State-of-the-Art Review of Blockchain-Enabled Construction Supply Chain

AbstractThis paper aims to highlight the critical problems associated with the construction supply chain (CSC) by analyzing the literature and shedding light on the existing research limitations and gaps. Moreover, this research aims to explore the applications of emerging blockchain technology in addressing the identified CSC issues and initiating the process of bridging the body of knowledge gap by proposing future research directions. The review demonstrates that the critical problems in the CSC are related to sustainability, collaboration, and information sharing. Existing CSC studies focus on each individual issue, and they have not yet tackled these key intertwined issues through a holistic system view approach. This research put into context the intertwined relationship of these key issues and proposes a supply chain management system coupled with emerging blockchain technology to enhance sustainability, promote collaboration, and facilitate information sharing. These findings are synthesized with different reviews of the literature on the use of blockchain applications in supply chains to propose a blockchain-enabled CSC that can fill the research gaps. The proposed blockchain applications in the CSC involve establishing a blockchain-enabled supplier selection and assessment, blockchain-assisted claims auditing, forensic analysis and dispute resolution, and smart contract-based governance to enforce a reward and punishment system that can facilitate information sharing, and thus promote collaboration. The integration of the two different literature reviews contributes to the body of knowledge by highlighting the research gaps in the existing CSC studies and providing opportunities for improvement through the use of an emerging state-of-art technology: blockchain. Furthermore, the construction industry can enhance its sustainability and promote collaboration and information sharing in its supply chains by leveraging the proposed applications.