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The state of the art in e-business: A case study from the Chinese construction industry

Abstract

In the 21st century, e-business is seen as the new frontier. Currently e-business has been widely used in other industry and to some extent in global construction market, particularly in developed countries, such as UK, EU and USA. Evidence of performance and success stories shows that the implementation of e-business is already delivering high improvement and innovation in construction project planning, design, delivery and management. However, the current performance of e-business in the emerging market, such as India and China is limited. China, as the world’s second largest economy after the United States, has the world fastest growing economy, averaging 10% growth of the past 30 years. The domestic construction industry is booming in both infrastructure and building construction sectors. It is predicted that nearly half of the world’s new building construction will be in China by 2015. In a similar way to other countries, there is a great potential for China to implement e-business in the construction industry in order to improve its productivity and competitiveness. This paper initially explains the concept of e-Business and its impacts in construction industry and reviews the development of Chinese construction industry over last two decades. A case study of one of the largest Chinese construction IT Companies is carried out to further analyse benefits, challenges and the market potential of e-business in China. This study provides a better and deeper understanding of the different characteristics of the implementation and capability of e-business in Chinese construction industry

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