PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The revolution of Malaysian Construction 4.0 through emerging technologies has brought a paradigm shift that has digitalized the construction sector. There is a need to adopt a computerized protocol to assist in automating the performance of a contract to meet future digital challenges. Therefore, this paper aims to serve as a pioneer study to investigate the implementation of the Malaysian construction industry to adopt smart contracts. This study adopted a qualitative scientific methodology, whereby a systematic review was conducted to gather the benefits and challenges of implementing smart contracts in the construction industry. Further, interview sessions were arranged to collect data from the construction contract management experts. The research findings unveil that due to the self-executing attribute of smart contracts, the implementation of smart contracts could provide a better apportionment of risks in a contract. The study also finds that the challenges in implementing smart contracts are severe. For instance, the smart contract is irreversible and immutable and prone to human error. The study concludes that it is more suitable to apply and implement a smart contract to a short-term contract that is not subjected to variation. Furthermore, a smart contract can enhance the efficiency in managing the contracts, such as reducing time and managing the conflicts and disputes that arise during the contract duration. The developed implementation framework is significant for the construction personnel, especially those dealing with the contract administration. The implementation of smart contracts in construction could boost contract administration and management discipline via investment in this new technology.

• Adom, D., & Hussain, E. K. (2018). Theoretical and conceptual framework: Mandatory ingredients engineering. International Journal of Scientific Research, 7(1), 438-441.

• Ahmadisheykhsarmast, S., & Sonmez, R. (2018). Smart contracts in construction industry. In 5th International Project and Construction Management Conference (IPCMC2018) (pp. 767-774). ACADEMIA.

• Ahmadisheykhsarmast, S., & Sonmez, R. (2020). A smart contract system for security of payment of construction contracts. Automation in Construction, 120(October 2019), Article 103401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103401

• Alharby, M., & van Moorsel, A. (2017). A systematic mapping study on current research topics in smart contracts. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, 9(5), 151-164. https://doi.org/10.5121/ijcsit.2017.9511

• ARCADIS. (2019). Laying the Foundation for success. In Global Construction Disputes Report 2019 (pp. 1-31). ARCADIS

• Badroldin, M. K. A. M., Hamid, A. R. A., Raman, S. A., Zakaria, R., & Mohandes, S. R. (2016). Late payment practices in the Malaysian construction industry. Malaysian Journal of Civil Engineering, 28(3), 149-162. https://doi.org/10.11113/mjce.v28.16005

• Barbosa, F., Woetzel, J., Mischke, J., Ribeirinho, M. J., Sridhar, M., Parsons, M., Bertram, N., & Brown, S. (2017). Reinventing construction: A route of higher productivity. McKinsey Global Institute.

• Bengtsson, M. (2016). How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. NursingPlus Open, 2, 8-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001

• Boon, K. S., Sector, I., Firms, C., & Contracting, C. (2019). Transforming the Singapore built construction project budget. PAQS Congress Kuching Malaysia.

• Bouchlaghem, D., & Shelbourn, M. (2011). Introduction. In Collaborative Working in Construction (p. 5). Routledge.

• Cardeira, H. (2015). Smart contracts and possible application to the construction industry. New Perspectives in Construction Law Conference, 1, 19-21.

• Clough, R. H. (1986). Construction contracting. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

• Crosby, M., Nachaippan, Pattanayak, P., Verma, S., & Kalyanaraman, V. (2016). Blockchain technology: Beyond bitcoin. Applied Innovation Review, 2(6), 6-19.

• Dattakumar, R., & Jagadeesh, R. (2003). A review of literature on benchmarking. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 10(3), 176-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770310477744

• Dorsala, M. R., Sastry, V. N., & Chapram, S. (2020). Fair payments for verifiable cloud services using smart contracts. Computers and Security, 90, Article 101712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2019.101712

• Ekblaw, A., Azaria, A., Halamka, J. D., & Lippman, J. D. H. A. (2016). A case study for blockchain in healthcare: “MedRec” prototype for electronic health records and medical research data. In Proceedings of IEEE open & big data conference (Vol. 13, p. 13). IEEE Publishing.

• England, K., & Moreci, J. (2012). Contingency - Are you Covered? Project Management Institute.

• Erlingsson, C., & Brysiewicz, P. (2017). A hands-on guide to doing content analysis. African Journal of Emergency Medicine, 7(3), 93-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.08.001

• Gale, N. K., Heath, G., Cameron, E., Rashid, S., & Redwood, S. (2013). Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 13(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-117

• Ghosh, A., Gupta, S., Dua, A., & Kumar, N. (2020). Security of cryptocurrencies in blockchain technology: State-of-art, challenges and future prospects. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 163(April), Article 102635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2020.102635

• Giancaspro, M. (2017). Is a ‘smart contract’ really a smart idea? Insights from a legal perspective. Computer Law and Security Review, 33(6), 825-835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2017.05.007

• GlobalData. (2017). Global construction outlook 2021. GlobalData UK Ltd.

• Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687

• Kaufmann, D., Ruaux, X., & Jacob, M. (2018). Digitalization of the construction industry: The revolution is underway. OliverWyman.

• Khoso, A. R., Yusof, A. M., Chai, C., & Laghari, M. A. (2021). Robust contractor evaluation criteria classification for modern technology public construction projects. Journal of Public Procurement, 21(1), 53-74. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-06-2020-0053

• Lamb, K. (2018). Blockchain and smart contracts: What the AEC sector needs to know (Issue July).Centre for Digital Built Britain Publication. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.26272

• Li, J., Greenwood, D., & Kassem, M. (2019). Blockchain in the built environment and construction industry: A systematic review, conceptual models and practical use cases. Automation in Construction, 102(February), 288-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005

• Li, T., Chen, Y., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Zhao, M., Zhu, H., Tian, Y., Yu, X., & Yang, Y. (2020). Rational protocols and attacks in blockchain system. Security and Communication Networks, 2020, Article 8839047. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8839047

• Luo, H., Das, M., Wang, J., & Cheng, J. C. P. (2019). Construction payment automation through smart contract-based blockchain framework. In Proceedings of the 36th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, ISARC 2019 (Vol. 36, pp. 1254-1260). IAARC Publications. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2019/0168

• Mason, J., & Escott, H. (2018, May 06-11). Smart contracts in construction: Views and perceptions of stakeholders. In Proceedings of FIG Conference. Istanbul, Turkey.

• McNamara, A. J., & Sepasgozar, S. M. E. (2020). Developing a theoretical framework for intelligent contract acceptance. Construction Innovation, 20(3), 421-445. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-07-2019-0061

• Wang, S., Huang, C., Li, J., Yuan, Y., & Wang, F. Y. (2019). Decentralized construction of knowledge graphs for deep recommender systems based on blockchain-powered smart contracts. IEEE Access, 7, 136951-136961. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2942338

• Xue, F., & Lu, W. (2020). A semantic differential transaction approach to minimizing information redundancy for BIM and blockchain integration. Automation in Construction, 118(May), Article 103270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103270

• Yang, R., Wakefield, R., Lyu, S., Jayasuriya, S., Han, F., Yi, X., Yang, X., Amarasinghe, G., & Chen, S. (2020). Public and private blockchain in construction business process and information integration. Automation in Construction, 118(May), Article 103276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103276

• Zhong, L., Wu, Q., Xie, J., Guan, Z., & Qin, B. (2019). A secure large-scale instant payment system based on blockchain. Computers and Security, 84, 349-364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2019.04.007