TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors Influencing Adoption of Construction Robotics in Hong Kong's Industry
T2 - A Multistakeholder Perspective
AU - Law, Kwok Kwan
AU - Chang, Siwei
AU - Siu, Ming Fung Francis
N1 - Funding Information:
As in many developed areas, the construction industry plays an essential role in Hong Kong’s economic development, as stated by Pan et al. (2020b). With such a prominent socioeconomic status, the construction industry has been performing well for a considerably long period of time, despite a recent pitfall starting from 2018 (Anson et al. 2019). According to the Census and Statistics Department (2020), the overall construction contract expenditure in 2019 has decreased by 9.3% when compared with 2018. The conventional construction methods are labor intensive, high in waste generation, and time consuming (Jaillon and Poon 2009). The local construction industry in Hong Kong is even associated infamously with four Ds: “dirty,” “dangerous,” “demanding,” and “disorganized” (To et al. 2015). To sustain the operation of this economic engine and fulfill the ongoing social demands on construction products in Hong Kong, changes are required urgently to advance the existing construction methods. As for facilitating the improvement, Hong Kong policymakers set up research funds to provide financial support for researching innovative construction technologies, including robotics, automation, etc. (Construction Industry Council 2021). Since the early 1980s, CRs have been researched and developed for their potentials to encounter the issues of skilled workers shortage, safety, quality, and productivity, as stated by Pan et al. (2020). Therefore, CRs have emerged as a revolutionary technology for buildings and successfully used on construction sites in Japan (Bock and Linner 2015), US (Madsen 2019), and China (Peng 2020). However, implementation of CRs is still scarce in Hong Kong’s construction industry despite its advantages. To speed up the practical uptake of CRs, there is a need to find out the factors influencing the in-situ adoption of the technology.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - Previous studies have explored the factors to the usage of construction robotics (CRs). However, what is the most important factor affecting adoption of CRs considering multistakeholders? Do different stakeholders share similar interests or concerns? These questions have yet to be answered. Therefore, this study aims at identifying and assessing benefits and barriers affecting adoption of CRs in Hong Kong from a multistakeholder perspective. Factors were firstly identified through a systematic literature review in a scientometric approach and validated through a questionnaire survey. Then, the relative importance of these factors was calculated using mean scores ranking, and the stakeholder groups were segmented using k-means algorithm. As a result, 14 benefit factors and 14 barrier factors were identified. Stakeholders were segmented into five groups based on common interests and concerns. The results present a better understanding for the importance of benefits and barriers affecting CRs adoption in Hong Kong considering the multiple stakeholders both individually and collectively. The findings suggest ways to facilitate the improvement of CRs to be more focused, efficient, and user-oriented. The results also contribute to finding further collaboration patterns between different stakeholders.
AB - Previous studies have explored the factors to the usage of construction robotics (CRs). However, what is the most important factor affecting adoption of CRs considering multistakeholders? Do different stakeholders share similar interests or concerns? These questions have yet to be answered. Therefore, this study aims at identifying and assessing benefits and barriers affecting adoption of CRs in Hong Kong from a multistakeholder perspective. Factors were firstly identified through a systematic literature review in a scientometric approach and validated through a questionnaire survey. Then, the relative importance of these factors was calculated using mean scores ranking, and the stakeholder groups were segmented using k-means algorithm. As a result, 14 benefit factors and 14 barrier factors were identified. Stakeholders were segmented into five groups based on common interests and concerns. The results present a better understanding for the importance of benefits and barriers affecting CRs adoption in Hong Kong considering the multiple stakeholders both individually and collectively. The findings suggest ways to facilitate the improvement of CRs to be more focused, efficient, and user-oriented. The results also contribute to finding further collaboration patterns between different stakeholders.
KW - Construction robotics
KW - Influential factors
KW - k -means
KW - Stakeholder segmentation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122031166&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0001011
DO - 10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0001011
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85122031166
SN - 0742-597X
VL - 38
JO - Journal of Management in Engineering
JF - Journal of Management in Engineering
IS - 2
M1 - 04021096
ER -