Abstract
Blockchain is regarded as a potential technology for transforming the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, and the number of related publications is increasing rapidly. However, a systematic review of blockchain applications in the AEC industry is lacking. The objective of this study was to review the current status of blockchain applications via a bibliometric analysis combined with a systematic literature review. According to related articles collected from databases, the present status of blockchain was analysed with regard to the distribution of articles over publication years, journals, institutions, countries, cooperation networks between authors, keyword co-occurrence networks, and research methodologies. The results indicated that research on blockchain applications is still relatively new and fragmented with regard to several topics. Five areas of benefit were identified: (i) supply chain management, (ii) contract management, (iii) information management, (iv) stakeholder management, and (v) integration management. On the basis of the technology–organisation–environment framework, nine types of challenges were identified. Future research opportunities were proposed according to the research findings. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge and provides guidelines for further research on blockchain applications in the AEC industry.
Highlights
What is the present status of blockchain applications in the AEC industry?
Information security is one of the main challenges faced by construction supply chain management’ (SCM), because of transparency and trust issues [21]
The results indicated that blockchain benefits trust relationships through system- and cognitive-based trust, reducing the demand for establishing trust
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is facing unprecedented challenges with the increasing investment scale, uncertainty, and complexity of such projects. Information sharing, and workflow control among participants are the major challenges faced by the AEC industry, which cause low efficiency and poor performance [1,2,3]. Blockchain technology has potential for transforming the conventional AEC industry [4,5] and may be useful for solving these issues. Blockchain enhances the traceability, transparency, and accountability of business processes during the project lifecycle, improving information sharing, enhancing transparency, and addressing trust problems [6,7]
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