A Data-Driven Approach to Trace the Development of Lean Construction in Building Projects: Topic Shift and Main Paths

Due to the varied ideas of lean philosophy adopted in the construction industry, it is challenging to trace the development of lean philosophy in terms of how the field evolved by adopting the lean ideas and how the topic shifted. However, it is challenging to extract useful information from the massive body of literature and to trace the development of Lean Construction in Building Projects. Previous studies have conducted longitudinal analyses of scientific areas depending on the authors’ interpretation and explanation, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To address this concern, this study proposes a data-driven approach integrating N-gram extraction, citation analysis, and a global key-route algorithm to trace the development. Based on the collected literature of Lean Construction in Building Projects, N-grams were extracted as topics from the raw texts of titles, abstracts, and keywords, and the shifts in topics were measured. Then, the references were extracted from the literature to create a citation network to represent the knowledge flows, and the global key-route algorithm was used to identify the most valuable flows reflecting the main paths of the development. The results illustrate how Lean Construction in Building Projects evolved and how the topics shifted, providing an exciting opportunity to reveal this development by using a data-driven approach rather than personal judgments. The findings can help us to understand that the field of Lean Construction in Building Projects was driven and motivated not only by the “lean theory”, but also by problems in the practice of building projects. Moreover, lean theory leads to flourishing research on informatization, and BIM will be an important tool to better achieve lean thinking in construction.

Evaluation of Social Responsibility of Major Municipal Road Infrastructure—Case Study of Zhengzhou 107 Auxiliary Road Project

Social responsibility plays an important role in the sustainable development of major municipal road infrastructure. In this study, a major municipal road infrastructure social responsibility (MMRISR) evaluation indicator system is developed for the comprehensive evaluation of social responsibility. Questionnaires and expert interviews were used to screen the initial indicators of the proposed system. Then, 24 indicators were selected from four dimensions to establish an MMRISR evaluation indicator system. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was employed to calculate the weights of each indicator. Finally, the Zhengzhou 107 Auxiliary Road Project was adopted as a case study to test the reliability of the proposed evaluation system. The contribution of this study lies in the provision of a novel indicator system for the social responsibility evaluation of major municipal road infrastructures, thus improving the science of project establishment and decision-making. The proposed social responsibility system can provide an efficient decision-making tool for social responsibility governance, fundamentally promoting the sustainable development of major municipal road infrastructures and the achievement of certain sustainable development goals.

The Effects of Megaproject Social Responsibility on Participating Organizations

This study focuses on the effects of megaproject social responsibility (MSR) on participating organizations’ performance. Using a survey of the participating organizations in Chinese megaprojects, this study reveals that the impact of MSR on a participant’s performance goes beyond the scope of the current megaproject. The empirical results indicate that MSR positively affects both financial and social performance of the participating organizations. The interactions of primary stakeholders weaken the positive effects of MSR on both financial and social performance, whereas the interactions of secondary stakeholders strengthen the positive effects of MSR on social performance.