Twenty-year application of logistics and supply chain management in the construction industry

Abstract

The last decades have seen a growing interest in construction management amongst scholars, particularly, in how to apply supply chain management (SCM) strategies to improve logistics efficiency and project performance. Nevertheless, there is a lack of systematic literature reviews (SLRs) which integrate multiple quantitative methods to synthesise the literature on construction logistics and supply chain management (CLSCM) and analyse their trends during the last two decades. In this work, we concurrently deploy the rigorous six-step SLR protocol together with co-citation analysis, factor analysis, multidimensional scaling-based fuzzy k-means clustering, and keyword extraction and co-occurrence analysis to ascertain and examine clusters of CLSCM application. The results show that there are six established research clusters in CLSCM, namely, logistics and SCM for prefabricated construction, construction procurement, construction supply chain integration, green construction SCM, reverse logistics in construction and onsite construction logistics. Amongst these clusters, construction supply chain integration plays the most integral role. Informed by this ascertained knowledge structure, we explore the research trends during the period reviewed, propose a conceptual framework for CLSCM and suggest research avenues.

Keywords:

• Construction
• supply chain management
• logistics
• co-citation analysis

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM for the support of time and facilities for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We would like to thank the reviewers for this suggestion.

2 The data were first collected in August 2020 when 472 relevant papers were selected after four snowball sampling iterations. As requested by one referee, other papers that were accepted for publication and became available online after that time but before 2021 were retrieved to complete the CLSCM literature from 2000 to 2020. Two additional snowball sampling iterations were conducted and a total of 591 journal publications on CLSCM were selected. This update did not qualitatively change the clustering results.

3 https://sfdora.org/2020/05/19/rethinking-research-assessment-ideas-for-action/; https://sfdora.org/2020/08/10/academic-research-culture-influences-learned-behaviors-in-graduate-students/

Additional information

Funding

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada: grant number CGS D3-535738-2019.