Nguyen, H D; Nguyen, L D; Chih, Y Y and Le-Hoai, L (2017) Influence of participants' characteristics on sustainable building practices in emerging economies: Empirical case study. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(8): 05017014, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
The slow development of green building (GB) practices in emerging economies has resulted in these countries remaining dominated by uncertified conventional buildings, which has caused negative environmental impacts (e.g., energy consumption and pollution). Using a mixed-research method, this study examined the interactive effect of participants' characteristics (experience, knowledge, and roles) on sustainable building (SB) practices in conventional buildings in Vietnam - a fast-growing emerging market. Empirical data collected from qualitative (Study 1) and quantitative (Study 2) studies revealed that participants' GB-related knowledge - especially owner representatives' and designers' knowledge - positively affected the extent of SB practices. However, participants' industry experience was found to be a hindrance, which may be due to lack of motivation (e.g., weighting the benefits and extra effort required) for behavioral changes. These findings suggest the need to provide GB-related training to experienced practitioners and owner and designer representatives to enhance their knowledge and willingness to adopt SB practices. This study contributes to the sustainable construction literature by providing empirical evidence of the influence of project participants' characteristics on SB practices.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | experience; green building knowledge; green buildings; personal characteristics; project roles; sustainable construction; sustainable practices |
| Index terms: | pollution, sustainable practice, case study, owner, emerging economy, designer, energy consumption, Vietnam, sustainable construction, emerging market, motivation, sustainable building, sustainable building practice, practitioner, green building, environmental impact, evidence |
| Subjects: | Geography, sustainable construction, economic development, design practice, environmental health, sociology, sustainable practices, environmental impact, practitioner, profession, evaluation and assessment methods, data collection methods, energy systems, economic analysis, psychology, sustainability and energy |
| Topics: | International Construction, Human Resources, Design Practice, Sustainability, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Research Practice, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here