Leveraging concepts for environmentally sustainable business management in construction - a focused review

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to advance applied conceptual knowledge about environmentally sustainable business management (BM) in construction. Environmentally sustainable BM is herein defined to encompass the utilization and development of natural resources in ways which are compatible with the maintenance of these resources, and with the conservation of the natural and built environments, for current and future generations. In principle, concept designers can incorporate environmental sustainability into their BM concepts as a dimension, an element, or an attribute of managing, or as a criterion in decision making. Readily, the 71 construction-related BM concepts have been published between 1990 and 2013. A focused review resulted in the expected findings, i.e., only the 11 (15%) construction-related BM concepts have been designed along the environmental sustainability dimension. Thus, it is posited that high-sustainability BM concepts be designed by coupling environmental sustainability with the three other necessary dimensions, i.e., content-free frames of reference on BM, schools of thought on generic BM, and focal contexts in construction, respectively. In turn, CIB-related researchers may adopt these couplings and engage themselves with cross-disciplinary BM conceptualization programs in collaboration with farsighted business managers in construction.