Najafzadeh, M; Abbasianjahromi, H and Tabari, P (2025) Integrating sustainable development and ethical engineering in industry 4.0 applications for AEC contract management. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 32(13), pp. 445-476. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Purpose – The rapid integration of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies in AEC contract management enhances efficiency but raises sustainability and ethical concerns. This study evaluates these technologies to assess their alignment with sustainable development objectives and professional engineering ethics, providing a structured decision-making framework for industry stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-methods approach was employed, beginning with a comprehensive literature review to identify key I4.0 technologies and establish sustainability criteria aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, alongside ethical principles from major engineering codes (ASCE, NSPE and AIA). A two-stage analytical approach was followed: fuzzy-DEMATEL examined cause-effect relationships among sustainability and ethics criteria, while fuzzy-TOPSIS ranked I4.0 technologies based on these criteria, providing an implementation roadmap. Findings – The analysis reveals that economic sustainability exerts the strongest influence, shaping both societal and environmental outcomes, while ethical conduct remains foundational to engineering best practices. Leading technologies (immersive systems (AR/VR), Cloud Computing, RFID and IoT) demonstrate superior performance when evaluated against sustainability and ethics benchmarks. The study further identifies critical trade-offs between operational efficiency and ethical/sustainability compliance, culminating in a strategic implementation framework for I4.0 adoption. Originality/value – This study makes three key contributions: (1) it pioneers a dual sustainability-ethics assessment framework for I4.0 in AEC contract management, addressing a literature gap; (2) it introduces a novel hybrid multi-level fuzzy-DEMATEL-TOPSIS model for multi-criteria decision-making and (3) it provides empirically grounded guidelines to mitigate risks such as cybersecurity threats and resource inequity.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | contract management; DEMATEL; engineering ethics; industry 4.0; multi-criteria decision-making; sustainability; technology; TOPSIS |
| Index terms: | integration, decision-making, methodology, compliance, contract management, multi-criteria decision-making, cloud computing, sustainable development, literature review, economic sustainability, best practice, ethical conduct, sustainable development goal, implementation, efficiency, industry 4.0, topsis, ethics |
| Subjects: | contract management, sustainable design, health safety and environment, research methods, decision-making and optimization, economic analysis, ethical practice, contractual arrangements, performance management, digital infrastructure, decision analysis, organizational analysis, business, technology adoption, data analysis and analytics |
| Topics: | Contract Administration, Organizational Design, Digital Applications, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Quality Management, Risk Management, Procurement, Sustainability, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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