Effects of policy on developer's implementation of off-site construction: The mediating role of the market environment

Off-site construction as an industrialized construction method has become a hot topic in addressing climate change. Government policies have been formulated to promote the development of off-site construction in China. Previous studies have found policy benefits for the development of off-site construction, but few studies have explored its effects on decision-making developers' adoption of off-site construction. This study aims to quantitatively verify the effect of policy on developer's implementation of off-site construction and to explore practical paths for encouraging developers to implement off-site construction using partial least-squares path analysis. The results show that environmental policies have significant direct effects on developer's implementation of off-site construction. In contrast, demand-side and supply-side policies only indirectly affect developer's implementation of off-site construction through their effects on the market environment. Moreover, the market environment's mediating role was verified, suggesting that the market environment should be fostered to improve developer to adopt off-site construction method and then promote off-site construction development. Furthermore, this study explored ways to stimulate developer's implementation of off-site construction through environmental policy instruments by unpacking the market environment's mediating effect.