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Hospitals provide diverse tasks essential for the delivery of patient care and are comprised of many functional units. This makes healthcare construction projects highly complex among other types of building projects due to the specific regulations, multiple functions it must provide, complicated mechanical and electrical systems, and so on. This complexity embodies potential risk events during its construction, which not only influences the completion of the project but can impact the patients’ safety and health conditions even after the project is finished. To prevent such outcomes, risk management is a crucial process that can identify, evaluate, and properly mitigate risks along the project lifecycle. A key aspect of risk management is that it requires the interaction and contribution from multiple stakeholders of the project. Various frameworks and tools that enable collaborative management of risks among multiple stakeholders have been developed in the past. However, the developed frameworks are not suitable in the sense that it does not protect the confidentiality of individual inputs from the stakeholders. Moreover, these frameworks are centralized systems, which can bring issues related to the security and transparency of the information that is being stored. Blockchain technology is an emergent distributed ledger technology (DLT) that can provide solutions to the listed problems found in centralized systems. It is a novel system that records information on a decentralized, distributed ledger, where transactions are constantly duplicated and updated. This study explores the applicability of blockchain technology for healthcare risk management. The key functional elements of blockchain that can resolve the challenges faced by prior risk management frameworks have been identified and discussed. Based on the discussions, a conceptual information management model for managing healthcare project risks on a blockchain has been conceived. The development of the initial prototype has been explained. The research illustrates the process, benefits, and limitations of adopting blockchain technology for collaborative risk management in healthcare projects.  

Distributed ledger technologies are emerging as important tools that can positively impact almost all major industries and activities in our society. They are increasingly used in various supply (value) chain applications including financial, governance, regulations, health, logistics, and other industrial sectors. In this letter, we are presenting various ongoing work related to different distributed ledger technologies and their applications in postal sector. In particular, we will highlight some of the innovations in the inclusive financial services for the underbanked and unbanked populations using distributed ledger technologies.

Blockchain technology is often referred to as a groundbreaking innovation and the harbinger of a new economic era. Blockchains may be capable of engendering a new type of economic system: the blockchain economy. In the blockchain economy, agreed-upon transactions would be enforced autonomously, following rules defined by smart contracts. The blockchain economy would manifest itself in a new form of organizational design-decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)-which are organizations with governance rules specified in the blockchain. We discuss the blockchain economy along dimensions defined in the IT governance literature: decision rights, accountability, and incentives. Our case study of a DAO illustrates that governance in the blockchain economy may depart radically from established notions of governance. Using the three governance dimensions, we propose a novel IT governance framework and a research agenda for governance in the blockchain economy. We challenge common assumptions in the blockchain discourse, and propose promising information systems research related to these assumptions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) brings forth many opportunities to contribute to the wellbeing of individuals and the advancement of economies and societies, but also a variety of novel ethical, legal, social, and technological challenges. Trustworthy AI (TAI) bases on the idea that trust builds the foundation of societies, economies, and sustainable development, and that individuals, organizations, and societies will therefore only ever be able to realize the full potential of AI, if trust can be established in its development, deployment, and use. With this article we aim to introduce the concept of TAI and its five foundational principles (1) beneficence, (2) non-maleficence, (3) autonomy, (4) justice, and (5) explicability. We further draw on these five principles to develop a data-driven research framework for TAI and demonstrate its utility by delineating fruitful avenues for future research, particularly with regard to the distributed ledger technology-based realization of TAI.

PurposeThe present paper is aimed at 1) performing a systematic literature review (SLR) on applications in the perspective of sustainable agri-food supply chain (SC) of blockchain technology (BCT); 2) analyzing the selected literature, focusing on the advantages of the sustainable uses of the blockchain of the aforementioned SC and 3) presenting an outlook and research directions capable of addressing unresolved problems.Design/methodology/approachThe SLR was conducted using detailed criteria to identify academic articles. Moreover, specific keywords and databases were used. The time frame considered included the years 2010–2020.FindingsThe review analysis indicates that the use of BCT or BCT supported by ICT/IoT contributes to sustainability of agri-food production. However, this technology can lead to several challenges such as scalability, privacy leakage, high cost and connectivity problems.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper demonstrates that BCT can widely use agri-food supply chain due to its intrinsic characteristics. However, it is not excluded that the criteria chosen may not have identified important articles regarding BCT, the agri-food sector and sustainability.Originality/valueAlthough the body of academic literature published on this topic is expansive, the effect of BCT on the agri-food SC's sustainability aspects has not yet been adequately analyzed. Thus, the article is aimed at investigating how BCT is used in the SC. In particular, the article is intended to update information about BCT and its impact on sustainability.

When talking about blockchain technology in academia, business, and society, frequently generalizations are still heared about its – supposedly inherent – enormous energy consumption. This perception inevitably raises concerns about the further adoption of blockchain technology, a fact that inhibits rapid uptake of what is widely considered to be a groundbreaking and disruptive innovation. However, blockchain technology is far from homogeneous, meaning that blanket statements about its energy consumption should be reviewed with care. The article is meant to bring clarity to the topic in a holistic fashion, looking beyond claims regarding the energy consumption of Bitcoin, which have, so far, dominated the discussion.

This paper dissects the research methodologies implemented by the Research Team for the Smart Contracts Working Group (TC-307/IT-041 Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies) in developing standards to inform best practice in the design and use of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. In doing so, it explores the origins of blockchain standardisation and outlines the high-level methodology for conducting and delivering research in this rapidly evolving space.Using three case studies, this paper shows how different tasks give rise to, and benefit from, specialised methodologies. These case studies also highlight a number of challenges and opportunities, and demonstrate how a flexible research approach can increase efficiency and generate findings that are likely to influence blockchain standardisation at a global level.Case Study 1 describes our research into the legal status of smart contracts and the challenge of delivering clear findings about unclear subject matter. Case Study 2, which involved examining the sufficiency of existing regulatory frameworks in the supply chain and trade facilitation context, illustrates how rigid formatting specifications can impact the content of findings. In contrast, Case Study 3 concerns a project to incorporate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into new and existing Standards and shows how researchers’ knowledge can be harnessed as a valuable source of information in its own right.Finally, this paper extrapolates practical lessons for researchers who are interested in developing standards for emerging technologies, or simply undertaking much needed research into this area.

While blockchain technology is commonly considered potentially disruptive in various regards, there is a lack of understanding where and how blockchain technology is effectively applicable and where it has mentionable practical effects. This issue has given rise to critical voices that judge the technology as over-hyped. Against this backdrop, this study adapts an established research framework to structure the insights of the current body of research on blockchain technology, outline the present research scope as well as disregarded topics, and sketch out multidisciplinary research approaches. The framework differentiates three groups of activities (design and features, measurement and value, management and organization) at four levels of analysis (users and society, intermediaries, platforms, firms and industry). The review shows that research has predominantly focused on technological questions of design and features, while neglecting application, value creation, and governance. In order to foster substantial blockchain research that addresses meaningful questions, this study identifies several avenues for future studies. Given the breadth of open questions, it shows where research can benefit from multidisciplinary collaborations and presents data sources as starting points for empirical investigations.

Purpose>This paper presents a systematic literature review, including content and bibliometric analyses, of the impact of blockchain technology (BT) in auditing, to identify trends, research areas and construct an agenda for future research.Design/methodology/approach>The authors include studies from 2010 to 2020 in their structured literature review (SLR), using accounting journals on the Scopus database, which yielded 40 articles with blockchain and auditing at its core.Findings>One of the contributions of the authors’ analyses is to group the prior research, and therefore also the agenda for future research, into three main research areas: (1) Blockchain as a tool for auditing professionals to improve business information systems to save time and prevent fraud; (2) Smart contracts enabling Audit 4.0 efficiency, reporting, disclosure and transparency; (3) Cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a springboard for corporate governance and new venture financing. The authors’ findings have several important implications for practice and theory.Practical implications>The results of this study emphasise that (1) the disruption of blockchain in auditing is in a nascent phase and there is a need for compelling empirical studies and potential for the involvement of practitioners; (2) there may be a need to reconsider audit procedures especially suited for digitalisation and BT adoption; (3) standards, guidelines and training are required to pivot towards and confront the challenge BT will represent for auditing; and (4) there are two sides to the BT coin for auditing, enthusiasm about the potential and risk upon implementation. These practical implications can also be seen as a template for future research in a quest to align theory and practice.Originality/value>The authors’ SLR facilitates the identification of research areas and implications, forming a useful baseline for practitioners, professionals and academics, as they draft the state of the art on the disruption of blockchain in auditing, highlighting how BT is changing auditing activities and traditions.

Construction 4.0 has become a buzzword since the penetration of building information modeling (BIM), cyber-physical systems, and digital and computing technologies into the construction industry. Among emerging technologies, distributed ledger technology (DLT), or blockchain, is a powerful business enhancer whose potential can disrupt projects, AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) firms, and construction supply chain, and in a broader sense, the whole construction industry. This technology has not reached the plateau of productivity due to several barriers and challenges. Previous studies have started to investigate the barriers to implementing DLT in various sectors and segmentations. However, we still need further surveys in the construction industry. This study evaluates the applicability of identified challenges and barriers based on a sustainability perspective. Precisely, we will answer which challenges need to be addressed for the sustainability of the construction industry. To meet the research objective, the ordinal priority approach (OPA) in multiple attributes decision-making (MADM) was utilized. This novel method determines the weight of sustainability attributes and barriers simultaneously. The results show that DLT implementation needs (i) infrastructure for data management, (ii) advanced applications and archetypes, and (iii) customers’ demand, interest, and tendency, and (iv) taxation and reporting. Solving high-ranked challenges is the key to social sustainability from the aspects of “supply chain management and procurement”; “transparency, anti-corruption, and anti-counterfeiting”; and “fair operation and honest competition.”