Preparing construction supply chains for blockchain technology:  An investigation of its potential and future directions

Algan Tezel; Eleni Papadonikolaki; Ibrahim Yitmen; Per Hilletofth

doi:10.1007/s42524-020-0110-8

Preparing construction supply chains for blockchain technology: An investigation of its potential and future directions

Algan Tezel^*, Eleni Papadonikolaki, Ibrahim Yitmen, Per Hilletofth

^*Corresponding author for this work

Engineering Systems & Supply Chain Management

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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
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	https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-020-0110-8
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
article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit
line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative
Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory
regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission
directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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

Access to Document

10.1007/s42524-020-0110-8Licence: CC BY 3.0

Tezel2020_Article_PreparingConstructionSupplyCha
© 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 article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 2.75 MBLicence: CC BY 3.0

Cite this

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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.",

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