Bamboo is commonly considered as a green, environmentally friendly material. However, it appears that bamboo finds limited application in the form of green building materials in the Chinese construction sector. In order to explain this phenomenon and promote the material’s application, this study summarizes the benefits of applying bamboo materials and presents an analysis on barriers affecting the effective application of bamboo materials in this specific building sector. Research data are collected from both literature surveys and semi-structured interviews with a group of carefully selected experts from the Chinese building sector. Fifteen characteristic barriers are identified, such as ineffective action by government departments. An integrative analysis is conducted, including investigation on the hierarchy structure among characteristic barriers using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) method and the classification of barriers from a driving-driven perspective using the Cross-impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) technique. This classification provides a different profile for the characteristic barriers from that of traditional barrier analysis methods. The findings provide valuable references for helping policy makers and practitioners adopt effective policies and measures to promote the application of bamboo for green materials in building sector.
At present, the low degree of informatization in the construction industry chain is one of the prominent problems impeding the application efficiency of prefabrication. To break through the bottleneck of information integration and interaction in the construction process of prefabricated buildings, this paper proposes a conceptual framework of an Intelligent Construction System for Prefabricated Buildings based on the Internet of Things (ICSPB-IoT) according to the needs of government supervision departments, contractors and owners. Then this paper describes the formation of the “information network” from “information flow”, based on which the operating mechanism of the ICSPB-IoT is discussed using the method of system engineering analysis. Finally, the proposed ICSPB-IoT is graded into different implementation levels according to the degree of intelligence of the Internet of Things information, and the implementation path is proposed for construction enterprises with different levels of digitalization. The results show that the ICSPB-IoT provides cross-phase, cross-organizational information interaction for government supervision departments, contractors and owners to improve the efficiency of communication and collaboration between them. This paper also provides decision-making support for the design, layout and implementation of the Internet of Things for prefabrication construction enterprises.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), as companies’ commitment to the sustainable development of the whole society, is an important approach for construction companies to respond to the emerging social and environmental issues. As the improvement of CSR efficiency leads to the reduction of CSR cost, CSR efficiency is becoming increasingly prominent for construction companies. In this research, the three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is adopted to analyze the CSR efficiency of Chinese construction companies in the period of 2012–2016. The findings of this research are as follows: (1) the efficiency of the Chinese construction companies in fulfilling CSR has not yet reached an optimal level; (2) the effect of institutional factors on CSR efficiency is complex and non-linear; and (3) the improvement of the CSR efficiency in the Chinese construction industry relies on both optimizing the institutional environment and enhancing the management capacity of CSR efficiency. These findings can not only provide empirical evidence for the government to formulate targeted policy-making regarding marketization to promote construction companies’ efficient commitment of CSR, but also provide construction company managers a valuable reference to benchmarking the CSR efficiency to help them find self-improvement ways to improve CSR efficiency performance.
Megaproject practices worldwide have triggered increasing research in megaproject management issues and led to an increasing number of papers being published during the last decade. However, it is demonstrated by the literature that there is no systematic examination on research development in the discipline of megaproject management, and consequently it is very difficult for scholars to quickly understand and grasp the research trend. Therefore, a research question naturally comes out, i.e., what is the status quo of megaproject management research and what are the research directions worthy of further investigation? This study aims to answer the question by conducting a systematic examination of the research development in the discipline of megaproject management. A total of 117 relevant articles, identified from six major international journals between 2009 and 2021, were analyzed based on the number of papers published annually, main author contributions, citations, categorization of the research methods and data analysis methods adopted, and research topics covered. The results indicated that developed countries, such as Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have enjoyed significant advantages in terms of megaproject management research. It also revealed that more sophisticated views and theory have been used effectively, rather than only basic qualitative methods, in a number of studies on megaproject management. Future studies on megaproject management will be led globally, where megaprojects will remain designed and built to better built environments. In addition, continuous in-depth research on related topics can promote innovation in megaproject management to achieve sustainable megaproject development. Megaproject management will continue to be a hot research topic in the future; in particular, megaproject investment and finance management have emerged as new challenging topics. The findings can be valuable for both industry practitioners and researchers to gain deeper understanding of the current status and future directions of megaproject management research.
27 January 2022 in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
The construction industry contributes significantly to CO2 emissions in China. Understanding the changes in construction CO2 emissions is important for mitigating the emissions. This study examined the structural paths of changes in construction CO2 emissions in China during 2002–2017 by using structural path decomposition analysis. The results demonstrate that construction CO2 emissions increased considerably during the periods of 2002–2007, 2007–2012, and 2012–2017. The final demand effect contributed most to the emission increases, followed by the production structure effect and energy intensity effect. The critical paths contributing to the production structure effect were also identified. “Non-metallic mineral products industry→construction industry” was the critical path to the emission increases. On this path, the final demand effect and energy intensity effect were the main drivers. This study’s findings can help policymakers better understand the dynamics of construction CO2 emissions and thus formulate effective policies to reduce the emissions.