IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i4p1932-d497541.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability in Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review

Author

Listed:
  • Reza Kiani Mavi

    (School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Denise Gengatharen

    (School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Neda Kiani Mavi

    (School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Richard Hughes

    (School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Alistair Campbell

    (School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Ross Yates

    (School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the major research concepts studied in the literature of sustainability in construction projects. Two bibliometric analysis tools—(a) BibExcel and (b) Gephi, were used to analyze the bibliometrics indices of papers and visualize their interrelations as a network, respectively. Therefore, a research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis and keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis were performed to uncover the primary research themes. The RFPN analysis clustered the studies into three major categories of evaluating sustainability, project management for sustainability, and drivers of sustainable construction. The KCON analysis revealed that while each paper had a different focus, the underlying concept of all clusters was sustainability, construction, and project management. We found that while ‘sustainability’ was the leading keyword in the first cluster, i.e., evaluating sustainability, it was the second top keyword with the eigenvector centrality of over 0.94 in the other two clusters. We also found that the concept of sustainability should be included in construction projects from the early stages of design and feasibility studies and must be monitored throughout the project life. This review showed that previous researchers used a variety of statistical and mathematical techniques such as structural equation modelling and fuzzy decision-making methods to study sustainability in construction projects. Using an integrated approach to identifying the research gaps in this area, this paper provides researchers with insights on how to frame new research to study sustainability in construction projects.

Suggested Citation

  • Reza Kiani Mavi & Denise Gengatharen & Neda Kiani Mavi & Richard Hughes & Alistair Campbell & Ross Yates, 2021. "Sustainability in Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1932-:d:497541
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1932/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1932/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bibiana Alarcon & Antonio Aguado & Resmundo Manga & Alejandro Josa, 2010. "A Value Function for Assessing Sustainability: Application to Industrial Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Costa, Cláudia & Lages, Luis Filipe & Hortinha, Paula, 2015. "The bright and dark side of CSR in export markets: Its impact on innovation and performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 749-757.
    3. Giovanna Michelon & Antonio Parbonetti, 2012. "The effect of corporate governance on sustainability disclosure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(3), pages 477-509, August.
    4. Ignacio De Los Ríos-Carmenado & Mauricio Ortuño & María Rivera, 2016. "Private–Public Partnership as a Tool to Promote Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development: WWP Torrearte Experience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-19, February.
    5. Markus Milne & Rob Gray, 2013. "W(h)ither Ecology? The Triple Bottom Line, the Global Reporting Initiative, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 13-29, November.
    6. Timothy Jones & Yongwei Shan & Paul Goodrum, 2010. "An investigation of corporate approaches to sustainability in the US engineering and construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(9), pages 971-983.
    7. Yongzhi Chang & Yang Yang & Suocheng Dong, 2018. "Comprehensive Sustainability Evaluation of High-Speed Railway (HSR) Construction Projects Based on Unascertained Measure and Analytic Hierarchy Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-19, February.
    8. Abimbola Olukemi Windapo, 2014. "Examination of Green Building Drivers in the South African Construction Industry: Economics versus Ecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(9), pages 1-19, September.
    9. Kathy Babiak & Sylvia Trendafilova, 2011. "CSR and environmental responsibility: motives and pressures to adopt green management practices," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), pages 11-24, January.
    10. Georgia Warren‐Myers, 2013. "Is the valuer the barrier to identifying the value of sustainability?," Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(4), pages 345-359, July.
    11. Konstantina Gkritza & Kumares Sinha & Samuel Labi & Fred Mannering, 2008. "Influence of highway construction projects on economic development: an empirical assessment," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(3), pages 545-563, September.
    12. Rajagopal, 2012. "Decision Making," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Darwinian Fitness in the Global Marketplace, chapter 7, pages 191-224, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. Wen-der Yu & Shao-tsai Cheng & Wei-cheng Ho & Yu-hao Chang, 2018. "Measuring the Sustainability of Construction Projects throughout Their Lifecycle: A Taiwan Lesson," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-16, May.
    14. Reza Kiani Mavi & Mark Goh & Neda Kiani Mavi & Ferry Jie & Kerry Brown & Sharon Biermann & Ahmad A. Khanfar, 2020. "Cross-Docking: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-19, June.
    15. Richard H. Moss & Jae A. Edmonds & Kathy A. Hibbard & Martin R. Manning & Steven K. Rose & Detlef P. van Vuuren & Timothy R. Carter & Seita Emori & Mikiko Kainuma & Tom Kram & Gerald A. Meehl & John F, 2010. "The next generation of scenarios for climate change research and assessment," Nature, Nature, vol. 463(7282), pages 747-756, February.
    16. Richard Hill & Paul Bowen, 1997. "Sustainable construction: principles and a framework for attainment," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 223-239.
    17. Chengliang Liu & Qinchang Gui, 2016. "Mapping intellectual structures and dynamics of transport geography research: a scientometric overview from 1982 to 2014," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(1), pages 159-184, October.
    18. Fah Choy Chia & Martin Skitmore & Goran Runeson & Adrian Bridge, 2014. "Economic development and construction productivity in Malaysia," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(9), pages 874-887, September.
    19. Sijia Guo & Xueqing Wang & Lipeng Fu & Yunfeng Liu, 2019. "How Individual’s Proactive Behavior Helps Construction Sustainability: Exploring the Effects of Project Citizenship Behavior on Project Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-18, December.
    20. Ante Glavas & Jenny Mish, 2015. "Resources and Capabilities of Triple Bottom Line Firms: Going Over Old or Breaking New Ground?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 623-642, March.
    21. Matjaž Denac & Matevž Obrecht & Gregor Radonjič, 2018. "Current and potential ecodesign integration in small and medium enterprises: Construction and related industries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 825-837, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rajesh Singh & Anita Gehlot & Shaik Vaseem Akram & Lovi Raj Gupta & Manoj Kumar Jena & Chander Prakash & Sunpreet Singh & Raman Kumar, 2021. "Cloud Manufacturing, Internet of Things-Assisted Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technology: Reliable Tools for Sustainable Construction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-20, June.
    2. Javier Orozco-Messana & Milagro Iborra-Lucas & Raimon Calabuig-Moreno, 2021. "Neighbourhood Modelling for Urban Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-10, April.
    3. Raluca Buzatu & Viorel Ungureanu & Adrian Ciutina & Mihăiţă Gireadă & Daniel Vitan & Ioan Petran, 2021. "Experimental Evaluation of Energy-Efficiency in a Holistically Designed Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-22, August.
    4. Qilong Cao & Meng Ju & Jinglei Li & Changbao Zhong, 2022. "Managerial Myopia and Long-Term Investment: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, December.
    5. Nasanjargal Erdenekhuu & Balázs Kocsi & Domicián Máté, 2022. "A Risk-Based Analysis Approach to Sustainable Construction by Environmental Impacts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Igor Ceratti Treptow & Jordana Marques Kneipp & Clandia Maffini Gomes & Isak Kruglianskas & Rodrigo Reis Favarin & Carlos María Fernandez-Jardón, 2022. "Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Value Creation in Construction Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Lorena Cadavid & Kathleen Salazar-Serna, 2021. "Mapping the Research Landscape for the Motorcycle Market Policies: Sustainability as a Trend—A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-22, September.
    8. Luis Felipe Cândido & Jose Carlos Lazaro & Adriano Olivier de Freitas e Silva & José de Paula Barros Neto, 2023. "Sustainability Transitions in the Construction Sector: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-26, August.
    9. Nicola Baldo & Fabio Rondinella & Fabiola Daneluz & Marco Pasetto, 2022. "Foamed Bitumen Mixtures for Road Construction Made with 100% Waste Materials: A Laboratory Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-12, May.
    10. Chisomo Kapatsa & Neema Kavishe & Godwin Maro & Sam Zulu, 2023. "The Identification of Sustainability Assessment Indicators for Road Infrastructure Projects in Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-15, October.
    11. Shabnam Arabpour & Gilbert Silvius, 2023. "Sustainability Interventions of Construction Project Managers—Establishing a Minimum Baseline," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.
    12. Ivona Ivić & Anita Cerić, 2023. "Risks Caused by Information Asymmetry in Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-25, June.
    13. Jatta Pitkänen & Hanna Lehtimäki & Ari Jokinen, 2023. "Sustainability Project Champions as Environmental Leaders in a City Organization: Driving the Urban Circular Economy," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 12(1), pages 52-64, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jimin Shim & Joonho Moon & Won Seok Lee & Namho Chung, 2021. "The Impact of CSR on Corporate Value of Restaurant Businesses Using Triple Bottom Line Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    2. Al-Shaer, Habiba & Uyar, Ali & Kuzey, Cemil & Karaman, Abdullah S., 2023. "Do shareholders punish or reward excessive CSR engagement? Moderating effect of cash flow and firm growth," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Hai Pham & Soo-Yong Kim & Truong-Van Luu, 2020. "Managerial perceptions on barriers to sustainable construction in developing countries: Vietnam case," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 2979-3003, April.
    4. Christina Deselaers & Alina Dahmen & Sonia Lippke, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on CSR Activities of Healthcare Providers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-27, December.
    5. Daniel Kiel & Julian M. Müller & Christian Arnold & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2017. "Sustainable Industrial Value Creation: Benefits And Challenges Of Industry 4.0," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(08), pages 1-34, December.
    6. Kishore Kumar & Ajai Prakash, 2020. "Managing sustainability in banking: extent of sustainable banking adaptations of banking sector in India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5199-5217, August.
    7. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    8. Francesco Campanella & Luana Serino & Anna Crisci & Antonello D'Ambra, 2021. "The role of corporate governance in environmental policy disclosure and sustainable development. Generalized estimating equations in longitudinal count data analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 474-484, January.
    9. Reza Kiani Mavi & Mark Goh & Neda Kiani Mavi & Ferry Jie & Kerry Brown & Sharon Biermann & Ahmad A. Khanfar, 2020. "Cross-Docking: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-19, June.
    10. Yanfang Sun & Haiyan Xie & Xirong Niu, 2019. "Characteristics of Cyclical Fluctuations in the Development of the Chinese Construction Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-14, August.
    11. Soh Young In & Young Joon Lee & Robert G. Eccles, 2024. "Looking back and looking forward: A scientometric analysis of the evolution of corporate sustainability research over 47 years," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 2225-2259, May.
    12. D'Amato, D. & Korhonen, J. & Toppinen, A., 2019. "Circular, Green, and Bio Economy: How Do Companies in Land-Use Intensive Sectors Align with Sustainability Concepts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 116-133.
    13. Maria Steinmeier, 2016. "Fraud in Sustainability Departments? An Exploratory Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 477-492, October.
    14. Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna & Torelli, Riccardo, 2020. "CSR and Greenwashing: A Matter of Perception in the Search of Legitimacy," OSF Preprints 5x6sy, Center for Open Science.
    15. Haque, Faizul & Jones, Michael John, 2020. "European firms’ corporate biodiversity disclosures and board gender diversity from 2002 to 2016," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    16. Mohammed S. Y. Omran & Mohammad A. A. Zaid & Aladdin Dwekat, 2021. "The relationship between integrated reporting and corporate environmental performance: A green trial," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 427-445, January.
    17. Else, Tim & Choudhary, Sonal & Genovese, Andrea, 2022. "Uncovering sustainability storylines from dairy supply chain discourse," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 858-874.
    18. Alicia Girón & Amirreza Kazemikhasragh & Antonella Francesca Cicchiello & Eva Panetti, 2021. "Sustainability Reporting and Firms’ Economic Performance: Evidence from Asia and Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(4), pages 1741-1759, December.
    19. Antonio Corvino & Federica Doni & Silvio Bianchi Martini, 2020. "Corporate Governance, Integrated Reporting and Environmental Disclosure: Evidence from the South African Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, June.
    20. Faizul Haque & Collins G Ntim, 2018. "Environmental Policy, Sustainable Development, Governance Mechanisms and Environmental Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 415-435, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1932-:d:497541. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.