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Proper assessment of contractors' competitiveness is important for assisting contractors in taking internal analysis and for assisting clients in selecting suitable contractors. This paper seeks to address this issue.

With previously identified contractor key competitiveness indicators (KCIs), this study presents a fuzzy competitiveness rating (FCR) method for measuring contractor competitiveness with reference to the Hong Kong construction industry. A set of linguistic terms is used for facilitating the assessment process.

For illustration, an example is used to show the application of the FCR method. The results provide valuable information for helping contractors in the local construction industry to understand their competitive advantages and weaknesses, and to formulate effective competition strategies to improve their competitiveness.

The model used in this study is not validated by real cases. In a future paper, the model will be further demonstrated by conducting real case studies, and the linguistic terms and corresponding fuzzy numbers will also be re‐defined based on the collected data.

As the competitiveness assessment process involves complexity and uncertainty, a fuzzy competitiveness rating method is considered suitable for reflecting the reality and the assessment panel can easily give their opinions by using the linguistic language.

The purpose of this paper is to present a fuzzy‐analysis‐based scoring (F‐EPS) method for measuring contractors' environmental performance during project construction in order to assist contractors in improving their environmental performance during project construction.

To review relevant literature and conduct practical investigations for establishing the indicators which measure the environmental performance made by contractors. This will be followed by establishing the performance benchmarks for measuring the performance level of the environmental indicators, and presenting a fuzzy‐analysis‐based scoring method for measuring a contractor's environmental performance. A practical case was adopted to demonstrate the procedures of applying the F‐EPS model.

This paper provides an alternative method, fuzzy‐analysis‐based scoring (F‐EPS) method for assessing contractors' environmental performance. Whilst there are existing methods developed in previous studies for assessing the environmental performance of construction projects, it appears that little study has been conducted to investigate measuring the environmental performance by contractors during the construction process. Shen et al. (2005) suggested measuring contractors' environmental performance by using an environmental performance score (EPS). However, the major weakness of using the EPS model is that the model does not take into consideration the characteristics of the subjective and fuzzy assessment process. The F‐EPS method is thus developed to help mitigate these weaknesses.

F‐EPS model provides a simple and easy‐to‐apply tool to assist contractors in identifying the poor environmental performance areas; thus corrective methods can be used to make improvement. It provides an effective method for contractors' environmental performance to be communicated to involved stakeholders.

There are many variables affecting contractors' environmental performance, which present difficulties for measuring the performance efficiently and effectively. This paper has presented a new approach, a fuzzy‐analysis‐based method, for measuring the environmental performance used by contractors through applying the fuzzy analysis principles.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a decision support tool for construction waste on‐site to achieve better construction and demolition waste management.

System dynamics methodology is adopted for developing the model.

The model of managing construction waste on‐site is established. The interconnections of the main activities are included into the model with focus on planning and management where information about the future trend is for better decision making.

Construction waste generation is dynamic and interactive. Therefore, the model developed can be used as a flexible tool to help practitioners to understand the causes and effects.

Since the model allows the users to fine‐tune the input parameters, it is flexible to adjust the model to better reflect the reality according to different conditions. This is an advantage over other static models.

An industrialized building system (IBS) is regarded as an effective residential building system that provides several benefits, including high quality, low cost, short time, good flexibility, reduced waste, and strong environmental performance. This system is considered to be valuable in promoting sustainable practices in China, where plans for urbanization have been established. However, the adoption of IBS in China is extremely limited. Potential risks exist and affect the attitudes of practitioners toward the use of this system. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize and analyze these risks and to develop corresponding strategies for mitigating these risks in China.

In total, 24 risks that inhibit the implementation of IBS in China are identified through literature review and examined through interviews for consistency. A questionnaire survey is conducted to quantify the significance of these risks. Cronbach’s coefficient α is employed to measure the internal consistency among the risk factors. The survey results are further analyzed using three case studies.

The top five risks identified are “poor cooperation between multi-interface,” “inappropriate design codes and standards for industrialized buildings,” “lack of management practices and experiences,” “enormous difficulty in achieving return on high initial investment,” and “lack of a quality monitoring mechanism for the production process.” The findings emphasize the government’s leading role in promoting the new building system in its introduction and enforcement of adequate policies and regulations. Practitioners are also instrumental in establishing proper understanding and knowledge of IBS and its application.

This study bridges the knowledge gaps on risk identification for implementing IBS in China. The findings provide practitioners and decision makers with valuable references for adopting adequate risk management methods and policies to promote IBS in China.

Adaptive reuse of existing building stock that has reached the end of its useful life, but not its physical life, is an important ingredient in the necessary adaptation of the constructed environment due to the impact of climate change and the need to conserve valuable resources into the future. This paper aims to advance previous research that has developed a means to predict adaptive reuse potential (ARP).

This study is conducted by comparing ARP (ARP) between urban and non‐urban settings drawn from case studies in both Hong Kong and Australia. The results are also compared to a database of 64 completed adaptive reuse case studies worldwide to provide a comparative benchmark against which to assess the findings.

Through application of the ARP model, mean values are determined for a number of variables that suggest that the model relates equally well to different contexts. However, the data further suggest that the 12 urban cases in Hong Kong have a lower ARP score on average than the 12 non‐urban cases in Australia, yet the maximum ARP score possible is higher.

The paper indicates that adaptive reuse intervention in Hong Kong is too late and valuable opportunity for economic, social and environmental gain is delayed.

The paper provides useful means to assist decision‐making on how to handle or use existing buildings. Understanding adaptive reuse potential of existing buildings is important and this study provides an effective method for supporting this understanding.

The means to predict ARP in previous studies is advanced in this study.

ISO 14000 has been developed as a new international standard series for promoting environmental protection and sustainable development. Since the introduction of ISO 14001 in September 1996 it has attracted great attention from organizations in various industries. ISO 14001 specifies the requirements and procedures for establishing an environmental management system. An increasing number of organizations from various industrial sectors have actively participated in implementing this new standard. However, very few construction companies – for example, in Australia – have actively pursued certification to this standard despite having an obligation to implement it, as the services and products they produce directly impact the environment. By reviewing the strategic issues posed by the entire family of ISO 14000 standards, this paper analyses its relevance to construction and the difficulties and problems that may be encountered in their implementation. A framework for implementing the standard in construction companies is proposed. It is suggested that the adoption of ISO 14000 by construction companies may enable them to improve their environmental performance as well as the built environment, which in turn will contribute to sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a quantitative method for assisting contractors to select appropriate projects for bidding by considering multiple attributes and integrating decision group member opinions.

The fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is used to help contractors make decision on project selection and the linguistic terms are defined for representing the triangular fuzzy numbers for ratings of alternatives and weights of criteria.

The selection of appropriate projects for bidding is a multiple attribute group decision‐making exercise. In a real decision process, there are many uncertainties and ambiguities, and time limitations mean that decision makers cannot always make precise judgments. The numerical example demonstrates that the fuzzy TOPSIS approach can be used to simulate the decision process in project selection, and the results provide contractors with valuable insight into the project selection problem.

Selecting appropriate projects for bidding is to use a contractor's limited resources more efficiently and increase the probability of winning contracts. Therefore, there is a need for a quantitative method to help contractors make better decision on project selection. That leads to the formulation of this paper. The fuzzy TOPSIS method can assist contractors to make better decisions in bidding.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing intent to adopt unmanned aerial vehicles for use in agricultural operations in Jilin Province, China.

This paper uses probit analysis to estimate the influence of factors on intent to adopt unmanned aerial vehicles for plant protection application operations in Jilin Province, China based on the Technology Acceptance Model.

UAV technology is acceptable to most participating farmers. Gender (male), agricultural income ratio, understanding of new technology, perceived ease-of-use and perceived usefulness have a positive relationship with farmers’ willingness to adopt UAVs.

For application, crop monitoring and other farm operations, UAVs have clear advantages. There remain challenges associated with the development of applicable technology and facilitating adoption among farmers. Understanding factors affecting adoption will contribute to the latter, and brings forth the following recommendations: conduct research on the cost effectiveness of UAVs for agriculture; accelerate development of the information service system; and increase financial support.

This paper is among the first to consider adoption intent among Chinese farmers of use of UAVs for agricultural operations.

The purpose of the study is to propose a new perspective to explain how China's rapid growth in patenting is partially driven by corporate strategic patenting to influence local governments. The authors highlight the role of strategic patenting and local government-business relations in creating the gap between the patent boom and underlying technological progress in China.

The authors investigate the relationship between local government-business relations and corporate strategic patenting behaviors, measured as a higher ratio of patent filings to patent awards, by collecting data from three successive NADS surveys of government-business relations in 292 Chinese municipalities, paired with detailed patenting and subsidy data of 3,756 publicly listed corporations obtained through text mining.

The authors find that, while R&D investment and patent subsidies do drive corporate patenting, firms in jurisdictions with lower-quality government-business relations are more likely to engage in strategic patenting. Moreover, the negative impact of government-business relations on strategic patenting is moderated by political connections, as the strategic patenting of firms without political connections is more sensitive to government-business relations. The authors further show that firms obtain significant benefits from patenting in the form of additional subsidies from local innovation and industrial policies in the years following.

Rolling back patent subsidies will reduce strategic patenting to a limited extent. The local governments in emerging markets need to increase the capacity to implement industrial policy and provide market-based opportunities for firms to access innovation inputs.

The authors provide an updated and fresh perspective to understand the phenomenon of China's patent boom by showing that patenting can be driven by corporate strategies to adapt to local institutions and influence government policy. The authors extend the analysis of strategic patenting to emerging markets.