- Title
- Adoption of green construction in Ghana: an explanation of decision-making logic using behavioural economics
- Creator
- Hammond, Samuel Fiifi
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The building and construction industry is responsible for 39% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, which underlies the negative environmental impact of construction activities. As a result, building stakeholders face significant pressure to implement environmentally friendly practices. Green construction is the practice of implementing environmentally friendly practices to ensure sustainability. Anecdotally, building stakeholders are enthusiastic to adopt green construction, and various regulatory and incentive policies provide further motivation. However, green construction is not being adopted at the anticipated rate. The present research aimed to explain the decision-making logic of individual building stakeholders when adopting green construction by using behavioural economic concepts. A pragmatic investigative framework was established on the basis of the theoretically informed assumption that the construction process comprises a collection of individual actors working towards reducing the negative environmental impact of construction activities. A research model was developed with six a priori constructs deduced from the literature, namely, social norms, personal dilemma, loss aversion, self-interest, trust in others’ actions and green construction adoption. The six constructs were linked by a set of research hypotheses to examine the motivations behind the reluctance of individual stakeholders to adopt green construction. Quantitative data were collected in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi areas of Ghana and analysed using descriptive statistics and partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results supported the hypothesised relationships in the research model. Thus, building stakeholders appear to conform to what they believe others are doing. The results also establish altogether that the reluctance to adopt green construction by building construction stakeholders is usually exhibited at the individual level. Therefore, policy should focus on challenging social norms and building trust in others’ action about green construction while still regarding self-interest. Further, the findings of this research underscore the relevance of the importance of the thought process of building stakeholders regarding reluctance to adopt green construction, which could inform the design or augmentation of interventions to improve green construction adoption.
- Subject
- green construction adoption; sustainable development; behavioural economics; novel model; pragmatic research; game theory; decision theory; Ghana
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1513636
- Identifier
- uon:56752
- Rights
- Copyright 2022 Samuel Fiifi Hammond
- Language
- eng
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