Business process improvement for sustainable technologies investments in construction: A configurational approach

Wood, Lincoln C.; Duong, Linh N.K.; Wang, Jason X.

Abstract

Given the importance of investments in business process improvements for sustainable technologies, many industry sectors are forced to examine and balance new investments with long-term economic viability. There are disputes with regard to the value of investments, particularly within the construction sector, which is characterized by poor capitalization, over-leveraged firms, and high risks, often coupled with business cycles or boom and bust periods. Understanding when construction firms should engage in business process improvements with sustainable technologies is not clear due to the risks and investment costs. To address this problem, the study takes a configurational approach to examine the factors of leverage and use of capital to examine their impact on firm performance with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). We show distinct configurational outcomes that are associated with superior success, giving construction firms viable pathways to evaluate potential investments in sustainable technologies. Specifically, one configuration, focusing on incremental innovations, consistently produces positive firm performance. Two configurations that lead to the absence of performance are associated with radical innovations in firms that struggle to manage their working capital.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 10, 2022
• Online Publication Date: May 9, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Deposit Date: Jun 22, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 22, 2022
• Journal: Sustainability (Switzerland)
• Electronic ISSN: 2071-1050
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: 5697
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095697
• Keywords: environmental sustainability technologies; construction management; event study analysis; qualitative comparative analysis
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9639875