Abstract
The construction industry produces one of the most complex and substantially large structures such as buildings, bridges, dams and tunnels using lengthy, network structured and dynamic supply chains with multiple internal and external suppliers. Long and complex supply chains make it difficult to monitor compliance, provide ultimate assurance of the final product and often lead to increased cost with payment delays. The technology that underpins cryptocurrencies is known as blockchain. However, the capabilities of blockchain can be extended far beyond cryptocurrencies. It enables existing applications to be improved and new applications such as blockchain-powered election, healthcare, identity management, power grids, supply chain, property, smart contracts and so on. This paper aims to compute the stakeholders' perspective on blockchain and smart contracts in the construction industry. As the primary data collection methodology, an industry engagement workshop in the form of round-table discussions was conducted. Each round-table comprised of both academics and industry participants with different context from the construction industry. The table composition was four industry practitioners and two academics with the responsibility of moderating the discussion for all six groups. There were 57 responses, and 18 unique perspectives were identified. A word cloud was generated by using the frequency of responses to identify the density of each perspective. The key findings of the data analysis highlighted efficiency, trust, fair, security, transparent, accountability, compliance and standardisation were highlighted as the stakeholders' primary perspective on blockchain and smart contracts based solutions for the construction supply chain. Moreover, meantime highlighted construction industry requirements and drivers of blockchain and smart contracts are reconciled. So, the findings will help in implementing better blockchain solutions to the construction industry in future.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Constructing Smart Cities: Proceedings of the 22nd CIB World Building Congress (CIB2019), 17-21 June 2019, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China |
| Publisher | International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9789623678216 |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
| Event | CIB Congress - Duration: 17 Jun 2019 → … |
Conference
| Conference | CIB Congress |
|---|---|
| Period | 17/06/19 → … |
Keywords
- construction industry
- blockchains (databases)
- information technology
- supply chain management