Evaluating the critical resultant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on quality assurance of cross-border construction logistics and supply chain
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
ISSN: 0969-9988
Article publication date: 23 August 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify and examine the critical resultant impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on quality assurance (QA) of cross-border construction logistics and supply chain (CB-CLSC).
Design/methodology/approach
This is achieved via embedded mixed-method design pragmatically involving desk literature review, survey and interviews from related experts within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR)–Mainland China links. The design is further integrated with descriptive analysis, criticality test, rank agreement analysis, spearman correlation test and sentiment analysis.
Findings
The study revealed 10 critical resultant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the QA of CB-CLSC, with the top three including “increased use of digital technologies (M10)”, “worker absence, labour shortage and decrease in work rate (M3)” and “changes to how construction sites operate (M9)”. Three underlying dimensions were discovered among all the critical resultant impacts: “cost-time-worker (CTW)-related impacts”, “work contract and operation (WCO)-related impacts” and “work process (WP)-related impacts”. The critical resultant impacts are reflected in the time, cost, raw materials and work processes, and this could manifest as negative as well as an opportunity to position the QA system to be adequate during the pandemic and post-pandemic era.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the knowledge body as it identifies and examines the critical resultant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the QA of CB-CLSC. This is original research with invaluable primary data collected in the form of surveys and interviews from construction quality experts within the Hong Kong (SAR)–Mainland China links, known as the world’s factory.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a broader PhD research on Quality Assurance of Cross-border Construction Logistics and Supply Chain During the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was sponsored by the University of Hong Kong (HKU), under the HKU presidential PhD scholarship (HKU-PS). The authors are extremely grateful to the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor and Referees who provided constructive and invaluable comments and suggestions to significantly improve the quality of this paper.
Citation
Ghansah, F.A. and Lu, W. (2024), "Evaluating the critical resultant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on quality assurance of cross-border construction logistics and supply chain", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-02-2024-0196
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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