Using PLS-SEM to analyze challenges hindering success of green building projects in Vietnam

Abstract

PurposeThe green building (GB) market in Vietnam is growing quite slowly. Project stakeholders are facing very much undefined difficulty to gain success of GB projects. This study focused on investigation of the critical challenges the general contractors are facing in executing GB projects in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted a literature review and three in-depth interviews to define 31 potential challenges hindering success of GB projects. Data was collected from 163 respondents through the questionnaire survey and was analyzed by the mean ranking technique, EFA and PLS-SEM.FindingsThe result found general contractors in Vietnam are facing the four components of challenges, namely “Planning activities-related challenges”, “Organizational activities-related challenges”, “Onsite management and control activities-related challenges” and “Green supply chain-related challenges”; and all of them have statistically significant effects on success of GB projects in Vietnam. Furthermore, the most dominant component was related to the non-readiness of external GB supply chain.Research limitations/implicationsThis present study has several notable limitations that may be addressed by future research. First, the data was collected from the quite small sample; and sampling is not randomly conducted. The findings may be tested by a larger dataset from a nationwide population. Also, the generalization of the findings may be limited because the data was only collected under the viewpoint of general contractors within the specific context of Vietnam; future studies should extend to developers and/or project managers, etc.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest for practical measures to enhance success of GB projects in Vietnam, including (1) completing the system of legal regulations and technical codes, standards, guidelines on GB, (2) providing incentive policies to promote the R&D activities on GB and (3) providing educational programs to improve the awareness and capacity on GB in domestic construction organizations, especially medium and small subcontractors.Originality/valueIn order to fill the gap of the existing literature, this study seeks to gain a better understanding on critical challenges hindering success of green building projects under the view point of general contractors with reference to the context of Vietnam – a developing economy. This study first identified potential challenges, then evaluated the impact of the key components of challenges on success of GB projects.