| Author: | Pang, Wah On Nelson |
| Title: | An exploratory study of the critical success factors of the construction materials industry in Hong Kong – a circular economy perspective |
| Advisors: | Cheng, T. C. Edwin (LMS) Choy, Petrus (LMS) |
| Degree: | D.B.A. |
| Year: | 2022 |
| Subject: | Building materials industry -- China -- Hong Kong Building materials industry -- Environmental aspects -- China -- Hong Kong Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Business |
| Pages: | xv, 274 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Being one of the four core pillars of the Hong Kong economy and employment, the construction industry in Hong Kong has been playing a key and major role in driving the economic growth and employment of the city's continuous development and growth. As one of the most important segments of the construction industry as a whole, construction materials industry plays a critical role, which contains material suppliers and service solution providers to the construction industry in Hong Kong. Attributing to its international credentials and local expertise, the construction materials industry in Hong Kong is capable of providing innovative, reliable, high quality and customer-focused products and service solutions of ready-mixed concretes and aggregates to satisfy the most demanding customer expectations and regulatory requirements of construction projects, which is collectively and largely contributing to the sustainable development and growth of Hong Kong. In response to the continued and raising concerns about the advent of circular economy covering different industries and fields, including but not limited to the construction industry, construction materials industry is also facing the challenges of meeting both the commercial and regulatory requirements and expectations of circular economy. It is believed that the contributions stemming from circular economy is the key driver behind the continuous development and sustainable growth of the construction materials industry in Hong Kong. Therefore, it is becoming extremely important to the construction materials players in Hong Kong to enhance their focuses towards reduction, reuse, recycling and re-manufacturing of construction materials throughout the entire production operations and processes - from the quarrying production operations to the use of concretes and aggregates in construction sites - construction resources and materials are moving towards a better and more environmental end of life. Amid the advent of circular economy in the construction materials industry, particularly as the sources of supplies of the construction industry, this study focuses on exploring and identifying the critical success factors of circular economy in the construction materials industry in Hong Kong and their organizational performance implications. For this purpose, a structured survey questionnaire on organizational-level field study was designed to collect primary data from the targeted respondent firms representing the construction materials companies in Hong Kong. Finally, 120 valid responses were returned, which were analyzed by two main statistical tests of this study, covering exploratory factor analysis to define and identify the potential critical success factors applicable to and organizational performance measures pertinent to circular economy in the construction materials industry in Hong Kong, and then by multiple regression analysis to examine and predict their relationships to ultimately determine the critical success factors of circular economy in the construction materials industry in Hong Kong and their organizational performance implications. To validate and triangulate the statistical findings obtained from quantitative analyses of this study, a case study was further conducted on Alliance Construction Materials Limited, one of the prominent and leading construction materials suppliers and total solutions providers in Hong Kong from practical application perspective. The seven critical success factors, containing (i) Technology and Innovation, (ii) Human Resource Management, (iii) Environmental Management, (iv) Logistics Management, (v) Knowledge Management, (vi) Corporate Social Responsibility and (vii) Quality Management; and the five organizational performance measures, covering (i) Supply Chain Performance, (ii) Marketing Performance, (iii) Technological and Innovative Performance, (iv) Financial Performance and (v) Environmental and Social Performance, were identified by this study. This study further found that the seven critical success factors are statistically and positively associated with the five organizational performance measures at different levels and degrees of significance. Among the seven identified critical success factors, it is noted that Logistics Management is the most prominent and important critical success factor to the organizational performance measures of circular economy in the construction materials industry in Hong Kong on the basis that it is significantly and positively associated with four out of the five identified organizational performance measures, except Marketing Performance. Based on the results and findings found by this study, the contributions of this study are derived to serve both further academic studies and practical business applications of circular economy in the construction materials industry in Hong Kong and globally. From academic studies perspective, this study enriches the body of theoretical knowledge and academic studies concerning critical success factors, as well as the relationships between critical success factors and organizational performances with the special focus on circular economy in the particular industry, namely the construction materials industry in Hong Kong. It also raises research interest of scholars to conduct future and further research to explore and develop other relevant critical success factors and their causal relationships with organizational performances in the contexts of other sectors, industries and geographic locations. From practical business applications perspective, this study provides practical insights and valuable guidance to the industry practitioners of the construction materials industry in Hong Kong and globally with special attention to circular economy by cultivating, nurturing, building, maintaining, utilizing and controlling the specific set of critical success factors as the practical guidelines to the senior management to maintain, enhance and sustain their business survival, growth and competitive strategies through effective and efficient resources prioritization and allocation, especially in Logistics Management, to achieve the most intended and desirable organizational performances on one hand and to cope with future challenges to seize potential business opportunities in response to the prevalent development and advancement of circular economy on the other. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6350.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.79 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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