Construction Management and Economics

Zhang, Rui; Chen, Lei; Sun, Xinlu

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2024.2355882pmid: N/A

Abstract The COVID-19 outbreak was deemed a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the associated travel restrictions led to an unprecedented fall in the UK economic growth including the construction sector. Nevertheless, few quantitative studies assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the UK construction sector have been conducted as of now. So, this research aims to quantitatively assess the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects and causally evaluate its influence on the UK construction industry. We utilize panel data comprising financial information from listed UK construction firms spanning from 2015 to 2021. The findings reveal a substantial adverse impact of COVID-19 on business performance, with a notable improvement in performance in 2021 compared to 2020. It also proves that the supply chain disruption, labour shortage, and financial dilemma are the main reasons for the negative effect of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, and increased vaccination rate, domestic policy changes, and potential for construction development are the possible reasons for the 2021 recovery. Despite the gradual easing of the epidemic situation, the construction industry must enhance its resilience to sudden disasters to effectively facilitate a robust economic recovery. It is essential to further examine the economic fluctuations caused by the pandemic emergency and the mechanisms for its recovery.

Ruokamo, Enni; Franzini, Florencia; Lähtinen, Katja; Toppinen, Anne

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2024.2358063pmid: N/A

Abstract Finland shows strong support for reducing its climate footprint originating from the built environment as part of the national carbon neutrality goal by 2035. Two prime examples are increasing wood use in construction and favoring building renovation to alleviate emissions from the use of virgin construction materials. However, the open question remains whether citizens also support these decarbonization pathways. By using national-level data from a randomly sampled citizen survey in Finland (n = 1448), we model citizen preferences to these two decarbonization pathways. The results suggest that a preference to renovate rather than to build anew is shown by respondents of the female gender; over 55 years of age; with a lower household equivalent income; and possessing housing property investment. Wood material is positively favored by respondents with higher age; a lower household equivalent income; living in smaller population centers in the countryside; and owning forestland. Interestingly, the effect of climate agency was negative in both models. This can be interpreted in the wood material case as reflecting conflicting views of negative environmental effects from forest harvesting to produce renewable building materials. In the renovation model case, we argue that the climatic impact of renovations remain weakly understood by citizens in Finland, given that the media and national regulations emphasize operational emissions. These results benefit both policy makers and municipal-level decision making in understanding of acceptability of wood material use and building retrofits among the general public.

Ruiz, Angie; Vinke-De Kruijf, Joanne; Santos, João; Keijzer, Elisabeth; Volker, Leentje; Dorée, André

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2024.2360992pmid: N/A

Abstract International climate agreements and government policies, push the road construction industry towards more sustainable practices using alternative materials, new production techniques, and more efficient construction processes. Despite the broad availability of these sustainable solutions, their adoption is slow and uncertain. The reasons behind this remain unclear. This study employs a system innovation perspective to analyze the process that leads to the implementation of sustainable innovations in the Dutch asphalt paving sector. By exploring actors’ roles and their interactions at different stages of the process, we aim to identify key aspects influencing the pace and outcome of the innovation implementation process in the industry. The results highlight that (1) the asphalt paving sector is anchored in a project perspective that often overlooks long-term sustainability goals, (2) several key innovation roles are not fully fulfilled, and the absence of a coordinating role is leading to misunderstandings, and (3) monitoring at both the project and sector levels is lacking; there is no holistic assessment of the overall impact of innovations. Overall, the findings suggest that sustainable innovation processes in Dutch asphalt paving remain confined to the niche level, which can be overcome by redistributing actors' responsibilities, addressing the lack of system monitoring, and overcoming the project perspective could help address the challenges in the process.

Martinez-Avila, Carlos; Olander, Stefan

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2024.2361789pmid: N/A

Abstract In urban property development projects, attention to the needs and aspirations of local communities is often neglected. Although some developers still consider local community stakeholders to be a potential threat to their developments, in many developed countries, stakeholder participation is embedded within statutory processes such as the formal planning process and is increasingly regarded as a component of sustainable development. Even though the local community is widely recognized as an important project stakeholder, little has been done to understand how to engage effectively with this stakeholder group to resolve their concerns. The purpose of this study is to investigate practitioners’ perceptions and actions on local community participation in urban property development projects. The study is conducted through interviews with 12 actors in the southern part of Sweden. The findings show the importance of early involvement of local communities, the relevance of building community networks, trust and relations, the challenges to stakeholder participation and the need to formalize stakeholder participation in the organizations.