Promoting construction industrialisation with policy interventions : a holistic review of published policy literature

Abstract

By adopting the concept of ‘factory assembly followed by onsite installation’, construction industrialisation (CI) plays an increasingly important role in sustainable urban development. CI can enhance construction quality and efficiency while reducing environmental impacts. To promote the CI, several policy interventions have been developed and implemented in different countries and regions. This study reviews the global CI promoting regulations and policies to provide a comprehensive insight into its interrelationship and development tendency. The research selects 105 publications related to practical CI policy from widely utilised databases (i.e., Web of Science and Scopus). Based on the annual publication trend analysis, geospatial distribution, and citation analysis, seven interrelated critical CI policy formulation themes are identified and examined: regulatory policies, standardised policies, promotional policies, urban design and planning policies, technologi- cal policies, managerial and educational policies, and sustainability policies. In addition, internal correlations and mutual influence among these seven classified policies are explored and discussed, which helps scholars enhance their grasp of current CI policy research and guide future research. This review provides the research community and industrial practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of various CI-promoting policies and a roadmap to CI-promoting policy development and evaluation.