Ruidong Chang

Sustainability Transition of the Chinese Construction Industry: Practices and Behaviors of the Leading Construction Firms

AbstractBecause of various economic, social, and environmental challenges, the Chinese construction industry is under tremendous pressure to transition to a sustainability orientation. Existing studies have extensively explored the technological innovations of environmental sustainability within the Chinese construction industry. In contrast, very little attention has been paid to a holistic exploration of the economic and social dimensions related to sustainability, or to the sustainability strategies and behaviors of construction firms in China. From the perspective of sustainability transition, this paper analyzes the sustainability practices and strategic sustainability behaviors of three leading construction firms in China based on three case study firms. Twenty-nine aspects of sustainability practice implemented by the studied firms are identified. The evolution of the strategic sustainability behaviors exhibited by the three firms and the strengths and weaknesses of their sustainability practices a...

Discovering the transition pathways toward sustainability for construction enterprises: Importance-performance analysis

AbstractThere has been growing awareness and demand for construction enterprises’ transition toward sustainability with an aim to maximize the economic, social, and environmental values of construc...

TRANSITION TOWARDS GREEN FACILITY MANAGEMENT: BRIDGING THE KNOWLEDGE GAPS OF FACILITIES MANAGERS

The building industry has experienced a widespread transition towards green buildings and consequently a growing need for green facilities professionals to maximize green building potential in term...

A Decision Model Assessing the Owner and Contractor’s Conflict Behaviors in Construction Projects

Considering the effects of the contractor’s conflict behaviors on the project benefit, a decision model between the owner and contractor’s conflict behaviors in construction projects was constructed using the principal-agent theory and game theory. The model was analyzed under nonconflicting and conflicting conditions, and a numerical simulation and example analysis were proposed to verify the constructed model’s conclusion. The results showed that the effort levels of the owner and contractor not only relate to benefit-sharing coefficient and effort outcome coefficient but also depend on the contractor’s ability of converting the conflict into benefit and the loss caused by conflict behaviors. A higher ability of converting conflicts into benefits and lower levels of the loss caused by conflict behaviors for the contractor lead to lower levels of the net benefit of the owner, conversely higher levels of the net benefit of the contractor. Balancing the contractor’s ability of converting conflicts into benefits and the loss caused by conflict behaviors lead to a more reasonable risk allocation between the owner and contractor, improving the effort level and net benefit. To add value to the construction project, the owner should establish an impartial and reasonable benefit-sharing mechanism, optimize the owner and contractor’s resource arrangement, maximize the positive effect of conflict on project benefits, and avoid the negative effect of conflict. Few studies to date have investigated the effects of conflict behaviors on project benefits in terms of modeling and simulation in construction projects. As such, this study bridges this gap and contributes significant theoretical and practical insights about managing conflict behaviors in an interorganizational context, thus enhancing performance in construction projects.

Dynamic interactions between sustainability and competitiveness in construction firms: A transition perspective

Purpose Sustainability and competitiveness have received extensive attentions. Despite a large number of studies on sustainability and competitiveness in the construction industry, little research has been conducted to holistically explore the interactions between these two concepts. From a dynamic transition perspective, the purpose of this paper is to link sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms by developing a Sustainability-Competitiveness Dynamic Interaction Framework (SCDIF). Design/methodology/approach Conceptual theory-building approach was adopted to develop the conceptual framework. It is an iterative analysis and synthesis process, which involves reading literature, identifying commonalities and differences, synthesizing, proposing an initial framework, collecting additional literature, and revisiting and revising the framework. Findings There are complex interactions between sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms. This leads to uncertain relationships between sustainability and competitiveness, which is context dependent. Under evolving economic and socio-political environments, sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms could transition from mutually exclusive to mutually supportive, and finally merge into “sustainable competitiveness.” Research limitations/implications A SCDIF proposed in this study demonstrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms’ strategies, and thus the relationships and interactions between sustainability and competitiveness are context dependent. This framework helps corporate managers to understand how corporate sustainability and competitiveness interact with each other, thereby informing their decision-making of sustainability strategy. Similarly, the framework provides useful references for policymakers to understand the mechanisms of transitioning industries toward sustainable competitiveness. Originality/value The proposed framework offers a new perspective for understanding sustainability and competitiveness. From the dynamic transition perspective, this study effectively illustrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms’ strategies. Compared to existing approaches, the dynamic and holistic approach proposed in this paper provides the capacity to capture the complexity of sustainability and competitiveness.

The Implementation of Green Supply Chain Management in Chinese Food Industry: A Multi-case Study

As it concerns more than one billion people, Chinese food manufacturing industry is on a large scale and adopting green supply chain management (GSCM) in this industry is significant to environmental protection. This paper aims at providing information on the implementation of GSCM in Chinese food industry. Using multi-case study on five case enterprises, this paper analyzed the practical experience and difficulties of the GSCM implementation in four aspects, namely green procurement, green manufacturing, green logistics and green marketing. The results show that sample enterprises did well in green procurement and green marketing while the green manufacturing and green logistics have encountered some objective difficulties and still call for improvement. The joint effort of the government and food enterprises needs to be formed to ameliorate the implementation situation of GSCM in Chinese food industry.