Mapping and improving sustainable construction management through social network analysis: a review

Abstract

Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been used in multidisciplinary research during the past two decades due to the unique nature of network visualisation and extensive analytical capabilities. This tool has also gained increasing attention among the researchers in the sustainable construction arena in recent years. Nevertheless, a thorough review has not yet been done to review the application of SNA in the sector of sustainable construction. This paper attempts to address this gap through a comprehensive review of previous journal publications. Accordingly, 73 journal papers were initially identified for review through the “Web of Science “publications database. Subsequently, a bibliometric analysis was done through “VOS viewer” software package to identify the research trends throughout the past years. The results show significant progress in relevant publications during 2014-2018 and a major contribution to research from China. After an extensive filtration process, 17 particularly relevant journal papers were identified which have applied both social network visualisation and analysis techniques for the sustainability aspects of construction. The contents of these papers were comprehensively analysed in terms of data collection methods, network analysis techniques, network structures and sustainability knowledge areas. Finally, this paper contributes to theoretical knowledge in this domain, by suggesting a future research direction through a SNA conceptual model to analyse stakeholder collaborations for project life cycle sustainability initiatives. The findings of this paper will serve as a good source for future researchers to comprehensively identify, compare and contrast the applications of SNA techniques for sustainability related studies in the construction sector.