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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice and research regarding construction contractors are comparatively limited. The purpose of this research is to identify a series of CSR issues that reflect the major components of CSR, and to determine the perceived importance of these factors in the context of construction contractors.

A CSR indicator framework was developed based on stakeholder theory. CSR stakeholders and their corresponding CSR performance issues in construction contractors are classified into two levels, i.e. project level and organizational level. This is followed by a questionnaire survey to investigate the perceptions on relative importance of CSR issues of four key stakeholders in typical construction projects in China, i.e. construction contractors, clients, design and engineering consultancy and supervision firms.

The study highlighted a number of factors, e.g. “quality and safety of construction”, “occupational health and safety” and “supplier/partner relationship” were highly regarded; however, their relative importance varied according to the type of responding organization.

The findings indicated the major concerns of the different parties in construction projects, thereby providing a pathway for construction contractors to improve their CSR practice.

The priorities of various stakeholders described in this paper provide a useful reference for construction contractors in the selection and adoption of criteria for CSR performance. A better understanding of perceived priorities of CSR factors from different participating parties also serves useful inputs to construction contractors in their stakeholder management process.

Sustainability and competitiveness have received extensive attentions. Despite a large number of studies on sustainability and competitiveness in the construction industry, little research has been conducted to holistically explore the interactions between these two concepts. From a dynamic transition perspective, the purpose of this paper is to link sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms by developing a Sustainability-Competitiveness Dynamic Interaction Framework (SCDIF).

Conceptual theory-building approach was adopted to develop the conceptual framework. It is an iterative analysis and synthesis process, which involves reading literature, identifying commonalities and differences, synthesizing, proposing an initial framework, collecting additional literature, and revisiting and revising the framework.

There are complex interactions between sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms. This leads to uncertain relationships between sustainability and competitiveness, which is context dependent. Under evolving economic and socio-political environments, sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms could transition from mutually exclusive to mutually supportive, and finally merge into “sustainable competitiveness.”

A SCDIF proposed in this study demonstrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms’ strategies, and thus the relationships and interactions between sustainability and competitiveness are context dependent. This framework helps corporate managers to understand how corporate sustainability and competitiveness interact with each other, thereby informing their decision-making of sustainability strategy. Similarly, the framework provides useful references for policymakers to understand the mechanisms of transitioning industries toward sustainable competitiveness.

The proposed framework offers a new perspective for understanding sustainability and competitiveness. From the dynamic transition perspective, this study effectively illustrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms’ strategies. Compared to existing approaches, the dynamic and holistic approach proposed in this paper provides the capacity to capture the complexity of sustainability and competitiveness.

Partnering has drawn attention from both academics and practitioners in the construction industry in the context of construction and facilities management. The past decades have seen a number of articles reporting the application of partnering in construction. The Chinese construction industry is one of the largest industries in the world; however, to the authors' best knowledge, no project in mainland China has adopted this procurement approach in a formal and systematic manner as yet. This paper presents a timely study that aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing the partnering concept into Chinese industry and to understand the current barriers to this concept in China.

The study employed a qualitative approach to investigate the factors that support or impede the implementation of partnering in mainland China. The methodology encompassed a critical review of relevant laws, regulations, and policy documents; and semi‐structured interviews.

The findings indicate that the partnering practice is feasible in the construction industry of China due to the large demand brought about by China's strong economic growth and government support. However, the implementation of partnering in the Chinese construction industry is being impeded by the restrictions of the current Chinese regulatory framework and tender evaluation framework, the incompatible features of Chinese culture and the general lack of trust.

Six strategies that help to facilitate the implementation of partnering in China have been developed based on the supporting and impeding factors identified in this study. It is worth noting that not all aspects of Chinese culture are compatible with partnering principles. This study offers a useful reference to implement collaborative contracting models such as partnering in developing countries with a consideration of new factors such as political environment and emerging economies.

This research aims to investigate the impacts of project culture on the performance of construction projects. Cultural issues in the construction industry have attracted growing attention from both practitioners and academia. However, there are few studies on culture issues at the project level. The influence of project culture has not traditionally been on the research radar.

A case study approach, utilising questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews and review of project documents, was used to investigate project culture and its associated impacts in two major hospital projects.

The results indicated that project culture played an important role in achieving harmonious relationships between project participants and better project outcomes in terms of schedule, functionality, satisfaction with the process, satisfaction with the relationships, environmental issues addressed commercial success, further business opportunities and overall performance. Case 1 outperformed Case 2 in these performance indicators. Similarly, it became clear that the project’s culture should be developed from the outset and sustained during the project period. Furthermore, it was also highlighted that the project culture should be translated to all levels of the supply chain, i.e. sub-contractors and suppliers.

The findings enabled the client to understand the role of project culture and actively commit towards the development and maintenance of the project culture from very early on. It also helps project teams to understand how to deal with cultural issues at the project level.

This study is one of limited empirical studies that offer in-depth insights of how project culture affects the performance of construction projects. It is also the first study of hospital projects on the research topic.

The purpose of this paper is to find the specific competitive industries in emerging industries of strategic importance of each province in China in order to provide references for industrial cultivation and development.

This paper uses quantitative analysis methods on RCA and R&D efficiency.

Different provinces have specific competitive emerging industries of strategic importance. Taking biotechnology, equipment manufacturing, and new generation of information technology industry as examples, this paper finds: for the advanced equipment manufacturing industry, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Tianjin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jiangxi provinces have obvious characteristics and relatively high R&D efficiency; for bio‐technology, Jiangsu, Henan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces have obvious characteristics and relatively high R&D efficiency; and for the next generation of the information technology industry, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai provinces have obvious characteristics and relatively high R&D efficiency.

This study is limited by lack of industrial comprehensiveness so that more statistical data about emerging industry of strategic importance is needed for more in‐depth analysis.

The identification of specific competitive emerging industry of strategic importance of each province will give managers and policy makers train of thought for the cultivation and development of strategic emerging industry and make future policies more targeted.

The paper contributes to the research on the differentiated cultivation and development tactics of strategic emerging industry by, respectively, finding out the specific competitive emerging industries of each province in China.

The stress–strain behaviors of rockfill materials in dams are significantly affected by the anisotropy and grain crushing. However, these factors are rarely considered in numerical simulations of high rockfill dams. This study intends to develop a reasonable and practical constitutive model for rockfill materials to overcome the above problems.

The effects of anisotropy and grain crushing are comprehensively considered by the spatial position of the reference state line. After the improved generalized plasticity model for rockfill materials (referred to as the PZR model) is developed and verified by laboratory tests, it is used with the finite element method to simulate the stress–strain behaviors of the Nuozhadu high core rockfill dam.

The simulated results agree well with the laboratory tests data and the situ monitoring data, verifying the reliability and practicability of the developed PZR model.

A new anisotropic state parameter is proposed to reflect the nonmonotonic variation in the strength as the major principal stress direction angle varies. This advantage is verified by the simulation of a set of conventional triaxial tests with different inclination angles of the compaction plane. 2) This is the first time that the elastoplastic model is verified by the situ monitoring data of high core rockfill dams. The numerical simulation results show that the PZR model can well reflect the stress–strain characteristics of rockfill materials in high core rockfill dams and is better than the traditional EB model.

Most epidemic transmission forecasting methods can only provide deterministic outputs. This study aims to show that probabilistic forecasting, in contrast, is suitable for stochastic demand modeling and emergency medical resource planning under uncertainty.

Two probabilistic forecasting methods, i.e. quantile regression convolutional neural network and kernel density estimation, are combined to provide the conditional quantiles and conditional densities of infected populations. The value of probabilistic forecasting in improving decision performances and controlling decision risks is investigated by an empirical study on the emergency medical resource planning for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The managerial implications obtained from the empirical results include (1) the optimization models using the conditional quantile or the point forecasting result obtain better results than those using the conditional density; (2) for sufficient resources, decision-makers' risk preferences can be incorporated to make tradeoffs between the possible surpluses and shortages of resources in the emergency medical resource planning at different quantile levels; and (3) for scarce resources, the differences in emergency medical resource planning at different quantile levels greatly decrease or disappear because of the existing of forecasting errors and supply quantity constraints.

Very few studies concern probabilistic epidemic transmission forecasting methods, and this is the first attempt to incorporate deep learning methods into a two-phase framework for data-driven emergency medical resource planning under uncertainty. Moreover, the findings from the empirical results are valuable to select a suitable forecasting method and design an efficient emergency medical resource plan.

The front-end phase plays an important role in achieving project success, and establishment of performance measurement systems considering project challenges or pitfalls is a way of keeping track of this phase. Early warning signs, a type of proactive performance indicators, may serve as means for improving decision-making and project processes aiming for short- and long-term project success. In this paper, the authors present findings from a study on early warning signs (EWS) in hospital projects' front-end. A preliminary systematisation of identified signs as a contribution to front-end improvement is provided.

The paper is based on a mixed methods approach, using a sequential, exploratory research design comprising document studies, interviews and a survey.

The authors identified 62 challenges for hospital projects' front-end performance and further established four categories of EWS as follows: (1) structure and tools, (2) context and frame factors, (3) management and (4) relational factors and properties. This mirrors the presence of hard and soft issues from previous studies. There is need for clarifying terminology and raising consciousness on EWS. Processual approaches to identify EWS are considered more useful than subsequent established indicators.

The findings from this paper provide insight into EWS in hospital projects' front-end phase. This adds to the general understanding of EWS and contributes to more knowledge on the front-end phase in general.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of herd behavior in online hotel service evaluations, focusing on the cultural and geographic distance characteristics of customers.

On the basis of 381,462 TripAdvisor reviews of hotels in the USA written by more than 100,000 customers from 92 countries, this study uses the empirical analysis to explore the collective roles of cultural distance, geographic distance and hospitality experience on herd behavior in online hotel ratings.

Cultural and geographic distances between customers and product and service locations positively affect herding and these two effects are substitutable. The hospitality experience of customers attenuates the impacts of distances on herding. These results are robust for multiple hotel service ratings.

Findings help hotels understand perceptual biases of customers on hotel services under the social influence and consequently develop effective marketing strategies to boost hotel revenues and increase profitability.

The research contributes to hospitality and online review literature by understanding how cultural and geographic distances shape online hotel service evaluations under the root of the uncertainty of decision-making and the observation of others’ behavior. The research also contributes to the distances in international business literature by deepening the understanding of the substitution and heterogeneity of distance effects. Methodologically, a time-varying and monotonously increasing variable is constructed to depict customers’ hospitality experience. The extensive data volume ensures the generalizability of our results.

The International Energy Agency states that the global energy intensity must reduce by 2.9% yearly before attaining Sustainable Development Goal 7.3 by 2030. However, the European Union (EU) seeking to attain a climate-neutral EU by 2050 shall require a substantial rate of reducing energy intensity. Consequently, this study aims to investigate how (clean) renewable energy, income, trade openness, technological innovation and nonrenewable energy consumption impact energy intensity for the EU countries.

The quantile regression, augmented mean group and causality techniques were used for analyses. Panel data for 26 EU nations over the 1990 and 2019 period was used.

The empirical evidence indicates that the variables have long-run equilibrium relationships. However, the analysis revealed that clean energy and income reduce energy intensity whiles trade, technological innovation and nonrenewable energy consumption increase energy intensity. An interactive term analysis shows that renewable energy and trade interact to reduce further, the negative effect of income on energy intensity. Causality results revealed a feedback connection between energy intensity and clean energy, income, trade liberalization as well as the interaction between income and trade liberalization. A one-way causality was obtained between energy intensity and technological innovation, nonrenewable energy consumption and the interaction between clean energy and income.

The results imply that EU countries stand to gain if more resources are committed to encouraging the production and consumption of cleaner/renewable energy. Advancement in policies that support renewable energy and facilitate green growth will help reduce energy intensity for the region. Trade policies that promote lower energy consumption should be strengthened.

The effect of renewable energy on energy intensity is assessed. The moderating impact of renewable energy and trade openness on the income–energy intensity relationship for the EU countries is examined. Moreover, this study uses the quantile estimation technique to assess the nonlinear effect of the explanatory variables on energy intensity.