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Academic achievement of first year university students in the international arena, as well as in South Africa, has been a point of concern for all stakeholders because of high failure and dropout rates. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of identity processing styles on academic achievement in first year university students. This study also explored the composition of students according to their identity processing styles, to determine the predominant identity style.

A non‐experimental ex post facto research design was employed. A non‐probability purposive sampling was used to select 430 first‐year university students with an average age of 18.94.

The findings generally revealed a non‐significant relationship between identity processing styles (normative, diffuse‐avoidant, informational) and academic achievement. However, the informational‐oriented students performed significantly better than diffuse‐avoidant group on academic achievement. Although comparable, most of the participants were located within the lower level of identity development (i.e. diffuse‐avoidant processing style), while those with mature sophisticated identity development (i.e. informational) were underrepresented.

This study makes novel contributions to the literature, especially related to the South African context, in view of the fact that most studies conducted in this area have been implemented in developed countries. It also provides insights regarding usage of the Identity Style Inventory in relation to the cultural orientation of South Africa.

Green business models (GBMs) in the construction sector represent the logic of green value creation and capture. Hence, the call to examine GBMs is growing ever louder. The aim of this paper is to identify benefits of GBMs by adopting five essential elements of the GBM from the literature: green value proposition; target group; key activities; key resources (KR); and financial logic.

In all, 19 semi-structured interviews are conducted with construction sector practitioners and academics in the UK. Thematic analysis is used to obtain benefits of GBMs. Further, the interpretive ranking process (IRP) is used to examine which elements of the GBM have a dominant role in providing benefits to construction businesses.

The benefits are grouped into three themes: credibility/reputation benefits; financial benefits; and long-term viability benefits. The IRP model shows that the element of KR is the most important when evaluated against these three benefit themes.

Linking GBM elements and benefits will help companies in the construction sector to analyse the business case of embracing environmental sustainability.

This research is one of the few empirical academic works investigating the benefits of GBMs in the construction sector. The IRP method is a novel contribution to GBMs and construction research.