Critical Challenges of Quality Assurance of Cross-border Construction Logistics and Supply Chain During COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Expert Survey

Quality Assurance (QA) is a critical tool for the success of projects under cross-border construction logistics and supply chain (Cb-CLSC). However, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed challenges that have affected the adequacy of QA of Cb-CLSC, and this has received limited attention in scholarly reports. Thus, this study aims to identify the critical challenges of QA of Cb-CLSC amid the pandemic by conducting an international expert survey with 102 experts across 25 economies/countries. Sentiment analysis is performed further to understand how the critical challenges have influenced the QA of Cb-CLSC using the negative-neutral-positive model. The study’s finding identified ten critical challenges of QA of Cb-CLSC amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with the top five critical challenges comprising “shortage of raw construction material”, “changes in work practices”, “halting of operations and site closure”, “heavy workloads and shortage of construction workers”, and “design changes”. Aside from the negativity imposed by the pandemic, the sentiments on each critical challenge portrayed positivity and neutrality that empowers the industry, denoting that the pandemic comes with opportunities that may be harnessed to position the QA of Cb-CLSC to be adequate for the post-pandemic era and endure the risks of future pandemics. This study contributes theoretically and practically by identifying and creating awareness of the critical challenges of the QA of Cb-CLSC. This could help practitioners, researchers, and policymakers develop a resilience framework based on innovative management strategies to position the QA of Cb-CLSC adequately for the post-pandemic era and endure the risks of future pandemics.