Smart retrofitting for office buildings: Comparison of decision-making criteria between developing and developed regions

Given the constantly evolving nature of modern infrastructure, retrofitting existing buildings with state-of-the-art smart technologies presents a pivotal opportunity, enabling promising advancements in sustainability, efficiency and adaptability. Focusing on Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, which are developed and developing regions respectively, this study investigates the decision-making criteria for selecting smart systems as retrofits for office buildings. Using the analytic network process (ANP), 24 expert interviews were conducted in Hong Kong and Sri Lanka to determine the importance weights of the decision-making criteria. The findings show varied importance weights for each criterion between the two regions, with Hong Kong emphasizing upfront financial considerations, specifically 'investment cost' while Sri Lanka emphasizing long-term operational sustainability, specifically 'recurring operation, maintenance and repair cost.' Despite these differences, there are similarities in the importance of core criteria such as 'reliability of retrofit option' and 'ability to increase returns.' The lack of focus on user-centric issues in Hong Kong and implementation of retrofit projects in Sri Lanka underscore the need for decision-makers to prioritize these aspects in future projects. The principal contribution of this study is in offering insights from a thorough analysis of the importance weights of the essential criteria in making decisions regarding smart retrofitting (SR). It is also beneficial to various stakeholders, including building owners and facility managers. The cross-region study approach, enabling the investigation on both developed and developing regions, further serves as a foundation for future research aiming to explore and analyze the influence of regional difference in decision-making for SR.