incorporates results from the research project “Toward blockchain-enabled construction supply chains: Potential, requirements and implementation” funded by the Centre for Digital Built Britain, under Innovate UK Grant No. 90066.
Keywords
- Blockchain
- Smart contract
- Supply chain management
- Project management
- Construction