The Proof-of-Concept of a Blockchain Solution for Construction Logistics Integrating Flows: Lessons from Sweden

Book chapter, 2022

The economic, information and material flows in construction logistics are usually disintegrated—but blockchain could integrate them into a shared digital ledger supported by smart contracts, thus creating value for the relevant actors (e.g. contractors, suppliers). Therefore, weexplore such a solution’s potential by conceptualizing, developing, implementing, and testing a relevant pilot in the Swedish context. Theoretically, we adopt sociomateriality, thus understanding blockchain as a digital facilitator of transactions, flow integration, social interactions, and trust development. Methodologically, we review the literature on blockchain for construction logistics, and report from our empirical studies in Sweden. The literature review showed that core blockchain properties can generate value for construction logistics (e.g. reduction of accounting rework)—however, there currently exist no use cases beyond concepts and pilots.Moreover, implementation can be challenging due to practical and security constraints—also reflected in our own empirical material. Regardless, the solution was conceptualized as a permissioned private proof-ofauthority blockchain named BlogCHAIN, and developed into an online application based on Hyperledger Besu. Testing BLogCHAIN revealed that the practitioners’ resistance and powerplay required a simplification of our initial concept. Indeed, the flows were integrated, more decentralization and transparency were achieved, and previously time-consuming processes were facilitated—but the main contractor retained control over critical logistics segments. Our lessons-learned showed that several issues can jeopardize the adoption of blockchain, like existing power balances and unrealistic hopes of transparency and accountability beyond established business practices. The solution could be integrated with the IoT and machine learning in the future.