[ 25th September 2022 by Yating Yang 0 Comments ]

Impact of sustainability on business performance and strategy for commercial building contractors, Heather Eilers, Wai Chong, Jonghoon Kim, Hariharan Naganathan and Thomas Glavinich

Heather Eilers
JE Dunn Construction, Kansas City, Missouri
USA
Wai Chong
School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
USA
Email: ochong@asu.edu
Jonghoon Kim
Department of Construction Management Technology
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma
USA
Hariharan Naganathan
Department of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
USA
Thomas E. Glavinich
Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
USA

DOI: 10.1108/WJEMSD-07-2016-0032

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the corporate sustainability culture of contracting firms, particularly in the Midwest. Many of the local firms operate nationally. The local corporate culture influences their regional offices. Other than convenience, the firms are selected from Midwest since their headquarters are situated in Midwest region and comprises of more number of employees than their other regional offices. This helped the research to approach more contractors for better survey and interview responses. The paper documents the study on existing management and construction practices these contractors adopt on sustainability and examines how their sustainability efforts influence the firms’ performances.
Design/methodology/approach: This research utilized surveys and interviews as the primary means of data collection. The data were collected from survey and interviews with selected companies operating in the Midwest region of the USA. One of the companies also operates offices across the country. Data from the interviews and surveys were analyzed using statistical analysis system software application. χ2 analysis, particularly the frequency procedures using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) method was the primary analysis method used to study the relationships between different factors. The CMH method compares the association between and within two groups and permits adjustments of the control variables.
Findings: The findings of this paper include the results from various Midwest commercial building contractors. The results on different aspects of sustainable practices and their success rates among the contractors are determined and discussed, and future scope of improvements are mentioned at the conclusion of this paper.
Research limitations/implications: In summary, sustainable business practices are beneficial to society and favorable for the construction business. Embracing sustainable business practices has a positive impact on firm strategic performance for commercial building contractors through employee satisfaction, project opportunities, and market advantage. Sustainable business practices extend into the lives of individuals involved which exceedingly impacts society. The construction industry has advanced sustainability efforts, but there is a long way to go on the journey to being better stewards of the environment and resources.
Originality/value: A rival theory became apparent during the investigation that a new building consolidating all local company employees could have an impact on firm strategic performance. Third, this paper is confounded by a great recession that made project opportunities and revenue considerations analysis problematic. Some information regarding these aspects were helpful; however, expanding this paper during a more stable and typical economic period could provide additional insight.
Keywords: Sustainable practices; Construction industry; Commercial building contractors; Survey questionnaires.
Citation: Eilers, H., Chong, W., Kim, J., Naganathan, H. and Glavinich†, T.E. (2016), "Impact of sustainability on business performance and strategy for commercial building contractors", World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 323-343. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-07-2016-0032

WJEMSD V12 N4 2016 Eilers et al..pdf
WJEMSD V12 N4 2016  Eilers et al..pdf
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