The impact of sharing economy practices on sustainability performance in the Chinese construction industry

摘要

The sharing economy is gradually reshaping the construction industry. This study identifies the use of digital platforms, internal sharing practices with project stakeholders, and external sharing practices with unfamiliar companies as three critical elements of sharing economy practices from a socio-technical perspective. The impacts of these three elements on sustainability performance, including economic performance, environmental performance and social performance, are investigated. Based on a survey of the Chinese construction industry, proposed hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that the use of digital platforms can promote both internal and external sharing practices in the construction industry. While internal sharing practices have positive impacts on the three dimensions of sustainability performance, external sharing practices can positively influence only environmental performance. The findings enhance the understanding of sharing economy practices and provide empirical evidence of the relationships between sharing economy practices and sustainability performance in the construction sector.