Chan, T K (2017) Global supply chains: A preliminary analysis of the Australian construction industry. In: Chan, P W and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 33rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2017, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK.
Abstract
This study investigates the extent of globalisation of the construction supply chain in Australia where an increasing amount of products and services are procured, either by construction firms or their sub-contractors, from firms or suppliers overseas. Led by the rapidly falling communication and coordination costs, the various stages of building construction need not be performed near to each other anymore; leading to increasing offshoring of manufacturing production to lower production cost countries in Asia in general and to China in particular. This study investigates the extent to which Australian building construction industry have embraced global supply chains, and analyses the distribution of employment and incomes that have been reallocated by utilising a growing volume of imported products. Based on a modelling of the linkages across industries and countries, the gross output in all stages of production that is needed to produce one unit of final demand can be traced. This study makes two distinct contributions. First, it provides a simple and traceable analysis of the changes in the direct and indirect import of intermediate goods into the Australian construction industry over the last decade that can be used to inform on trade policies and industry strategies. The second contribution is to uncover the drivers of this increase in imports and to discuss its implications on employment and industry value-add.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | globalisation; offshoring; supply chains |
| Index terms: | production cost, import, building construction, employment, linkage, strategy, Australia, construction firm, Asia, income, globalization, construction supply chain, sub-contractor, modelling, China, construction industry, coordination |
| Subjects: | regions and continents, economic analysis, analytical methods, construction logistics, practitioner, organization, business, industry analysis, economic factors, building construction, Geography, manufacturing engineering, management |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, International Construction, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Roles and Professions, Construction Technology |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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