Gongfan Chen, Min Liu, Huaming Li, Simon M. Hsiang · 5 authors
Establishing a fair benefit distribution system for construction projects, in which participants often need to work together in a highly uncertain and interrelated environment, is challenging. There is a lack of objective mechanism for construction projects to motivate reliable workflow automatically and instantly. The objective of this study is to develop Shapley value–based smart contracts to automatically assign fair rewards/penalties to motivate task-level collaborations. The research first developed a simulation model to quantify subcontractors’ marginal contributions under different coalitional scenarios. Then, the simulation results were aggregated using Shapley value to determine each participant’s reasonable rewards/penalties. Lastly, the payment was encoded in the smart contract and then deployed in the blockchain to self-enforce consensus executions. The results showed that Shapley value–based smart contracts exhibited incentives to motivate reliable contributions and enable peer negotiations to realize task-level production. The contributions of this study to the body of knowledge are (1) quantify subcontractors’ marginal contributions to the project, and (2) determine how to distribute fair collaborative outcomes when project participants can perform at different levels of effort. The incentives embedded in smart contracts can reshape project participants’ collaborative behaviors toward desired outcomes, enabling a self-manage, self-govern, and self-adjust decentralized autonomous organization.
Supply chain finance business as a comprehensive financial solution for small and medium-sized enterprises or small and micro enterprises has been for many years, but in the new era of the information wave, the traditional model of supply chain finance has revealed its irreconcilable drawbacks, and the arrival of block chain technology seems to bring new solutions. Block chain technology has the advantages of immutable information, decentralization, strong traceability and so on. It can break the single vertical transaction upstream and downstream of enterprises, promote the upgrade of network structure, and create a financial industry chain that efficiently delivers value, so as to achieve a win-win situation among all participants based on credible and verifiable trade relations. Based on this, this paper gives an overview of the supply chain finance model and block chain technology, and analyzes the application of block chain technology in supply chain finance.
Sang-Hoon Shin, Yingli Wang, Stephen Pettit, Wessam Abouarghoub
This research aims to establish the link between blockchain technology adoption in the maritime and shipping industry and its impact on maritime supply chain integration via a systematic review of both the academic and practice literature. In total 148 articles were identified and analysed. Blockchain applications identified from the literature are categorized into three domains: document management, transaction management, and cargo/vessel/terminal operations. An analysis of the benefits and challenges that influence the deployment of blockchain technology for maritime supply chain integration leads to the development of an integrated and extended Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) framework. This study is among the first to examine the current state of blockchain diffusion within the maritime supply chain, making a significant contribution to the field. The extended TOE framework offers guidance for future research and understanding of the relationship between blockchain adoption and maritime supply chain integration. It can be used to assist organisations in successfully adopting blockchain technology in their supply chain operations.
Despite their promising potential, the level of implementation of smart contracts is not at the desired level. To expedite the acceptance and deployment of smart contracts, the barriers to the implementation of smart contracts should be revealed. Past studies, however, do not provide a comprehensive theoretical basis due to several methodological drawbacks. Thus, this study aims to identify and assess the barriers to the implementation of smart contracts by considering the inherent characteristics of the construction industry. An in-depth literature review was initially conducted to extract all barriers proposed in the literature. Then, focus group discussion (FGD) sessions were conducted with the participation of the construction practitioners. In the FGD session, the results of the literature review were validated, and nine additional barriers were proposed. Finally, a total of 20 barriers under five categories was proposed for the smart contract adoption in the construction industry. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted with the participation of 15 construction practitioners. Lastly, fuzzy VIKOR analysis was performed to assess the criticality of the implementation barriers. This study indicates that the construction companies should overcome not only technical barriers but also managerial barriers. Changes in the processes arisen due to smart contract implementation prevent the construction from implementing a smart contract, since the employees show resistance to these changes. Furthermore, the companies believe that they can lose their bargaining power with smart contracts, and they do not want to lose their power. Bottlenecks are considered the most critical barrier from a technological perspective, and companies are concerned about the problems resulting from them. Although this study provides insights into the barriers to smart contracts in the construction industry, all the respondents are from Turkey. Therefore, some of the findings of this study can be specific to the Turkish construction industry.
Mohamed Assaf, Lena Salami, Diana Salhab, Ahmed Hammad
The adoption of integrated project delivery (IPD) provides several advantages over traditional delivery methods, such as shorter schedules, efficient communication, and higher performance quality.However, its implementation is constantly hindered by many barriers.Existing studies on IPD barriers are limited to quantifying and addressing such obstacles.Additionally, hardly any studies have addressed the potential of advanced technologies in exploiting the adoption of IPD projects.Thus, this study presents an automated system that integrates blockchain, smart contracts, and BIM technologies to facilitate the implementation of IPD projects.Hyperledger Fabric and chaincodes are used to develop the blockchain network in accordance with 4D and 5D BIM models.The developed system simplifies various financial transactions throughout different phases of the IPD project implementation.The system allows non-owner participants to submit requests and review transaction records with the aim of minimizing possible conflicts.The methodology is evaluated by testing it on a real-life case study.The case study is modeled using BIM tools, and the corresponding blockchain network and smart contracts are developed.The findings prove the capability of the developed system to provide a secure and trustworthy platform for managing IPD transactions without the need for third-party involvement.
Manufacturing raw materials to get products to consumers in traditional supply chain systems is a manual process with inadequate data and transaction security.In addition, the entire procedure becomes cumbersome as it is time consuming.Overall, undivided processes are inefficient and unreliable for consumers.When blockchain and smart contract technology are integrated with traditional supply chain management system, data security, reliability, time management and transaction process will be greatly improved.Blockchain is a revolutionary decentralized technology that protects data from unauthorized access.Once smart contracts are implemented, the entire supply chain management (SCM) becomes consumer happy.Involvement of intermediaries thus increases the credibility of the plan.The tags used in his traditional SCM process are expensive and offer limited functionality.Therefore, it is difficult for SCM systems to maintain product confidentiality and accountability.It is also a common target for wireless attacks (reply attacks, eavesdropping, etc.).In SCM, the term product confidentiality is very important.This means that only verified persons can access the information.The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the use of blockchain technology in the supply chain sector.While this technology is often associated with cryptocurrencies, it also shows promise in non-financial applications such as the supply chain, energy and food industries.Blockchain can provide a permanent, shareable and verifiable record of products across the supply chain, improving product traceability, authenticity and legality in a more cost-effective manner.An example of a micro factory proposal using blockchain technology was introduced.
Hamidah Babirye Nsereko, M. Tait, Nadine Oosthuizen
Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the ideal contract compliance process in Uganda from a state department perspective. Design/Methodology/Approach: In conducting this study, the interpretivist approach using the qualitative methodology was employed. Telephonic interviews and focus group discussions via the Zoom online platform with semi-structured interviews were conducted among 29 procurement officers, heads of finance departments, heads of procurement departments, auditors and accounting officers. The interviews explored matters concerning what is regarded as the ideal contract compliance process. Findings: The findings indicate that the ideal contract compliance involves the following nine stages: understanding the law; procurement planning; requisitioning; establishing funds availability for the items procured; sourcing providers; contract awarding; appointing contract managers; monitoring deliveries; and payment. Practical Implications: Studies such as the current one widen the management scope and suggest that state departments should read the mind of society and continuously engage with them; make SMART plans and budgets; streamline processes; involve technical people; legally assess the contract; and follow the existing laws. Originality/Value: The cost of contract non-compliance is high and could lead to missed deadlines; delays in executing contracts; litigation and even cancellation of contracts. This could result in a lack of transparency and accountability; poor performance; inefficiency; and poor resource usage. To prevent these negative impacts, state departments could add policy recommendations to implement an effective contract compliance process.
The main objective of this study is to address one of the significant challenges maritime SMEs, as well as the whole industry, are facing concerning the general necessity to digitize the global supply chain: the lack of transparent information flows between participants and the non-existing documentation standards. This objective includes a proposal of using blockchain technology for data sharing as a solution to counter this challenge. To understand how a blockchain-based data-sharing platform would succeed and tackle this challenge, TradeLens was selected as a case study. The literature review has addressed the shipping industry as a whole, blockchain technology, and its features and current initiatives that facilitate this technology. The case study analysis and discussion focused on the architecture, data sharing model, and standards for documentation as well as challenges associated with the solution TradeLens is offering for maritime enterprises. From this analysis, implications for SMEs have been elaborated. Concluding these implications have been validated through interviews with industry experts and strategic decision-makers in maritime SMEs.
Johannes Rude Jensen, Nina-Birte Schirrmacher, Michel Avital, Omri Ross
In the span of just a few years, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have grown into a high-value form of organization. A growing body of IS literature examines the decentralized, transparent, and equitable design of these organizations. DAO governance is commonly mediated using ‘governance tokens’ in a one-token-one-vote system. However, the inconspicuous role of tokens for DAO governance is rarely investigated. We present preliminary findings from a netnographic study of controversial decision-making processes in two large DAOs. Our cases reveal how top holders of tokens leverage their favorable position to enact unpopular decisions unilaterally. The findings indicate a discrepancy between the espoused values and enacted practices of DAO governance, as economic capital rather than social capital investment becomes the primary determinant of voting power. We examine emerging alternative voting systems and offer a framework for parsing these new initiatives. Contributions to the literature and future work are discussed.
On-time delivery of documentation and contracts has been recognized as a crucial requirement for the successful delivery of projects. However, the construction industry still depends on time-consuming traditional contract processes, which negatively affect the overall productivity of projects in the industry. The use of Smart Contracts (SCs) is highlighted as a suitable novel technology to expedite the contract processes and establish a reliable payment environment in the construction industry. Whilst there has been an increase in the debate about the use of SCs in construction in recent years, their use in practice still seems to be in its infancy. As such, the topic will benefit from a thorough review of benefits, drivers, barriers and strategies that can enhance the implementation of SCs in construction. This article presents the key findings from a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on SCs in the construction industry, critically assessing existing studies on the topic. The study initially involved 171 research papers for the SLR process, and out of that 49 research papers were filtered for further analysis after reading their abstracts. A total of 30 papers were finally filtered after the full-text reading for the SLR. Descriptive and content analysis were used to analyse the full-text findings. The study graphically mapped the bibliographic materials by using the Visualization of Similarities (VoS) Viewer software. As per the findings, the topic has mostly been researched in Asia and the Pacific as a region and China as a country. It was noted that there were more empirical articles than theoretical studies related to SCs, evidencing the industry relevance of the issue. A total of 55% of the articles reviewed have been published in journals with a Q1 ranking. All the articles were written by multiple authors, with 30% of the journal articles having international co-authors and benefitting from the collaboration between authors. Key advantages identified in the literature go beyond contract and payment provisions and include aspects such as logistic handling, decentralized applications, business process management, automated payments, etc. Key drivers for adoption are supply chain pressure, competitive pressure, top management support, simple layout, reduction in risks of clients, clarity in responsibility and risk allocation, whereas the key barriers include insecurity, limited observability, incompatibility, inactive government collaboration and limited storage capacity. Key strategies to enhance the application of SC in construction include integrating theorems proving symbolic execution, using the selective transparency method and lock fund system, testing the integration of SCs with other systems at the initial stage, incorporating semi-automated consensus mechanisms for payments, constructing a mechanism to actively engage with government bodies, etc.
In the past few years, several attacks against the vulnerabilities of EOSIO smart contracts have caused severe financial losses to this prevalent blockchain platform. As a lightweight test-generation approach, grey-box fuzzing can open up the possibility of improving the security of EOSIO smart contracts. However, developing a practical grey-box fuzzer for EOSIO smart contracts from scratch is time-consuming and requires a deep understanding of EOSIO internals. In this work, we proposed AntFuzzer, the first highly extensible grey-box fuzzing framework for EOSIO smart contracts. AntFuzzer implements a novel approach that interfaces AFL to conduct AFL-style grey-box fuzzing on EOSIO smart contracts. Compared to black-box fuzzing tools, AntFuzzer can effectively trigger those hard-to-cover branches. It achieved an improvement in code coverage on 37.5% of smart contracts in our benchmark dataset. AntFuzzer provides unified interfaces for users to easily develop new detection plugins for continually emerging vulnerabilities. We have implemented 6 detection plugins on AntFuzzer to detect major vulnerabilities of EOSIO smart contracts. In our large-scale fuzzing experiments on 4,616 real-world smart contracts, AntFuzzer successfully detected 741 vulnerabilities. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of AntFuzzer and our detection pl
Fernando Parahyba, Eldair F. Dornelles, Fabrícia Roos-Frantz, Rafael Z. Frantz · 8 authors
Integration processes involve Business Constraints and Service Level Agreements that, with current technology, are not monitored or enforced automatically at run-time. This approach leaves the participants with no means of supervising the development of their interactions or of collecting indisputable evidence to ease the resolution of disputes that can potentially emerge. In this paper, to address the issue, we suggest the inclusion of smart contracts in integration processes to supervise and mediate, at run-time, the agreements to which the participants commit. We discuss the requirements that smart contracts for integration processes need to meet and the challenges involved in writing, executing, deploying, and verifying them.
A logistics service integrator (LSI) usually requires a logistics service provider (LSP) to carry out smart transformation in order to improve the level of logistics service. However, LSP’s smart transformation faces uncertainty in terms of investments and income, which seriously hinders LSP’s enthusiasm for logistics service innovation. In this paper, we construct a logistics service supply chain (LSSC) consisting of an LSI and an LSP to explore the incentive mechanism for LSPs to undergo smart transformation. As a benchmark for comparison, we first obtain the equilibrium results under centralized decision making and wholesale price (WP) contracts. Then, cost-sharing (CS), revenue-sharing (RS), and cost sharing–revenue sharing (CS-RS) hybrid contracts are proposed. It is found that when the CS coefficient is in a certain interval, the CS contract can increase the profit of LSI and the smart level of logistics service, but it will decrease the profit of LSP. With the exception that the wholesale price of logistics services will decrease, the equilibrium results under the RS contract and WP contract remain consistent. Only the CS-RS hybrid contract can achieve the perfect coordination of LSSC. In addition, by conducting numerical analysis, we find that the enhancement of the smart effect can encourage LSP to improve the smart level and increase the overall revenue of LSSC. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first study to explore the incentive mechanism between LSI and LSP in the context of logistics service smart transformation. Our findings guide the LSI in implementing an effective contract.
Contracting can be approached in very different ways, depending on whether negotiators and the contracts themselves focus on preventing negative events or promoting positive outcomes. These two different approaches influence the exchange and exchange relationship in predictable ways. This chapter reviews prior work on how regulatory focus affects the traditional contracting process; that is, how individuals negotiate, draft, review, and then manage the contract, highlighting the need to expand the promotion role for contracts in practice. However, the advent of AI contracting tools and smart contracts is significantly changing this process. Thus, this chapter also provides an examination of these new digital contacting tools and how they further bias people and contracts toward prevention. Understanding these effects can allow managers to strategically use negotiator focus and contract frames to increase performance and enhance exchange relationships in the digital age, as use of AI tools and smart contracts becomes widespread.
We discuss the contribution of the Petri net formalism to the BOSE for Smart Contract design and development. We address this discussion based on the analysis of recently published literature works we obtained by querying Scopus and Google Scholar. Different types of Petri nets, including coloured Petri nets and workflow nets, and different types of tools emerge from our analysis. Our discussion includes the classification into three categories of application of the Petri net formalism in the design and development of Smart Contracts, namely modeling, generation, and verification.
Khoi Le Quoc, Phuc Nguyen Trong, Hieu Le Van, Hong Khanh Vo · 13 authors
The exchange of goods between countries is growing, contributing to the promotion of logistics-related technologies. More and more systems are adopting advances in science and engineering to reduce manual handling steps, thereby reducing transit time. Letter-of-Credit (LOC) is a standard method where the parties involved will enter into agreements for the sale and exchange of goods. Specifically, each party will receive a set of original documents and does not need to meet face-to-face under the bank’s witness. The process brings many benefits in terms of time and reduces records processing. However, the system faces a lot of risks when one of the parties is dishonest. On the other hand, the traditional LOC systems face a lot of risks related to the transparency of information about the goods, and also the supplier may lose the goods (e.g., 4/100 Vietnamese cashew nut containers are lost. stuck in Italy) or deposits in the hands of shipping companies (e.g., GNN Express - Vietnam) and many more. To this end, many research directions have exploited blockchain technology and smart contracts. Specifically, all information related to the transaction between the supplier and the demander including package, time, and delivery location. However, there needs to be a mechanism to ensure the smooth implementation of smart contracts, specifically for sanctioning when there is a conflict between a supplier and a demander. This role should be considered for the transaction manager, who directly designs and is responsible for their smart contracts. Currently, there is no mechanism to guarantee all interests of the parties involved in non-bank transactions. To increase the processing capacity and integrate with the Blockchain system, we propose the Letter-of-credit Chain that defines the agreements between the parties in international trade. We also deploy the proof-of-concept of the Letter-of-credit Chain on the three EVM-supported platforms (i.e., under ERC20), namely, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Fantom. By evaluating the actual execution of Gas for each platform, we found that our proposed model had the cheapest fee when deployed on the Fantom platform. Finally, we share the deployment/implementation of these platforms’ proof-of-concept to encourage further future research.
In the literature on relational governance, it is often assumed that relational governance emerges primarily after formal contracting and acts as a functional supplement to a formal contract. In this article, we show that especially facing deep uncertainties, relational governance can emerge before the start of formal partnerships, in the form of trust-building, exchanging resources, and fostering flexibility. Based on a case study of a smart city outsourcing project, this article introduces a forward-extended framework of relational governance that captures the pre-contractual dimensions of relationship cultivation and their role in facilitating formal contracting. The study finds that pre-contractual relational governance facilitates formal contracting by reducing substantive, evaluative, technological, and procedural uncertainties in the project and helps the partners to design an elaborative contract, undergo an easy negotiation, adopt short-term contracts, and use simple monitoring and evaluation methods. The article thus argues that only understanding post-contractual relational governance is insufficient for exploring the relation between formal contracting and relational governance; facing deep uncertainties, it is necessary to understand how public and private parties develop their pre-contractual relationship and reduce the uncertainties before a formal contract can be signed. Points for practitioners Practitioners should realize that there is much room for relational governance in the pre-contractual phase of PPP projects when the projects are rife with various uncertainties. Public and private parties can take measures to build trust, foster flexibility, and create interdependence before a formal contract is signed. These ex-ante relational governance measures can facilitate formal contracting by reducing the various uncertainties, making a formal contract designable, making negotiation smooth and easy, and reducing the need for contract supervision.
Decentralized autonomous organizations are a new form of smart contract based governance. Decentralized autonomous organization platforms, which support the creation of such organizations, are becoming increasingly popular, such as Aragon and Colony. Selecting the best fitting platform is challenging for organizations, as a significant number of decision criteria, such as popularity, developer availability, governance issues, and consistent documentation of such platforms, should be considered. Additionally, decision-makers at the organizations are not experts in every domain, so they must continuously acquire volatile knowledge regarding such platforms. Supporting decision-makers in selecting the right decentralized autonomous organizations by designing an effective decision model is the main objective of this study. We aim to provide more insight into their selection process and reduce time and effort significantly by designing a decision model. This study presents a decision model for the decentralized autonomous organization platform selection problem. The decision model captures knowledge regarding such platforms and concepts systematically. The decision model is based on an existing theoretical framework that assists software engineers with a set of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making problems in software production. We conducted three industry case studies in the context of three decentralized autonomous organizations to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the decision model in assisting decision-makers. The case study participants declared that the decision model provides significantly more insight into their selection process and reduces time and effort. We observe in the empirical evidence from the case studies that decision-makers can make more rational, efficient, and effective decisions with the decision model. Furthermore, the reusable form of captured knowledge regarding Decentralized Autonomous Organization Platforms can be employed by other researchers in their future investigations.
Maria A. Egorova, Luibov Andreeva, Владимир Андреев, Imeda A. Tsindeliani · 5 authors
Abstract Using the case study method, the study examines the prospects and initiatives of the state that can create preconditions for the formation of new areas of legal regulation in the field of digital public procurement as well as issues of improving the mechanisms of information systems, taking into account the specifics of states with a multi-structured economy. The objective of the study is to assess the applicability of the tools for digital transformation of the Russian Federation in the field of public procurement in the context of international practice. Confirming all the advantages of the idea of digital transformation of public procurement systems, the Russian experience is intended to demonstrate what problems at the level of legislative regulation the state policy associated with the implementation of such systems can face. In this case, in contrast to foreign practices, the Russian system of electronic public procurement in the aggregate creates a single information space that, in fact, has no direct analogues and is a special example of interaction between electronic platforms in this area. In addition, the example of introducing distributed ledger technology into such systems is significant from the point of view of the functioning of electronic public procurement platforms. The results of this study and the tools used to assess legal regulation in the field of public procurement can be used by state authorities of the Russian Federation, taking into account the needs of entrepreneurs, to better assess the feasibility and consequences of participation in public procurement procedures. This study’s results can also be of relevance to researchers of comparative legislation in the field of legal regulation of public procurement.
Firms apply new technology to value creation. In particular, blockchain technology increases transparency and stability of shipping and logistics firms and this is connected with a high level of collaboration with shippers. In this regard, the objective of this study is to verify the interaction effect of information systems of shipping and logistics firms and managers’ support for blockchain technology on cooperation with shippers. To achieve the objective, this study identified variables based on prior research and analyzed the data collected by a survey. The results are as follows. First, information systems as a resource of shipping and logistics firms have a positive effect on cooperation with shippers. To enhance the strategic resource, they increase cooperation with shippers based on learning and logistics process improvement. Therefore, the relationship between the information systems and cooperation with shippers can be explained as a resource-based view. Second, there is the interaction effect of the information systems and managers’ support for blockchain technology on the cooperation and this can be explained as a resource-based view. Information systems are resources of shipping and logistics firms, and managers should encourage and reward staff for using new technology such as blockchains, followed by a high level of cooperation with shippers.
Contracts are the currency of commerce. Insight into the future of commerce is likely to be gained through the application of smart contracts. The improvements in technology and the direction of travel for the collaborative agenda seem to coalescence around the concept of the smart contract. Lawyers and legal academics have become increasingly aware of the challenges and potential of smart contracts in recent years. The key characteristics of smart contracts is it in digital form and is embedded as code in hardware and software. The performance of the contract and the release of payments and other actions are enabled by technology and rules-based operations. The smart contract process can be described thus: the operative inserts the brick in the wall. The key characteristic of smart contracts is the coding of legal terms and processes into software.