Purpose: The ability of construction firms to become more environmentally conscious and socially responsible for their business activities has been touted as the key driver for improved individual firms' competitiveness. This study explores the key dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and their impact factors among construction firms.Design/methodology/approach: Through the institutional, stakeholders and self-determination theories, this study proposed a conceptual framework of CSR implementation. For its validation, data were collected from 90 top-tier construction firms using an online survey and analyzed via a two-pronged factor analysis method.Findings: The empirical results demonstrate that the CSR practices of construction firms include eight key dimensions, e.g. shareholders' interests, government commitment and CSR institutional arrangement. The three key groups of impact factor of CSR implementation are (1) identified factors (i.e. contractors' perceived importance of CSR practices); (2) external institutional factors (i.e. coercive and normative factors and mimetic factors); and (3) intrinsic factors (i.e. strategic business direction, resource and capability and organizational culture).Practical implications: The research findings inform the practitioners about how to enact, manage and improve firms' socially responsible goals so as to fulfill their key stakeholders' requirements and expectations and thus enhance their legitimacy in construction businesses.Originality/value: This study contributes to CSR knowledge by identifying and empirically demonstrating valid measurements of the key dimensions of practices and impact factors toward CSR implementation by construction firms.

The demand for construction firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been growing in response to the different expectations and needs of organizational stakeholders. Given the complexity of the CSR connotation, it is a significant challenge for practitioners to configure their considerations and enact strategic management plans to implement CSR practices based on their constrained resources. Hitherto, little study has been conducted to classify various aspects of CSR practices (ACSRs) based on firms’ management priorities, thereby proposing paths of improvement toward CSR (PICSR). This study investigated the potential PICSR for construction firms through importance–performance analysis (IPA) of various ACSRs. Based on a review of the literature and a multiple-case study, an online questionnaire was designed and used to collect data from top-tier construction firms after a pilot study. Cluster analysis was employed to classify firms into different groups based on their CSR implementation scores, followed by the IPA to categorize the ACSRs among different firm clusters and thereafter the establishment of the potential PICSR. The results indicate that although all ACSRs that focus on the employees’ interests and CSR organizational arrangement generally are categorized as Keep up the good work and Low priorities, respectively, dispersive distributions exist in the perceived importance and implementation of most ACSRs across different firm clusters, resulting in the diversity of PICSR. The findings contribute to the current CSR knowledge by proposing potential PICSR for construction firms and provides a useful reference for practitioners to evaluate, configure, and optimize their resources toward achieving organizational social responsibility goals.

Purpose: The construction industry is notorious for high risks and accident rates, prompting professionals to adopt emerging technologies for improved construction workers’ health and safety (CWHS). Despite the recognized benefits, the practical implementation of these technologies in safety management within the Construction 4.0 era remains nascent. This study aims to investigate the mechanisms influencing the implementation of Construction 4.0 technologies (C4.0TeIm) to enhance CWHS in construction organizations. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing upon integrated institutional theory, the contingency resource-based view of firms and the theory of planned behavior, this study developed and tested an integrated C4.0TeIm-CWHS framework. The framework captures the interactions among key factors driving C4.0TeIm to enhance CWHS within construction organizations. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey among 91 construction organizations and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings: The results reveal that: (1) key C4.0TeIm areas are integrative and centralized around four areas, such as artificial intelligence and 3D printing, Internet of Things and extended reality; and (2) external coercive and normative forces, internal resource and capability, business strategy, technology competency and management (BST), organizational culture and use intention (UI) of C4.0 technologies, collectively influence C4.0TeIm-CWHS. The findings confirm the pivotal roles of BST and UI as mediators fostering positive organizational behaviors related to C4.0TeIm-CWHS. Practical implications: Practically, it offers actionable insights for policymakers to optimize technology integration in construction firms, promoting industrial advancement while enhancing workforce well-being. Originality/value: The novel C4.0TeIm-CWHS framework contributes to the theoretical discourses on safety management within the C4.0 paradigm by offering insights into internal strategic deployment and compliance challenges in construction organizations.

Purpose: The interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become burgeoning in the construction industry as firms are under constant pressure from socially conscious stakeholders to demonstrate their efforts to address various CSR issues. This study aims to unveil the key practices and impact factors (KPIFs) of CSR implementation in construction firms and the interrelationships among different key impact factors toward attaining CSR practices.Design/methodology/approach: Mobilizing the integrated institutional, stakeholder and self-determination theories, a theoretical framework was first developed to elaborate the potential inter-relationships among the key impact factors toward CSR implementation. Data were collected from extra-grade contractors through an online questionnaire survey and was then analyzed by the partial least square structural equation modeling method.Findings: The results show that construction firms' CSR practices could be classified into eight distinct key dimensions, e.g. shareholders' interests, government commitment and environment preservation. It is found that three groups of key impact factors – external institutional factors (especially coercive-normative factors), intrinsic factors (especially strategic business direction and organizational culture) and identified factors (i.e. the perceived importance of CSR practices) – have statistically significant positive impacts on most key dimensions of CSR practices.Practical implications: The research findings have implications for top management to better understand CSR implementation, thereby helping them secure legitimacy to survive and advance in the competitive construction businesses.Originality/value: The findings contribute to the theoretical body of knowledge in CSR by modeling and empirically demonstrating the influence mechanism of CSR implementation in construction within an integrated model.

The implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices by construction firms have attracted various attentions in recent years owing to the environmental and social challenges confronted by the industry. This study investigates the CSR practices of five leading Chinese construction firms based on their annual CSR reports over a nine-year study period (2009–2017). Using content analysis, the specific objectives are to investigate: (i) the trends of their level of CSR practices implementation; and (ii) the factors influencing their CSR practices implementation. The results show that there are 79 CSR practices that can be classified into 32 sub-aspects, and 17 factors influencing their implementation of CSR practices. There are increasing trends of their CSR practices implementation levels over the study period. Although the evidence is suggestive that these trends would increase in the future, the implementation levels do vary across the five case firms. CSR communicating, biodiversity and ecology protection, and employees’ education and training are the top three sub-aspects of CSR practices prioritized by all case firms. The top three factors influencing their CSR practices implementation are award or certification, organizational culture, and governmental policy. The findings provide an useful insight for a better contextualization of CSR practices in the Chinese construction industry context, which has implications on the industry stakeholders’ attempts in driving firms’ implementation of CSR practices.

This study aims to examine construction firms’ awareness and implementation of various aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and ascertain whether the level of CSR awareness and implementation would vary across firms with different ownership and control. An online questionnaire survey was undertaken across extra-grade construction firms in China. The results show that respondents’ CSR priorities are built around the aspects of quality, safety, and environment. They tend to adopt a more integrated approach to managing the interests of diverse stakeholders. It is notable that there are positive correlations between the firms’ CSR awareness and implementation and that listed firms tend to exhibit a higher level of CSR awareness and implementation than their counterparts. In conclusion, the findings inform policymakers and practitioners of the status quo of CSR, thus enabling them to configure targeted strategies to improve the overall CSR awareness and implementation in China’s construction industry.