Abstract International contractors are under pressure to address growing demands for environmental transparency by engaging in voluntary disclosure. Although previous studies have examined the content and quality of environmental disclosure, less is known about why some contractors participate in standardized third-party disclosure systems while others do not. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and the resource-based view, this study examines factors associated with international contractors’ participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Using 832 firm-year observations from 98 Engineering News-Record–listed international contractors headquartered in 26 countries, the results show that home-country institutional voids decrease the likelihood of CDP participation, whereas internationalization, firm size, and financial performance increase it. Furthermore, internationalization partially mitigates the negative imprinting effect of weak domestic institutions. However, participation in CDP is not associated with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting that voluntary disclosure may not function as evidence of superior environmental performance. These findings provide valuable insights for stakeholders aiming to foster genuine environmental transparency in the construction industry.
Abstract Cost overruns and estimation instability persist in construction projects despite sustained advances in cost estimation models and digital tools. In offsite construction, these challenges are intensified by early design freeze, distributed production, and tightly coupled supply chains. Yet, cost estimation research continues to treat uncertainty primarily as a technical or computational problem. This study examines cost estimation in offsite construction from a sociotechnical and organizational behavior perspective. A multilayered review methodology was employed, combining bibliometric analysis of 526 Scopus-indexed publications, a systematic literature review of 57 core studies, and qualitative synthesis of explanatory evidence. Bibliometric mapping was used to identify dominant research themes, followed by an in-depth analysis of studies explicitly linking organizational behavior to cost estimation and cost-related performance. The results identified five recurring organizational behavior mechanisms influencing estimation reliability in offsite construction: information quality and stability, coordination efficiency, decision behavior and bias, risk sensing and response capacity, and learning and calibration. Based on these findings, a sociotechnical conceptual framework is synthesized from the reviewed evidence to illustrate how organizational behavior shapes estimation processes and cost outcomes. The study concludes that cost estimation in offsite construction is best understood as an organizational capability embedded within broader sociotechnical systems, with implications for future research and the development of forecasting and decision-support tools.
Abstract Successive global financial and geopolitical shocks have intensified credit market tightness, heightening uncertainty in developer financing, which in turn exposes construction firms reliant on these downstream payments to acute credit shocks. However, this issue has not been sufficiently examined in the existing literature. To address this gap, this study examines the impact of downstream credit shocks on the debt burden of construction firms. Using China’s “Three Red Lines” policy as a quasi-natural experiment and a Difference-in-Differences approach with financial data from listed construction firms, we find that downstream credit shocks significantly increase firms’ debt burdens. Exposed construction firms experience a 13.2% rise in debt-to-asset ratios and an increase of 15.18 billion yuan in debt obligations on average. Drawing on the dynamic capabilities perspective, we show that digital transformation and business diversification mitigate these effects, whereas regulatory violations exacerbate financial distress. Theoretically, this study extends the dynamic capabilities perspective by demonstrating how firm-level organizational conditions shape the effectiveness of firms’ responses to downstream credit shocks. Practically, we suggest that construction firms strategically invest in digital technology, diversify their business portfolios, and maintain strong regulatory compliance to better buffer against the financial contagion along the supply chain.
Abstract Despite growing interest in emerging safety technologies in the construction industry, their adoption in practice remains limited due to the lack of structured quantitative models that evaluate the trade-off between safety performance improvements and investment costs. Consequently, it remains unclear under which conditions safety technology adoption can achieve economic justification. To address this limitation, this study proposes the economic evaluation of safety technology adoption (ECOSTAT) framework, which integrates net value calculations, Monte Carlo simulation, and scenario analysis. To account for accident-prevention benefits in this evaluation, this study considers five cost components arising from construction accidents. These components include settlement costs, legal costs, accident investigation costs, interrupted construction costs, and fines. Among them, settlement costs, interrupted construction costs, and fines exhibit substantial variability depending on accident occurrence and characteristics and are therefore modeled using probability distributions. The applicability of the ECOSTAT framework is demonstrated through case studies of two construction project types: a building project and a railway infrastructure project. The results indicate that as total construction costs increase, the minimum accident-prevention efficiency required for economic feasibility decreases, reflecting economies of scale. For example, in the railway project, increasing total construction costs from $200 million to $350 million reduced the required accident-prevention efficiency from 5.36% to 3.95% at an investment ratio of 0.01%. Furthermore, the ECOSTAT framework is implemented as a web-based decision-support system that enables real-time evaluation of economic feasibility by allowing users to adjust project parameters.
Abstract Fatal construction accidents, which cause significant loss of life, often arise from complex risks that evolve over time rather than from isolated or static hazards. However, existing research largely neglects this dynamic nature and offers limited insight into the temporal evolution of construction safety risks. To address this gap, this study systematically investigates the interperiod changes of construction safety risks to improve understanding of the dynamic mechanisms underlying fatal construction accidents. Specifically, tree-augmented naive Bayes models were developed for 357 fatal accidents in Hong Kong across two intervals (2000–2010 and 2011–2021), enabling explicit visualization of the state probability distributions for each descriptive and causal factor. Sensitivity analyses were subsequently performed to identify the most impactful factors, followed by scenario-based simulations to evaluate the risk evolution trends of various accident typologies during the two periods. Findings indicate the time-varying dynamics of construction safety risks: (1) falls from height remain the most prevalent accident type, increasing from 50.0% in the earlier period to 59.2% in the later period. (2) Among descriptive factors, specific risk agents and work types are strongly associated with distinct accident types; among causal factors, lack of skills/knowledge and unsafe workplace arrangements have recently become more critical in determining accident type. (3) The probabilities of inadequate risk assessment, insufficient safety training, and deficient safety rules or procedures have increased significantly across all accident types. This study deepens understanding of the temporal evolution of construction safety risks and highlights the need to allocate adequate safety resources and establish effective safety management systems, particularly for preventing falls from heights.
Abstract During digital transformation, organizations must be prepared to adopt technologies while clearly understanding the risks involved. Given the construction industry’s inherently risk-averse nature, it is crucial to advance knowledge of technological risk perception and its implications for risk management and communication. This study aims to identify the key risk facets associated with adopting digital technologies, examine perceptions through underlying risk characteristics, and investigate how these perceptions influence digital technology adoption. A mixed-methods approach, combining a structured survey with expert interviews, was employed to capture quantitative patterns and contextual insights. The findings reveal that time, financial, and functional risks are the most salient facets when adopting digital technologies. These risks are generally perceived as controllable, observable, and well understood yet are still associated with considerable probability and severity. Moreover, different risk characteristics exert distinct effects on technology adoption, with perceptions of newness and commonness emerging as significant determinants in opposite directions. Building on these findings, the study proposes practical recommendations to support construction organizations in managing and responding to technological risks. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring technological risk perception across its multiple facets and characteristics, thereby informing more targeted risk management and communication. It advances theories of risk perception, psychometric paradigm, and technology adoption while providing practitioners with practical guidance to support digital transformation in the construction industry.
Abstract Construction waste recycling enterprises (CWRE) play a pivotal role in construction and demolition waste management. However, their potential in emerging economies remains largely untapped due to widespread absence and substandard operational conditions, largely attributable to financial barriers. This underscores the imperative of well-designed economic instruments (e.g., targeted subsidies, tax relief, concessional loans, etc.) to strengthen their financial viability within a dynamic environment. Despite their importance, existing research offers limited insights into the financial performance of CWRE under scenarios involving multiple economic instruments amid uncertain operational conditions. Addressing this gap is crucial for designing effective instruments that ensure long-term financial sustainability of CWRE. In response, this study develops a probabilistic financial model to evaluate the investment viability and financial sustainability of CWRE across diverse policy scenarios involving multiple economic instruments, explicitly incorporating uncertainties and variabilities in key operational parameters. The model integrates detailed cost structure, revenue streams, financing mechanisms, and policy-linked variables for scenario-based simulations that assess performance across modeled scenarios. These include a baseline case without external support, interventions based on CAPEX or OPEX subsidies, and hybrid approaches combining both, thereby providing a structured evaluation of synergies, policy effectiveness, financial risks, and the critical factors determining project success or failure. For the case under consideration, CWRE remained financially unviable in purely market-driven contexts without external support and scenarios relying solely on CAPEX support. In contrast, OPEX and hybrid interventions proved particularly effective in stabilizing revenues, improving debt serviceability, and enhancing equity attractiveness, thereby enabling project success. These outcomes underscore the critical role of well-designed economic instruments over isolated fiscal measures in ensuring long-term financial sustainability. The analysis further identifies key failure drivers and outlines corrective measures, offering actionable insights to foster financially viable, scalable recycling enterprises.
