Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to promote the application of building information modeling (BIM) in China’s construction industry, key factors and their relationships are explored. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a literature review, 28 factors were extracted and their relationships (239 in total) obtained using the Delphi method. A social network model of the factors was constructed and factors were analyzed using social network analysis (SNA). Findings: The top 10 key factors and their relationships were obtained using SNA. Among the top 10 critical factors, six were source factors. They were: training for the application of BIM, guidance from experts, proper management modes, efficient BIM teams, specifications and demonstrations and standards for building information communication. The other four factors included as follows: a willingness to accept BIM, knowledge of its value and benefits, the definition of its benefits and the availability of IT software and hardware. These were mediating factors that could further the influence of the source factors. Originality/value: The results provide useful information for public agencies and professionals to understand the immediate and mediating influences of the factors on the application of BIM. Solutions and future efforts for different participants are presented to promote the application of BIM-based on the key factors and their relationships.

The credit of contractors in the construction market directly affects the cooperative intentions of owners. Although previous scholars have attempted to use credit to select appropriate contractors, they have rarely considered the trust relationship between decision-making and former owners. This work introduces and verifies a credit network recommendation model based on a collaborative filtering algorithm. The contractor’s credit established based on this model serves as a viable method for owners to select efficient contractors. The application of the model includes relevant information collection, neighbor set formation, contractor’s credit evaluation, and recommendation list formation, among which the neighbor set of the owner is used to calculate the comprehensive trust degree of the decision-making owner to the former owner. A time decay function is adopted to correct the difference in the trust relationship between an owner and a contractor introduced over time. To verify the feasibility of this model, an actual scenario was simulated, and the results obtained via simulations were compared and found to be consistent. Thus, a contractor with a high credit can be recommended to the decision-making owner. This approach is crucial for promoting contractors’ credit and conducive to the healthy development of the construction market.

The antecedents of unsafe behavior of construction workers, widely recognized as critical factors contributing to safety accidents, have long been a central focus in the field of construction safety research. Despite extensive examinations, a systematic synthesis of existing studies on these antecedents has been lacking. To address this gap, a systematic literature review was conducted, analyzing 179 studies from 22 countries on the unsafe behavior of construction workers (1978–2024). The findings uncover the scholarly landscape of this field, encompassing journals, countries, core authors, theories, data, and methodologies. This study proposes a conceptual framework that encompasses the preintervention, implementation, and postintervention stages as well as the individual, organizational, and societal levels of analysis. Among these, the regulatory regime emerges as the most critical antecedent, followed by the safety climate, safety training, safety attitudes, and safety motivation, all of which are also significant antecedents. The study proposes a research framework to guide future examinations on unsafe behavior, identifies key knowledge gaps, and offers targeted recommendations, contributing theoretically and practically to the sustainable development of the construction industry.

Purpose: While previous studies have demonstrated the importance of personality traits to safety behavior, the existing understanding of this topic remains largely fragmented. These studies have predominantly focused on the “net effect” of personality traits, neglecting the complexity inherent in safety behavior. This study aims to fill the current research gap by providing new theoretical and practical insights into the relationship between complex personality traits and the safety behavior of construction workers within a specific safety climate. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a configurational approach to assess psychological traits that may contribute to safety behavior in the construction sector, starting with the Big Five personality traits. Then fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and necessary condition analysis (NCA) are employed to analyze the interactions among personality traits, safety climate, and safety behaviors of construction workers (N = 165). Findings: The NCA analysis results indicate that openness is a necessary condition for achieving high safety compliance. However, a single antecedent condition alone cannot ensure high safety participation. The fsQCA analysis identifies five configurations that contribute to high safety compliance among construction workers and three configurations that promote high safety participation. The effects of personality trait configurations can be positive or negative, depending on the safety climate. Additionally, the configurational conditions that result in high and non-high safety behavior demonstrate asymmetry. Originality/value: Theoretically, a person-centered approach is anticipated to provide more consistent outcomes than a variable-centered approach, emphasizing the complementary benefits of NCA combined with fsQCA.