Impact Of Digital Maturity On Environmental Performance Of Construction Corporations

Environmental pollution and resource consumption are the main obstacles to the further development of the construction industry.As the main participants of construction projects,construction enterprises have brought huge environmental problems while promoting the rapid development of the construction industry.Under the dual constraints of resources and environment,improving the environmental performance of construction corporations has become an important means to achieve sustainable development of the construction industry.Digital transformation is the main direction of the future development of the construction industry,and also an important way to achieve sustainable development.Digital maturity is an evaluation indicator to measure the level and degree of digital transformation of corporations.The improvement of construction corporations’ digital maturity means that companies can not only flexible application of digital technology to reduce barriers to information flow,coordinate various resources in the process of operation and production,realize the resource configuration optimization,also can manage the information and data of construction activities and for processing,make targeted green production plan.However,the improvement of digital maturity will also have a negative impact on corporations’ environmental performance,which is mainly reflected in the energy and resource consumption and negative environmental impact caused by the R&D,use and disposal of digital technology and digital platform in the process of digital transformation.In the context of digital transformation,the analysis of the influence effect and influencing mechanism of digital maturity on construction corporations’ environmental performance has become an important issue of current industry attention.At the same time,this study will also consider the mediating effects of green absorptive capacity and moderating effects of institutional pressure on the relationship between digital maturity and environmental performance of construction corporations.Firstly,the improvement of green absorptive capacity means that enterprises can effectively identify and absorb the knowledge and information related to environmental management,and can apply it to the operation and production practice to improve the environmental performance of corporations.Moreover,the improvement of green absorptive capacity also depends on the supply chain configuration of absorptive capacity established in the digital transformation,which enables corporations to process the information obtained from various stakeholders and to create new knowledge by circulating the knowledge among various departments.Secondly,in order to better adapt to the institutional environment and gain the support of all stakeholders,its business activities will follow the institutional pressures from the government and the public,forcing corporations to digital transformation and green development,in order to improve the corporate digital maturity as the means,realize the strategic target of environmental performance,won the survival and development need the system of "legitimacy".In order to solve the above problems,this study,based on the resource-based theory,combined with absorptive capacity theory and institutional theory,constructed a theoretical model of the relationship between digital maturity and corporate environmental performance,and considered the role of green absorptive capacity and institutional pressure in it.Based on the theoretical model,the corresponding research hypotheses are put forward.Subsequently,based on 157 valid questionnaires from the corporates on the Top 100 Chinese construction corporations in comprehensive strength and Top 50 Chinese Construction Contractors,this study empirically tested the impact of digital maturity of construction corporations on environmental performance,the mediating role of green absorptive capacity and the moderating role of institutional pressure by using statistical analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(a)Digital maturity of construction corporations are an important factor affecting corporate environmental performance.Among them,digital technology has the most important effect on corporate environmental performance,and the transformation of value creation mode has the most significant effect on improving corporate environmental performance;(b)The green absorptive capacity plays an intermediary role between the construction corporations’ digital maturity and corporate environmental performance,namely the improvement of enterprise environmental performance not only benefits from the change of value creation mode and production process brought about by digital transformation,but also benefits from the improvement of green absorption capacity which enables construction corporations to use the newly absorbed green knowledge and information more flexibly;(c)Institutional pressure can negatively moderate the relationship between digital maturity and corporate environmental performance of construction corporations,that is,in the case of high level of institutional pressure,the impact of digital maturity on corporate environmental performance will be slowed down.Under the background of digital economy and sustainable development strategy,this study explores the relationship between the digital maturity of construction corporations and their environmental performance,which enriches the current theoretical research on environmental performance.Secondly,by constructing the digital maturity model of construction corporations,this study plays a supplementary role to the existing maturity theory,and also provides theoretical guidance for the implementation of digital transformation in the construction industry.