Abstract
As a major participant of the construction industry, small contractors have been increasingly involved in green building construction projects in recent years. However, existing literature indicates that little research has been done to investigate the critical success factors for small contractors to conduct green building construction projects. As a result, this study aims to fill up the gap by identifying the most critical success factors of small contractors and comparing them against large contractors. To achieve these goals, a comprehensive literature review and pilot interviews with experienced industry experts were conducted first, followed by a questionnaire survey administered to 30 small contractors from the construction industry of Singapore. Non-parametric statistical tests were used to analyze the data. Results reported that “laborers with experience in conducting green building construction projects,” “incentives/subsidies provided by government,” “support of senior management,” “return on investment,” “commit to changing behavior,” “effective communication between stakeholders on goals for sustainable construction,” “early contractor involvement,” “engaging experts with sound knowledge of green building construction,” “cost control,” and “competency of project manager” were the top ten critical success factors for small contractors to conduct green building construction projects. Additionally, the comparison results between small and large contractors revealed that eight factors were statistically different assessed by industry practitioners. These factors are “procurement process,” “cost control,” “commit to changing behavior,” “educating clients on benefits in sustainable construction,” “laborers with experience in conducting green building construction projects,” “hefty levy and tax on unsustainable construction practices,” and “public demand for green building construction” and “industrial culture.” This study enriches the knowledge by exploring the critical success factors for small contractors to conduct green building construction projects. Furthermore, this study is informative to industry practitioners as well, especially to those small contractors who plan to conduct green building construction projects in the future.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abachi HM, Hosseini S, Maskouni MA, Kangavari M & Cheung NM (2018) Statistical discretization of continuous attributes using kolmogorov-smirnov test. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Abduh, M., Wirahadikusumah, R. D. & Messah, Y. Framework development methodology for Sustainable procurement of construction works in Indonesia. MATEC Web of Conferences, 2018.
Alsanad S (2015) Awareness, drivers, actions, and barriers of sustainable construction in Kuwait. Procedia Eng:969–983
Ametepey O, Aigbavboa C, Ansah K (2015) Barriers to successful implementation of sustainable construction in the Ghanaian construction industry. Procedia Manufacturing 3:1682–1689
Banihashemi S, Hosseini MR, Golizadeh H, Sankaran S (2017) Critical success factors (CSFs) for integration of sustainability into construction project management practices in develo** countries. Int J Proj Manag 35:1103–1119
Barrett P, Sexton M (2006) Innovation in small, project-based construction firms. Br J Manag 17:331–346
Battistelli A, Montani F, Odoardi C, Vandenberghe C, Picci P (2014) Employees' concerns about change and commitment to change among Italian organizations: the moderating role of innovative work behavior. Int J Hum Resour Manag 25:951–978
BCA. 2014. 3rd Green Building Masterplan. Singapore: Building and Construction Authority [Online]. Available: https://slidelegend.com/3rd-green-building-masterplan-building-construction-authority_59d70de81723dd35225b4eb1.html [Accessed 16 August,2019].
BCA. 2015. Home-Technology-BCA Green Mark Scheme-Enhanced SGD 20 Million Green Mark Incentive Scheme for New Buildings (GMIS-NB) [Online]. http://www.bca.gov.sg/greenmark/gmis.html [Accessed 16 August,2019].
BCA. 2017a. BCA Directory of Registered Contractors and Licensed Builders [Online]. https://www.bca.gov.sg/ContractorsRegistry/others/CRS_FAQ.pdf. [Accessed 16 August,2019].
BCA. 2017b. BCA Green mark assessment criteria and online application [Online]. Available: https://www.bca.gov.sg/GreenMark/green_mark_criteria.html [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
BCA. 2017c. Sustainable Construction Masterplan [Online]. https://www.bca.gov.sg/SustainableConstruction/sustainable_construction.html. [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
BCA, S. 2017d. BCA Contractors Registration System (CRS) [Online]. https://www.bca.gov.sg/ContractorsRegistry/others/CRS_FAQ.pdf. [Accessed 16 August , 2019].
Blair RC, Higgins JJ (1985) Comparison of the power of the paired samples t test to that of Wilcoxon's signed-ranks test under various population shapes. Psychol Bull 97:119–128
Bolton, J. E. 1971. Small firms: report of the committee of inquiry on small firms, London [Online]. Available: https://ipmall.law.unh.edu/sites/defau [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
Bossink BAG (2002) A Dutch public-private strategy for innovation in sustainable construction. Constr Manag Econ 20:633–642
Brooks A, Rich H (2016) Sustainable construction and socio-technical transitions in London's mega-projects. Geogr J 182:395–405
Chan APC, Scott D, Chan APL (2004) Factors affecting the success of a construction project. J Constr Eng Manag 130:153–155
Chan APC, Darko A, Olanipekun AO, Ameyaw EE (2018) Critical barriers to green building technologies adoption in develo** countries: The case of Ghana. J Cleaner Prod 172:1067–1079
Ding GKC (2008) Sustainable construction-The role of environmental assessment tools. J Environ Manag 86:451–464
Durdyev S, Ismail S, Ihtiyar A, Abu Bakar NFS, Darko A (2018) A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) of barriers to sustainable construction in Malaysia. J Clean Prod 204:564–572
European Commission (2011) Key figures on European business with a special feature on SMEs [Online]. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3930297/5967534/KS-ET-11-001-EN.PDF/81dfdd85-c028-41f9-bbf0-a9d8ef5134c5. [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
EY (2017) Budget 2017 New Alert [Online]. https://www.ey.com/sg/en/services/tax/ey-singapore-budget-2017-news-alert. [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
Eyiah AK (2001) An integrated approach to financing small contractors in develo** countries: a conceptual model. Constr Manag Econ 19:511–518
Eyiah AK, Cook P (2003) Financing small and medium-scale contractors in develo** countries: A Ghana case study. Constr Manag Econ 21:357–367
Ghobadian A, Gallear D (1997) TQM and organization size. Int J Oper Prod Manag 17:121–163
Gudiene N, Banaitis A & Banaitiene N (2013) Evaluation of critical success factors for construction projects—an empirical study in Lithuania. Int J Strateg Prop Manag, 17, 21-31.
Gudiene N, Banaitis A, Podvezko V, Banaitiene N (2014) Identification and evaluation of the critical success factors for construction projects in Lithuania: AHP approach. J Civ Eng Manag 20:350–359
Gunhan S (2019) Analyzing sustainable building construction project delivery practices: builders' perspective. Pract Period Struct Des Constr 24
Häkkinen T, Belloni K (2011) Barriers and drivers for sustainable building. Build Res Inf 39:239–255
Harris T, Hardin JW (2013) Exact Wilcoxon signed-rank and Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney ranksum tests. Stata J 13:337–343
Hill RC, Bowen PA (1997) Sustainable construction: principles and a framework for attainment. Constr Manag Econ 15:223–239
Holloway, S. & Parrish, K. 2015. The contractor's role in the sustainable construction industry. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability, 168, 53-60.
Hwang B-G, Lim E-SJ (2012) Critical success factors for key project players and objectives: Case study of Singapore. J Constr Eng Manag 139:204–215
Hwang B-G, Zhu L, Tan Joanne Siow, H. (2017a) Identifying Critical Success Factors for Green Business Parks: Case Study of Singapore. J Manag Eng 33:04017023
Hwang BG, Shan M, Lye JM (2018) Adoption of sustainable construction for small contractors: major barriers and best solutions. Clean Techn Environ Policy 20:2223–2237
Hwang BG, Shan M, Phua H, Chi S (2017b) An exploratory analysis of risks in green residential building construction projects: the case of Singapore. Sustainability 9:21
Hwang BG, Tan JS (2012) Green building project management: obstacles and solutions for sustainable development. Sustain Dev 20:335–349
INITIAFY. 2017. How Does Construction Impact the Environment? [Online]. Available: https://www.initiafy.com/blog/how-does-construction-impact-the-environment/ [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
Jaafar MAA-AAR (2005) Resource-based view and critical success factors: a study on small and medium sized contracting enterprises (SMCEs) in Malaysia. Int J Constr Manag 5(2):61–77
** X-H, Tan HC, Zuo J, Feng Y (2012) Exploring critical success factors for develo** infrastructure projects in Malaysia–main contractors’ perspective. Int J Constr Manag 12:25–41
Ke Y, Wang S, Chan APC, Cheung E (2011) Understanding the risks in China’s PPP projects: ranking of their probability and consequence. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 18(5):481–496
Kibwami N, Tutesigensi A (2016) Enhancing sustainable construction in the building sector in Uganda. Habitat International 57:64–73
Kim TK (2015) T test as a parametric statistic. Korean J Anesthesiol 68:540–546
Kim YJ, Cribbie RA (2018) ANOVA and the variance homogeneity assumption: Exploring a better gatekeeper. Br J Math Stat Psychol 71:1–12
Lavanya R, Murthi P, Karthikeyan V (2018) Environment sustainable construction materials for garden-fresh and mechanical properties of high strength self-compacting concrete mixes with diverse mineral admixtures and water binder ratios. Int J Environ Sustain Dev 17:379–389
Li Y, Gu YF, Liu CL (2018) Prioritising performance indicators for sustainable construction and development of university campuses using an integrated assessment approach. J Clean Prod 202:959–968
Li Y, Song H, Sang P, Chen P-H, Liu X (2019) Review of critical success factors (CSFs) for green building projects. Build Environ 158:182–191
Li YY, Chen P-H, Chew DAS, Teo CC, Ding RG (2011) Critical project management factors of AEC firms for delivering green building projects in Singapore. J Constr Eng Manag 137:1153–1163
Lorincová S, Hitka M, Štarchoň P & Stachová K (2018) Strategic instrument for sustainability of human resource management in small and medium-sized enterprises using management data Sustainability (Switzerland), 10.
Low SP, Gao S, Tay WL (2014) Comparative study of project management and critical success factors of greening new and existing buildings in Singapore. Struct Surv 32:413–433
Lu, S.-L., Sexton, M. G. & Abbot, C (2008a) Key characteristics of small construction firms: a United Kingdom perspective. Proceedings: CIBW065/055 Joint International Symposium: Transformation through Construction.
Lu W, Shen L, Yam MCH (2008b) Critical success factors for competitiveness of contractors: China study. J Constr Eng Manag 134:972–982
Mahoney M, Magel R (1996) Estimation of the power of the Kruskal-Wallis test. Biom J 38:613–630
Ng ST, Tang Z (2010) Labour-intensive construction sub-contractors: their critical success factors. Int J Proj Manag 28:732–740
Nguyen, H. D. 2018. A Two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov-like test for big data. Communications in Computer and Information Science.
Ofori-Kuragu JK, Baiden B, Badu E (2016) Critical success factors for Ghanaian contractors. Benchmarking: An International Journal 23:843–865
Pacheco-Torgal F (2014) Eco-efficient construction and building materials research under the Eu Framework Programme Horizon 2020. Constr Build Mater 51:151–162
Pitt M, Tucker M, Riley M, Longden J (2009) Towards sustainable construction: Promotion and best practices. Constr Innov 9:201–224
Pollak M, Cohen J (1981) A comparison of the independent-samples t-test and the paired-samples t-test when the observations are nonnegatively correlated pairs. J Stat Plan Inference 5:133–146
Robichaud LB, Anantatmula VS (2011) Greening project management practices for sustainable construction. J Manag Eng 27:48–57
Ruparathna R, Hewage K (2015) Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices, drivers and opportunities. J Clean Prod 109:305–314
Schropfer VLM, Tah J, Kurul E (2017) Map** the knowledge flow in sustainable construction project teams using social network analysis. Eng Constr Archit Manag 24:229–259
SGBC Member Directory (2019) Available: https://web.sgbc.online/public/memberdirectory [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
Shen W, Tang W, Siripanan A, Lei Z, Duffield CF, Wilson D, Hui FKP, Wei Y (2017) Critical success factors in Thailand′s green building industry. J Asian Archit Build Eng 16:317–324
Shi Q, Zuo J, Huang R, Huang J, Pullen S (2013) Identifying the critical factors for green construction - An empirical study in China. Habitat International 40:1–8
Siniavskaia, N. 2015. Most Homebuilders are Small Businesses [Online]. Available: http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/12/most-homebuilders-are-small-businesses/ [Accessed 21 June 2018].
Siva V, Hoppe T, Jain M (2017) Green buildings in Singapore; analyzing a frontrunner's sectoral innovation system. Sustainability (Switzerland) 9
Sommer A, Steland A (2019) Multistage acceptance sampling under nonparametric dependent sampling designs. J Stat Plan Inference 199:89–113
Sourani A, Sohail M (2011) Barriers to addressing sustainable construction in public procurement strategies. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability 164:229–237
Thakur AK, Pappu A, Thakur VK (2018) Resource efficiency impact on marble waste recycling towards sustainable green construction materials. Curr Opin Green Sustainable Chem 13:91–101
Thas O, Rayner JCW, Best DJ (2005) Tests for symmetry based on the one-sample Wilcoxon signed rank statistic. Communications in Statistics: Simulation and Computation 34:957–973
U.S. Small Business Administration 2017. Size standards define small business [Online]. https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-guide/size-standards. [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
Wai SH, Yusof AM, Ismail S, & Tey KH (2012) Critical Success Factors for Sustainable Building in Malaysia [Online]. http://www.ipedr.com/vol45/025-ICMTS2012-M00025.pdf. [Accessed 16 August, 2019].
Wendler, T. & Gröttrup, S. 2016. Data mining with SPSS modeler: Theory, exercises and solutions.
Yin BCL, Laing R, Leon M, Mabon L (2018) An evaluation of sustainable construction perceptions and practices in Singapore. Sustain Cities Soc 39:613–620
Yong YC, Mustaffa NE (2013) Critical success factors for Malaysian construction projects: An empirical assessment. Constr Manag Econ 31:959–978
Yu ATW, Javed AA, Lam TI, Shen GQ, Sun M (2018) Integrating value management into sustainable construction projects in Hong Kong. Eng Constr Archit Manag 25:1475–1500
Yung EHK, Chan EHW (2012) Implementation challenges to the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings: Towards the goals of sustainable, low carbon cities. Habitat International 36:352–361
Zainul Abidin Nazirah N (2010) Investigating the awareness and application of sustainable construction concept by Malaysian developers. Habitat International 34:421–426
Zou PXW, Zhang G, Wang J (2007) Understanding the key risks in construction projects in China. Int J Proj Manag 25:601–614
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shan, M., Liu, WQ., Hwang, BG. et al. Critical success factors for small contractors to conduct green building construction projects in Singapore: identification and comparison with large contractors. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 8310–8322 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06646-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06646-1