Guidelines for Managing Construction Industry Businesses with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

Driven by escalating investment flows within the construction sector, the industry has experienced the simultaneous expansion of established firms alongside the rapid emergence of new market entrants. Under these increasingly competitive conditions, construction operators are required to implement managerial frameworks aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to sustain organisational viability and long-term operational resilience. Accordingly, this study investigates construction industry management approaches consistent with the SDGs and formulates a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to explain these relationships comprehensively. To establish the research instruments for the quantitative phase, in-depth interviews were undertaken with nine specialists possessing extensive expertise in the construction sector. Subsequently, a focused group discussion involving 11 experts was organised to formulate the numerical framework underpinning the investigation. For the quantitative component, questionnaire-based surveys were administered to 500 executives engaged in construction-related enterprises. The collected information was examined through descriptive, inferential, and multivariate statistical procedures. The findings demonstrate that SDG-oriented management approaches within the construction industry can be prioritised in descending order as follows: 1) environmental impact management sustainability (X̅ = 4.48), particularly post-construction rehabilitation initiatives; 2) collaboration management sustainability (X̅ = 4.47), emphasising cooperative engagement with stakeholders to resolve industry-related challenges and strengthen sectoral advancement; 3) innovation and technology management (X̅ = 4.46), notably the development of mobile applications aimed at improving operational efficiency in field activities; and 4) organisational management sustainability (X̅ = 4.39), especially succession planning strategies intended to maintain continuity in fieldwork administration. Furthermore, hypothesis testing revealed that the perceived importance of SDG-based construction business management approaches, when classified according to business size, did not differ significantly at the 0.05 significance level.