Country Selection Model for Sustainable Construction Businesses Using Hybrid of Objective and Subjective Information

Kang-Wook Lee, Wooyong Jung and Seung Heon Han
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Kang-Wook Lee: Korea Research Center for Overseas Construction, International Contractors Association of Korea, Seoul 04513, Korea
Wooyong Jung: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea
Seung Heon Han: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: An important issue for international businesses and academia is selecting countries in which to expand in order to achieve entrepreneurial sustainability. This study develops a country selection model for sustainable construction businesses using both objective and subjective information. The objective information consists of 14 variables related to country risk and project performance in 32 countries over 25 years. This hybrid model applies subjective weighting from industrial experts to objective information using a fuzzy LinPreRa-based Analytic Hierarchy Process. The hybrid model yields a more accurate country selection compared to a purely objective information-based model in experienced countries. Interestingly, the hybrid model provides some different predictions with only subjective opinions in unexperienced countries, which implies that expert opinion is not always reliable. In addition, feedback from five experts in top international companies is used to validate the model’s completeness, effectiveness, generality, and applicability. The model is expected to aid decision makers in selecting better candidate countries that lead to sustainable business success.

Keywords: sustainable construction business; country selection; decision support model; fuzzy approach; hybrid model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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