Sustainability perceptions of off-site manufacturing stakeholders in Australia

Abstract

The popularity of developing off-site manufacturing (OSM) projects is increasing in the construction industry. Sustainability is an importance concern of OSM stakeholders, and it becomes imperative to comprehend the way these stakeholders perceive it. However, there is still a lack of related explorations in this research area. Thus, the research aims to identify sustainability perceptions of OSM stakeholders based on their business information. A qualitative content analysis was adopted to retrieve and analyze the business information from Australian OSM stakeholders' official websites. The results show 59 sustainability perceptions, with the most mentioned ones being “High quality”, “Customer-focused approach and customization”, “Cost effectiveness and affordability”, and “Innovation”. Moreover, the OSM stakeholders’ sustainability perceptions have covered the social, environmental and economic sustainability dimensions, and the social sustainability perceptions were more focused than others. The statistical analysis reveals that there are no significant differences between different types of OSM stakeholders regarding their top-ranked sustainability perceptions and their perception numbers. The research facilitates understanding of the nature of the OSM sustainability issue, and offers OSM stakeholders a platform of re-thinking their sustainability practice. It also builds a new foundation of developing sustainability management frameworks and assessment benchmarks for OSM projects.