Exploring the potential of blockchain technology adoption in the Sri Lankan construction industry: opportunities and barriers to implementation

Abstract

Blockchain technology promises to be a transformative solution for the Sri Lankan construction industry that has been plagued by systemic inefficiencies, corruption & fragmented workflows. Global research points out that Blockchain will make a difference to increase the transparency of documents, automate and operate contracts and optimize supply chain. However, despite being a potential in Sri Lanka, it is limited in adoption because of the technical, organizational and regulatory barriers. This research employs a qualitative approach using the research onion model to link characterizations of the benefits and challenges related to Sri Lanka, based on Systematic Literature Review (SLR) technique. Accordingly, 10 Scopus indexed papers were selected for detailed analysis followed by manual content analysis. The study found that Blockchain offers financial process efficiency e.g. lower late payments via smart contracts, transparency improvement (immutable records suppressing fraud), and corruption prevention (tamper proof e-procurement system). Despite these, implementation costs and regulatory uncertainty, as well as technical scalability issues are the challenges preventing adoption. The industry is also fragmented and has a low level of digitalization, thus making integration complex. Its implications underline both the call for pilot projects, regulatory modernization, and stakeholder education to bridge the theory to practice gap, and the fact that theoretical potential has a powerful influence on the perception of risk. Once addressed, the barriers that Sri Lankans face in its construction sector can open the doorway to adopt blockchain to have better accountability, attract foreign investment, and be in tune with the global sustainability benchmarks.