Prefabricated building projects (PBPs) have contributed significantly to addressing Hong Kong’s serious housing shortage and accommodate almost half of the residents in this densely populated city. The supply chains of PBPs involve large numbers of stakeholders, including clients, designers, main contractors, transporters, and assembly subcontractors, all of which need to interact with each other by frequent information exchanges. However, cross-border supply chains are found to be quite complex, resulting in risks that significantly affect the performance of PBPs. Supply chain risks (SCRs) are closely associated with the stakeholders involved and have high interdependency with each other. This paper adopts social network analysis (SNA) to develop the risk network of the supply chain of a PBP in Hong Kong to prioritize the stakeholder-associated SCR. The research findings show that poor planning of resources and schedule, poor control of working flows, and poor information sharing between stakeholders are the major challenges to the supply chains of PBPs. This is the first study to consider the dynamic risk interdependency and associated stakeholders in SCRs. By providing a greater understanding of the risks embedded across the supply chains of PBPs in Hong Kong, this study could assist practitioners dealing with such risks more effectively and efficiently.

Supply chain vulnerability (SCV) is a driver of risk influenced by the defects of stakeholders’ management and decision making as well as the interactions between SCV factors. We adopted the social network analysis to explore SCV in prefabricated building projects (PBPs) from multiple perspectives. A two-mode network was constructed to quantitatively analyze the impact of stakeholders on SCV factors. A one-mode network was also built to explore the interrelationships between SCV factors. Digital technologies (DTs) were then investigated to understand whether and how they contribute to SCV abatement in PBPs. Results show that stakeholders have different degrees of influence on different categories of SCV factors. The main contractor, assembly subcontractor, and manufacturer are the critical stakeholders generating SCV with significant potential for cooperation in reducing SCV in PBPs. Critical SCV factors, links, and the associated influencing paths are analyzed to gain in-depth insights into SCV. Project organizational vulnerabilities account for the largest proportion of critical nodes. The combination of building information modeling, Internet of things, augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence can effectively alleviate SCV in PBPs. This article provides valuable theoretical and practical implications on SCV reduction and DTs promotion.

Prefabricated construction, known for its efficiency and eco-friendliness, presents new safety management challenges due to its unique characteristics, such as the use of large components and frequent lifting operations. The presence of safety vulnerability in this construction method is influenced by various factors, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies hold substantial promise in mitigating this vulnerability. This study adopted partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to comprehensively scrutinize the relationships among various factors and their impacts on the formation of safety vulnerability. Furthermore, a two-mode social network analysis was conducted to quantitatively analyze the mitigation effects of IoT technologies on safety vulnerability. The results revealed that workers' unsafe behaviors, high work pressure, and inadequate construction supervision significantly contribute to the formation of safety vulnerability in prefabricated construction. The study further found that IoT technologies play a crucial role in mitigating safety vulnerability by improving compliance with safety regulations and fostering safety commitment among managers. Notably, sensors and Auto-ID technologies emerged as prominent IoT technologies with substantial reduction effects on safety vulnerability. These findings strongly advocate for the widespread adoption of IoT in prefabricated construction to enhance safety performance.