Karafan Journal

Karafan Journal

Identifying and prioritizing the components which affect the future of financing infrastructure projects based on blockchain technology with a hybrid approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 PhD Student, Department of Accounting, Ya.C., Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Accounting, Ya.C., Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran
3 Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Ya.C., Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran
Abstract
Financing infrastructure projects in emerging markets and developing economies faces several challenges including limited financial resources, transparency issues, high financing costs, and inefficiencies in tracking project performance. The main objective of this study is to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the future of financing infrastructure projects based on blockchain, to examine the potential of blockchain technology in overcoming these challenges, and to improve the infrastructure financing process. This research is applied in terms of purpose, exploratory-analytical in nature, and mixed (quantitative-qualitative) in terms of data collection method. Accordingly, in the qualitative phase, by reviewing the literature and research background and expert approval, the components affecting the future of financing infrastructure projects based on blockchain technology were identified, and then, by applying the PEST framework and expert opinion, the influential components were categorized into 4 groups: political, economic, social, and technological. Finally, in the quantitative phase, by designing a Delphi questionnaire, the required data were extracted from 13 experts and prioritized by using Lingo software and the best-worst method. The results showed that economic factors with a weight of 0.617 were recognized as the most important category of effective factors. Among the sub-criteria, "applicable in private and public projects" with a final weight of 0.380 ranked first in importance. Also, "reducing financing costs" and "frequency of use in public projects" ranked second and third, respectively. Furthermore, the consistency ratio obtained from expert comparisons was 0.08, confirming the internal consistency and reliability of the pairwise judgments used in the BWM analysis.
Keywords
Subjects

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Volume 22, Issue 2
Humanities
Summer 2025
Pages 513-539

  • Receive Date 18 September 2025
  • Revise Date 09 November 2025
  • Accept Date 22 February 2026