Knowledge Sharing as a Safety Catalyst: The Dimensions of Safety Attitudes in Enhancing Sports Stadium Construction Workers’ Emergency Response

Abstract

As the scale and complexity of sports stadium construction projects around the world continue to grow, the safety risks faced by workers are becoming increasingly severe. In particular, the emergency response capabilities of workers have become a key factor affecting construction safety when dealing with unexpected accidents. However, there is still a relative lack of systematic exploration of the factors affecting the emergency response capabilities of sports stadium construction workers in existing research, especially the complex impact of multidimensional safety attitudes and knowledge sharing on this ability. This study focuses on the intersection of safety management and organizational behavior, analyzing how the safety awareness, safety behavior, safety culture, and safety responsibility of stadium construction workers affect their emergency response capabilities. It further explores the mediating role of knowledge sharing in this process. Through structural equation model (SEM) analysis of survey data, this study found that although safety culture did not directly affect emergency response capabilities, it had a significant indirect effect through knowledge sharing. Safety awareness did not significantly improve emergency response capabilities through knowledge sharing. In contrast, safety behavior and safety responsibility both had a significant direct and indirect impact on workers’ emergency response capabilities. This study not only provides a new theoretical framework for improving the emergency response capabilities of construction workers, but also reveals the potential value of knowledge sharing as a safety management tool. The research results have certain guiding significance for the future safety management policy design of large and complex construction projects such as sports stadiums. It emphasizes the synergistic effect of promoting knowledge sharing and comprehensively improving safety attitudes in emergency response, which will provide a scientific basis for more efficient construction safety management.

1. Introduction

The prevalence of unsafe behavior among construction workers is a major cause of accidents on construction sites [1], and at least one hundred construction site accidents occur each year around the world, resulting in significant worker loss of life and economic loss [2]. According to the International Labor Organization [3], in the United States, 5250 deaths are attributed to work-related causes. Of these, construction caused 731 fatalities, or 33.5 percent, making it the second most dangerous industry, behind car accident deaths [4]. In recent years, there have been frequent accidents in the construction of stadiums, such as the accident of machinery crushing and injuring people due to operation errors at the construction site of the stadium project of Shengsi Branch Center of China Zhoushan National Fitness Center, which resulted in casualties and property losses. These figures are reminding people that site safety is the top priority in the construction and building process of sports stadiums. Construction safety is vital to ensure the smooth progress of stadium construction projects and the life safety of workers [5]; to reduce the occurrence of accidents, a series of measures need to be taken to strengthen the construction safety management, including improving the safety awareness of workers and so on [6,7]. Therefore, this paper studies the safety attitude and emergency response ability of construction workers, which is directly related to their own life safety as well as the safe conduct of the whole construction project and plays an important role in promoting the sustainable development of the construction industry. Therefore, it is also strategic and forward-looking to conduct research on the safety of sports stadium buildings.

The construction industry has one of the highest accident rates in the world and is one of the most dangerous industries [8]. During the construction of sports stadiums, work accidents usually occur unexpectedly or unpredictably [9]. Therefore, the safety attitudes of sports stadium construction workers, i.e., safety psychology and safety behavior, etc., are crucial for reducing the occurrence of accidents [10]; safety attitudes can enhance construction workers’ motivation to avoid occupational injuries and illnesses, and improve their risk control behaviors, etc. Safety emergency response capability can also play a positive preventive role [11]; at the same time, safety emergency response capability plays an important role in improving employees’ self-rescue ability, guaranteeing safe production, enhancing safety awareness, and building a safety culture, etc. Therefore, improving the safety emergency response capability of construction workers is the important foundation of engineering project management and its system [12].

As the emergency response psychology and methods are directly related to the safety emergency response capability, it is generally believed that safety behavior refers to a series of successive safety protocols that are repeatedly implemented by workers between tasks or during working hours according to random hazardous locations during the construction process [13], which can improve the safety emergency response capability of construction workers. Construction workers’ safety emergency response capability, and safety emergency knowledge are also used as an effective way to intervene in safety behavior; safety awareness refers to an individual’s awareness of and attention to safety issues [14] or positive attitudes and awareness of safety actions, which can be derived from the source of safety behavior. Awareness [15], which can prevent the occurrence of construction site safety events at the source, can largely improve the ability of construction industry employees to identify and cope with risks and carry out a reasonable safety emergency response, is one of the means of preventing the occurrence of safety events. Safety responsibility is an indicator of the success of the culture of preventing risks [16] and is also a key factor in ensuring the smooth construction of sports stadiums. Safety responsibility is an indicator of a successful risk prevention culture [17] and a key factor in ensuring the smooth construction of sports stadiums, which is directly related to the smooth progress of the project and the safety of workers, and has a direct and important impact on emergency response; safety culture is defined by the shared values, beliefs, procedures and practices, which are the way in which employees respond to incidents, and the core of which lies in the precautionary principle, which requires construction workers not only to comply with safety operation procedures, but also to carry out a reasonable safety emergency response. It requires construction workers not only to comply with safety regulations, but also to actively participate in safety education and training to improve their own safety skills and knowledge. Positive safety culture can improve the safety awareness of construction workers, so that they can quickly and correctly deal with emergencies.

In the field of knowledge sharing, knowledge is considered as information that is processed by an individual and includes ideas, facts, expertise, and judgments related to individual, team, and organizational performance [18]. In previous studies, Waldo [19] (2014) explored the important role of behavioral information knowledge sharing for safety emergency response, while Ni [20] (2020) et al. demonstrated through an experimental study that safety behavior can be effectively facilitated through safety knowledge sharing and work engagement, and Kiomjian [21] (2020) explored the relationship between knowledge sharing and safety behavior related to emergency response based on an intelligent model and concluded that teams with higher levels of knowledge sharing are more productive. Based on the above material, this paper speculates that knowledge sharing among sports stadium construction workers can improve workers’ safety awareness and skills and promote teamwork. Specifically, when construction workers acknowledge the existence of hazards and share safety-related knowledge and information with their colleagues in a timely manner [22], it can enhance risk management and improve the efficiency of emergency response of construction workers.

Existing studies have explored the development of construction workers and safety and security issues from the aspects of pre-task planning (PTP) of construction workers [23], regulation of social capital [24], and psychological mechanisms from the perspective of social identity theory [25], etc., but there is a lack of studies exploring the safety attitudes of sports stadium construction workers on their safety emergency response capability from the empirical point of view. However, there is a lack of empirical exploration of the safety attitude of construction workers on their safety emergency response capability; even fewer studies have analyzed the psychology of safety for stadium construction workers from this perspective of knowledge sharing when exploring the psychology of safety. So, this paper absorbs the connotation of safety attitude and divides it into four dimensions: safety awareness, safety behavior, safety culture and safety responsibility. It also introduces knowledge sharing as a mediating variable to explore the relationship, aiming to explore the safety and security of the working environment of sports stadium construction workers in depth.

2. Literature Review and Hypothesis

2.1. Sports Stadium Construction Workers’ Safety Attitude and Safety Emergency Response Capability

Wang [26] et al. (2022) studied the regional differences and influencing factors of emergency response capacity and found that there are significant differences between different regions in terms of prevention, monitoring, emergency response and recovery. The emergence of these differences is closely related to the attitudes of local governments, enterprises, and individuals, especially in areas involving public safety. Although the study focuses on China’s overall emergency response capacity, the effects of attitudes on emergency preparedness and response emphasized therein are equally applicable to specific domains, such as sports stadium construction workers. As the study demonstrates, positive attitudes of local governments and enterprises in emergency management can significantly enhance emergency response capacity, and similarly, the safety attitudes of sports stadium construction workers’ safety attitudes may also have a positive impact on their emergency response capabilities. Hancock [27] et al. (1993) explored in detail how the attitudes and preparedness of responders towards hazardous material emergency response affect their emergency response capabilities by developing a systematic assessment methodology. The study showed that emergency responders with positive attitudes are better able to understand and cope with complex emergencies. This finding can be extended to the group of sports stadium construction workers, whose more positive attitudes toward safety are more likely to have higher emergency response capabilities and thus respond more effectively to emergencies in building construction. Damaševičius [28] et al. (2023) examined the use of the Internet of Emergency Services for emergency response, emphasizing the importance of combining attitudes and technology in emergency response. The study noted that personnel with good safety attitudes are more inclined to proactively use advanced emergency response technologies and tools, thus enhancing their emergency response capabilities. For construction workers in sports stadiums, improved safety attitudes not only enhance their willingness to use emergency response technologies, but also enable them to respond more quickly and effectively in emergency situations. To summarize, safety attitude plays an important role in enhancing emergency response capability, specifically for sports stadium construction workers; the more positive their safety attitude is, the stronger their emergency response capability is. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: 

Sports stadium construction workers’ safety attitudes have a positive effect on their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Trapp [29] et al. (2018) investigated the importance of enhancing system safety awareness and noted that an increase in safety awareness can help a system better cope with uncertainty and potential risks. This observation also applies to sports stadium construction workers, whose safety awareness can directly affect their ability to respond to emergencies. A study by Soon [30] (2004) found that higher safety awareness can significantly improve safety practices and reduce the accident rates. It is true that weak safety awareness is one of the main causes of safety accidents in stadium construction, including construction workers’ lack of awareness of safety risks, overconfidence and belittling of safety standards, and poor collaboration and cooperation, all of which increase safety risks and affect the handling of emergencies. This suggests that the development of safety awareness is essential to enhance the ability of individuals to respond in hazardous situations. Therefore, it is hypothesized that the higher the safety awareness of sports stadium construction workers, the better their emergency response capabilities will be in the face of emergencies.

H1a: 

Sports stadium construction workers’ safety awareness has a positive effect on their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Mullen [31] (2004) conducted a study on factors influencing individual safety behavior in the workplace and found that organizational and social factors play a key role in shaping employee safety behavior. The study noted that employees’ safety behavior is not only influenced by job design and engineering systems but is also closely related to early socialization and the need to maintain a positive image. These factors may affect employees’ ability to respond and make decisions in emergency situations. During stadium building construction, construction workers who comply with safety regulations and operating procedures are better able to quickly implement planned emergency response plans in an emergency, recognize hazards and take the correct countermeasures more quickly, and reduce the confusion caused by violations of regulations, thus improving the overall effectiveness of the emergency response. Therefore, positive safety behavior for construction workers at sports stadiums can improve their ability to respond to emergencies, reduce accidents, and improve overall safety. Based on this, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:

H1b: 

Sports stadium construction workers’ safety behavior has a positive effect on their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Choudhry [32] et al. (2007) studied the application of safety culture in the construction industry. The study showed that safety culture largely influences employees’ attitudes and behaviors with respect to health and safety. Specifically for construction workers in sports stadiums, safety culture includes their adherence to safety procedures, sensitivity to potential risks, and overall safety awareness. A positive safety culture can significantly improve workers’ ability to handle safety emergencies; this is because this culture motivates workers to be more proactive in preventing accidents and reacting correctly in emergency situations. Therefore, workplace culture related to health and safety, risks and hazards is referred to as safety culture. Thus, construction site safety culture refers to the development and dissemination of shared safety values, codes of conduct and safety norms on a building construction site. There are shared values and norms among construction workers, and these safety norms are learned through socialization in the process of participating in the construction work process, which gradually leads to the development of a culture of safety. Because most of the construction work of the stadium construction workers usually needs more than one person to cooperate, in the process of mutual contact in total, through the development of the safety culture of the construction site, safety culture climate has also become one of the important invisible measures to ensure the safety of construction workers’ work. The formation of the safety culture climate is also the realization of safe building construction foundation projects; ensuring the safety of construction workers’ emergency response has extraordinary significance. Based on this, the following hypothesis was formed:

H1c: 

Sports stadium construction workers’ safety culture has a positive effect on their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Montero [33] et al. (2009) conducted a study on occupational safety within the framework of corporate social responsibility (CSR), emphasizing the key role of safety responsibility in preventing risks and promoting safety culture. The study points out that in the process of fulfilling CSR, enterprises can effectively enhance employees’ safety awareness and emergency response ability by strengthening safety responsibility. For sports stadium construction workers, clear safety responsibility not only enhances their adherence to safety protocols, but also motivates them to take appropriate action in cases of emergency, thus improving the overall emergency response capability. Construction workers with strong safety responsibilities will pay more attention to taking necessary safety measures, such as wearing protective gear, before construction to prevent accidents. In the event of a hazard or accident, workers with strong safety responsibilities will be able to quickly take emergency sheltering and self-rescue and mutual aid measures to minimize injuries. After an emergency, construction workers with strong safety responsibilities are more likely to report accidents in a timely manner, assist in investigations and take certain remedial measures to prevent the situation from deteriorating. Based on this, the following hypothesis was formed:

H1d: 

Sports stadium construction workers’ safety responsibility has a positive effect on their ability to handle safety emergencies.

2.2. The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing

Cabrera [34] et al. (2002) provide an insight into the dilemma of knowledge sharing, highlighting the importance of information exchange between employees of an organization in the knowledge management process. The study shows that although modern information and communication technologies can support this information exchange across time and distance barriers, many organizations still face difficulties in encouraging employees to actively use these systems to share their insights. In the construction industry in particular, knowledge sharing is critical to improving workers’ safety attitudes and emergency response capabilities. By sharing experiences and lessons learned, workers can increase each other’s sense of safety responsibility, and this collective sense of responsibility helps them to respond more effectively in emergency situations. In addition, their study shows that the social dynamics of knowledge sharing can be significantly facilitated by interventions that increase employees’ sense of efficacy, enhance team identity, and highlight individual responsibility, thereby enhancing workers’ sense of safety awareness and safety responsibility to a greater extent. Therefore, knowledge sharing among sports stadium construction workers enhances their safety focus and this enhancement further promotes their ability to handle emergencies in an emergency, based on which the following hypothesis is formulated:

H2: 

Knowledge sharing mediates the role of safety attitudes of sports stadium construction workers in their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Yang [35] et al. (2008) conducted an in-depth study on knowledge sharing in organizations, emphasizing its key role in enhancing employees’ safety awareness and improving the overall emergency response capability of the organization. The study pointed out that knowledge sharing can enhance employees’ safety awareness by facilitating the flow of information and experience, enabling them to better understand safety procedures and identify potential risks. Among sports stadium construction workers, knowledge sharing helps to translate safety knowledge into action and improves workers’ responsiveness and ability to cope with emergencies. Specifically, knowledge sharing among construction workers enhances their safety awareness and, through this enhanced safety awareness, plays a key mediating role in emergency response capabilities. Therefore, knowledge sharing is not only a tool for information transfer, but also an important bridge between safety awareness and emergency response capability. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2a: 

Knowledge sharing mediates the role of safety awareness among sports stadium construction workers in their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Wang [18] et al. (2010) conducted a systematic review of the literature on knowledge sharing, emphasizing the importance of knowledge sharing in organizations, especially its critical role between safety behavior and emergency response capabilities. Research has shown that knowledge sharing is a central mechanism for facilitating communication and learning among employees, and that through knowledge sharing, employees are able to acquire the necessary safety knowledge and skills to improve their safety behavior. In the group of sports stadium construction workers in the sports stadium construction workers group, positive safety behavior depends on effective knowledge sharing, which not only improves their understanding of safety procedures, but also enhances their ability to cope in emergency situations. Thus, knowledge sharing plays a crucial role as a mediator in the process by which safety behavior influences safety emergency response capabilities. The overall safety emergency handling ability of sports stadium construction workers can be effectively enhanced by strengthening knowledge sharing. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2b: 

Knowledge sharing mediates the role of safety behavior of sports stadium construction workers in their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Lin [36] (2008) studied the model of knowledge sharing and discussed the effects of organizational structure, organizational culture, and inter-unit interaction on knowledge sharing. The study shows that organizational culture plays a key role in the process of knowledge sharing; especially in a creative and supportive organizational culture, knowledge sharing is more effective. The establishment of safety culture among sports stadium construction workers relies on knowledge sharing within the organization, and the sharing of safety knowledge and best practices can effectively improve workers’ understanding and implementation of safety procedures, and thus enhance their ability to handle emergency situations. Knowledge sharing plays an important mediating role between safety culture and safety emergency response capability, which strengthens the influence of safety culture on workers’ emergency response capability. Therefore, the promotion of knowledge sharing among sports stadium construction workers is the key to enhancing the effect of safety culture and emergency handling ability. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2c: 

Knowledge sharing mediates the role of safety culture among sports stadium construction workers in their ability to handle safety emergencies.

Xie [37] et al. (2024) investigated the role of knowledge sharing and showed the importance of social media in the knowledge sharing process. Knowledge sharing through social media can significantly improve learners’ knowledge acquisition and application, and this finding has important implications for the development of a sense of safety responsibility among sports stadium construction workers. Among construction workers, knowledge sharing not only helps them better understand and assume safety responsibility, but also enhances their ability to handle emergencies. By sharing experiences and exchanging ideas, workers can have a deeper understanding of safety regulations, and thus fulfill safety responsibility more effectively in actual operations. Therefore, knowledge sharing serves as an intermediary mechanism between sports stadium construction workers’ sense of safety responsibility and their emergency response ability in emergency situations. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed (The model diagram is shown in Figure 1):

H2d: 

Knowledge sharing mediates the role of safety responsibility of sports stadium construction workers in their ability to handle safety emergencies.

3. Method

3.1. Sample Selection

The data for this study were obtained from the questionnaire on safety preparedness and emergency response for sports stadium construction workers conducted by the Urban Underclassman Research Group of the Wuhan Sports University, China, in Xi’an from March to May 2024, as Xi’an is the most representative city of sports economy and culture in the northwestern region of China [38]. The survey was conducted using quota sampling, and six districts in Xi’an with a relatively high population density were selected to conduct the survey, including Xincheng, Beilin, Lianhu, Baqiao, Weiyang, and Yanta. The population of this paper is the construction workers who are involved in sports stadium construction workers in Xi’an City. For the group, aged between 18 and 73 years old, we obtained 524 questionnaires, eliminated 65 invalid questionnaires, and finally obtained a valid sample of 459 sports stadium construction workers, with a sample validity rate of 87.60%. The ratio of sample size to the number of questionnaire items is greater than the recommended minimum sample size of 10:1, so this paper obtains a valid sample for the next statistical analysis.

The demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the sample are shown in

Table 1. Basic characteristics of the survey sample.

Variant	Categorization	Frequency (N)	Percentage (%)
Sex	Male	422	91.9
	Female	37	8.1
Education attainment	Junior high school and below	375	81.7
	Junior high school and above	84	18.3
Incomes	RMB 7000 and below	164	35.7
	above 7000 RMB	295	64.3
Range of mobility	Within the province	299	65.1
	Outside the province	160	34.9
Self-assessed health	First-rate	328	71.5
	Mediocre	131	28.5

, in which construction workers are mainly mobile within the province, predominantly male, with a monthly income of more than RMB 7000, and with a relatively low level of education, but self-assessment of their health shows that most of the workers consider themselves to have a good health performance.

After obtaining a sufficient number of valuable sample data, this paper will first test the reliability and validity of the sample data; after meeting the needs of reliability and validity of the EFA and CFA to carry out more validity tests, when the validity is appropriate, the SEM method will be used to carry out the path analysis of the model and the mediator test, in order to verify that the pre-assumptions are valid.

3.2. Measurement of Variables

The core independent variable of this paper is the safety attitude of sports stadium construction workers; based on the connotation of safety attitude, this paper subdivided the safety attitude into four dimensions to be measured separately, and the measurement of safety awareness was borrowed from the measurement of Nordlöf [39] et al. In this paper, safety attitude is measured in four dimensions, and the measurement of safety awareness is based on the work of Nordlöf et al. The study also focuses on management commitment, employee engagement, risk acceptance, and safety pressures. The measurement of safety behavior was borrowed from the pre-scales of Griffin [40] et al. and Neal [41] et al. The measurement of safety culture was borrowed from the research measurements of Cox [42] et al. and Guldenmund [43]; the measurement of safety responsibility was borrowed from Zohar’s research scale.

The core dependent variable of this paper is the safety emergency response capability of sports stadium construction workers, which mainly focuses on the preparation, response capability and confidence of workers in emergency situations, and its measurement in this paper is based on the previous studies by Flin [44] et al. and Schoenherr [45] et al. The text evolves the scale according to the characteristics of the research subjects and simplifies and streamlines some of the questions to form the 5-item scale of this paper. Measures of the mediator variable of knowledge sharing are drawn upon, such as “I am willing to share useful safety knowledge I have learned with my fellow workers”. Specific items are shown in

Table A1. Questionnaire.

Variant	Subject	Score
Safety awareness	I can recognize potential hazards on construction sites.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I’m aware of construction site safety protocols and regulations.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I will pay attention to changes in the work process that may affect safety.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I understand the safety measures that need to be taken in an emergency.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
Safety behavior	Even when unsupervised, I follow strict safety procedures.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I will voluntarily wear all required personal protective equipment (e.g., helmet, seat belt, etc.).	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I will take immediate action when potential safety hazards are identified.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I will proactively participate in construction site safety training and drills.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I will carefully identify the risks in the construction site.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
Safety culture	Safety is always prioritized in my work team.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I’m surrounded by workers and leaders who take safety seriously.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	The company’s leadership and workers play an active role in ensuring site safety in collaboration with each other.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	My colleagues and I will report any situation that may affect safety and take the necessary steps to address it.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
Safety responsibility	On the construction site of the stadium building, I felt that everyone was responsible for safety.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I feel it’s my duty to report any safety hazards.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I am willing to provide suggestions to improve site safety measures.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	Even if it’s inconvenient, I take safety measures to ensure job security.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
Knowledge sharing	I am willing to share useful safety knowledge I have learned with my fellow workers	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I am willing to share my safety experience with my coworkers.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I find that I learn more useful knowledge from my coworkers by discussing them with each other.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	To increase my experience, I am willing to discuss work considerations with my coworkers.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I think it would be good for coworkers to talk to each other about safety issues.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
Safety emergency response capability	I am aware of the procedures and steps to be taken in case of an emergency.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I know who to report to and how to get help when an emergency occurs.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I am very familiar with the location and use of emergency equipment on site	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	I am more confident in my ability to react correctly in an emergency.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree
	In the event of an emergency, I will actively cooperate with my coworkers.	1. strongly disagree 2. somewhat disagree 3. generally 4. somewhat agree 5. strongly agree

in the Appendix A.

The scales in this paper are all based on the Likert 5-point scale, with scores ranging from 1 to 5, from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. In this paper, the variables are measured in the form of scales, so testing the data quality of the measurement results is an important prerequisite to ensure the significance of the subsequent analysis, and this paper then analyzes the internal consistency of the dimensions through the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient reliability test. As can be seen from

Table 2. Confidence analysis table.

Variant	Number of Items	CITC	Cronbach’s Alpha
SA	4	0.714	0.864
SB	5	0.729	0.887
SC	4	0.659	0.83
SR	4	0.701	0.856
KS	5	0.738	0.892
SERC	5	0.758	0.903

Note: SA: safety attitude; SB: safety behavior; SC: safety culture; SR: safety responsibility; KS: knowledge sharing; SERC: safety emergency response SERC: safety emergency response capability; the same below.

, the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of each variable is greater than the standard of 0.7, indicating that the variables have good internal consistency reliability; CITC is the corrected item–total correlation, which is used to indicate the correlation situation between multiple question items corresponding to a dimension, and the results show that CITC is greater than the standard of 0.5, indicating that the measurement items meet the requirements of the study.

4. Results

4.1. Exploratory Factor Analysis Results

KMO and Bartlett’s sphericity tests were performed on the scale by exploratory factor analysis using SPSS 23.0, and the results are shown in

Table 3. KMO and Bartlett’s test.

Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy	0.931
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity	Approx. Chi-Square	7280.050
	df	351
	Sig.	0.000

. The KMO was 0.931, which was greater than 0.7, satisfying the prerequisite requirements for factor analysis, implying that the data could be used for factor analysis research. The data passed Bartlett’s sphericity test (p < 0.05), which means that the research data are suitable for factor analysis. Therefore, further analysis was carried out, and the principal component analysis method was used for factor extraction, and the common factor was extracted with an eigen root greater than 1 as the factor, and the factor analysis was carried out by using variance-maximizing orthogonal rotation for factor rotation. As a result, a total of five factors were obtained, and the total explanatory power reached 70.617% more than 50%, indicating that the five factors screened were well represented. From the results of variance loading, the factor loadings of each measurement item are all greater than 0.5, the cross-loadings are all less than 0.4, each item falls into the corresponding factor, and the items corresponding to the common factors are consistent with the preset variables of the questionnaire, which indicates that the questionnaire design is more reasonable, and the validity is good (

Table 4. Rotated component matrix.

	Component
	1	2	3	4	5	6
SB1	0.827	0.107	0.113	0.134	0.107	0.077
SB4	0.816	0.172	0.047	0.048	0.111	0.045
SB2	0.800	0.114	0.130	0.133	0.120	0.117
SB5	0.754	0.110	0.204	0.177	0.100	0.129
SB3	0.742	0.163	0.202	0.138	0.036	0.108
SERC3	0.132	0.803	0.139	0.027	0.199	0.081
SERC5	0.152	0.797	0.232	0.108	0.219	0.110
SERC4	0.192	0.771	0.215	0.089	0.150	0.131
SERC2	0.146	0.746	0.264	0.202	0.104	0.072
SERC1	0.153	0.707	0.197	0.279	0.213	0.196
KS1	0.192	0.255	0.814	0.128	0.150	0.180
KS3	0.093	0.191	0.789	0.054	0.177	0.222
KS2	0.205	0.270	0.726	0.126	0.146	0.185
KS4	0.107	0.189	0.701	0.150	0.182	0.204
KS5	0.186	0.148	0.700	0.088	0.117	0.148
SA1	0.150	0.171	0.105	0.839	0.099	0.139
SA2	0.185	0.160	0.077	0.805	0.129	0.100
SA3	0.082	0.027	0.139	0.765	0.128	0.082
SA4	0.163	0.160	0.098	0.761	0.174	0.140
SR2	0.112	0.163	0.179	0.128	0.790	0.121
SR4	0.151	0.139	0.094	0.103	0.786	0.126
SR1	0.092	0.197	0.191	0.150	0.760	0.157
SR3	0.095	0.262	0.202	0.197	0.734	0.031
SC1	0.127	0.061	0.219	0.076	0.118	0.797
SC2	0.175	0.168	0.175	0.075	0.086	0.783
SC4	0.043	0.058	0.236	0.167	0.103	0.746
SC3	0.081	0.150	0.115	0.131	0.101	0.721

Note: SA: safety awareness; SB: safety behavior; SC: safety culture; SR: safety responsibility; KS: knowledge sharing; SERC: safety emergency response capability; the same below.

).

4.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results

The variables in this paper have six dimensions and contain 27 measurement topics; after performing validated factor analysis using amos23.0, each fitting index meets the general research standard, so it can be considered that this model is a good fit. The above is only a judgment of the overall fit of the model, but for the specific research path assumptions within the model and the data fit for further validation, the coefficients between the potential variables and the observed variables obtained through the validation factor analysis are shown in

Table 5. CFA result.

Variant	Subject	Factor Load	CR	AVE
Safety awareness	SA1	0.87	0.867	0.622
	SA2	0.804
	SA3	0.68
	SA4	0.789
Safety behavior	SB1	0.823	0.889	0.617
	SB2	0.804
	SB3	0.747
	SB4	0.773
	SB5	0.778
Safety culture	SC1	0.799	0.832	0.555
	SC2	0.797
	SC3	0.651
	SC4	0.724
Safety responsibility	SR1	0.792	0.857	0.6
	SR2	0.792
	SR3	0.779
	SR4	0.734
Knowledge sharing	KS1	0.914	0.896	0.636
	KS2	0.807
	KS3	0.822
	KS4	0.74
	KS5	0.684
Safety emergency response capability	SERC1	0.802	0.903	0.651
	SERC2	0.787
	SERC3	0.775
	SERC4	0.81
	SERC5	0.858

. The standardized factor loadings of each measure for each variable are all greater than 0.6 or more, the component reliabilities (CRs) are all greater than 0.7, and the average variance extracted (AVE) is greater than 0.5, indicating that each variable has good convergent validity.

4.3. Distinguishing Validity and Correlation Analysis

In this paper, the more rigorous AVE method was used to assess the discriminant validity, and the AVE open root sign of each factor had to be greater than the correlation coefficient of each paired variable, indicating that the factors had discriminant validity. The AVE open root sign of each factor is greater than the standardized correlation coefficients off the diagonal, so this paper also has good discriminant validity, as shown in

Table 6. Distinctive validity and correlation analysis.

	SA	SB	SC	SR	KS	SERC
SA	0.789
SB	0.382 **	0.785
SC	0.348 **	0.327 **	0.745
SR	0.406 **	0.342 **	0.354 **	0.775
KS	0.365 **	0.431 **	0.513 **	0.480 **	0.797
SERC	0.405 **	0.424 **	0.379 **	0.516 **	0.571 **	0.807

Note: ** p < 0.05.

(the diagonal downward triangles are the correlation coefficients).

4.4. Structural Equation Modeling

The constructed model path coefficients were fitted by Amos 23.0 software, and among the fitted indexes, CMIN/DF = 1.404, which is less than the standard below 3, GFI = 0.937, AGFI = 0.922, NFI = 0.942, TLI = 0.980, IFI = 0.982 and CFI = 0.982, which all reach the standard of 0.9 or more. In addition, RMR = 0.046 < 0.08 and RMSEA = 0.030 < 0.08 From the results, all the fitted indexes are in line with the judgment standard value, so the model has a good fit with the study and can be further analyzed to influence the path coefficients, and the results of the path analysis are shown in Figure 2. To verify the intermediary hypothesis, this paper adopts the method of bootstrapping to verify the intermediary effect. If the bootstrap confidence interval does not contain 0, then the corresponding intermediary effect exists.

Using the bootstrap method in Amos 23.0 run 5000 times, the level values of bias-corrected and percentile at 95% confidence levels were obtained to test the mediating effect of this paper and combined with the results of structural equation modeling. The results of variable analysis in this paper are shown in

Table 7. Latent variable relationships.

Variable Relationship	Direct Effect	Indirect Effect	Aggregate Effect	Type of Intermediation
SA-KS	0.036		0.036
SB-KS	0.209 ***		0.209 ***
SC-KS	0.359 ***		0.359 ***
SR-KS	0.288 ***		0.288 ***
SA-KS-SERC	0.128 *	0.013	0.141 *	Non-existent
SB-KS-SERC	0.126 *	0.076 ***	0.201 **	Partial mediation effect
SC-KS-SERC	0.008	0.13 ***	0.138 *	Full mediation effect
SR-KS-SERC	0.285 ***	0.105 ***	0.389 **	Partial mediation effect

Note: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.

.

The model results indicate that safety awareness, safety behavior, and safety responsibility, except safety culture, can positively and significantly influence safety emergency response capability, which validates the overall hypothesis of H1 that H1a, H1b, and H1d are valid, while H1c is not. However, it is worth noting that the coefficient of safety responsibility on safety emergency response capability is greater than other variables, and responsibility is a more powerful influence. For the second set of hypotheses, as shown in Table 6, H2, H2b, H2c, and H2d are valid, while H2a is not valid. Knowledge sharing plays a fully mediating role in safety culture and safety emergency response capability, and a partially mediating role in the other role processes, but the direct effects are all stronger than the mediating effects. In addition, it is worth emphasizing that the total effect value of safety responsibility on safety emergency response capability reached 0.389, which shows that in addition to safety awareness and safety behavior, which we are more familiar with, safety responsibility plays an important role in the safety development of construction workers.

5. Discussion

5.1. The Effect of Safety Attitudes of Sports Stadium Construction Workers on Their Ability to Handle Safety Emergencies

This paper found that although the safety attitude of sports stadium construction workers has a positive effect on their safety emergency response capability, this effect is not directly through safety culture but indirectly through knowledge sharing as a mediating variable. This result is somewhat different from existing studies, for example, Choudhry [32] et al. (2007) showed that safety culture in the construction industry can significantly affect employees’ health and safety behavior and directly enhance emergency response capabilities. Amirah [46] et al. (2024) also emphasized the important role of safety culture. However, this study found that although safety culture cannot directly affect the safety emergency response capability of construction workers, it can indirectly enhance emergency response capability by promoting knowledge sharing. This finding suggests that although the enhancement of safety culture helps to establish a positive safety climate, its impact is more skewed towards improving the exchange of safety information and sharing of experience amongst sports stadium construction workers rather than directly improving emergency response skills. In addition, a study by Trapp [29] et al. (2018) found that safety awareness can directly improve employees’ emergency response skills. Gu [47] et al. (2018) also emphasized safety awareness as a core element of emergency response management and emergency coordination in their study. And the results of this paper again demonstrate that safety awareness can directly influence sports stadium construction workers’ knowledge sharing, which in turn affects emergency response capacity.

Overall, this study classified safety attitudes into four sub-dimensions: safety awareness, safety behavior, safety culture, and safety responsibility. The four dimensions of safety attitudes showed different effects on emergency response capabilities. First, safety awareness is the construction workers’ ability to perceive potential dangers and cognitive level, and although it has a certain effect on individual emergency response behavior, because safety awareness cannot directly stimulate knowledge sharing behavior amongst sports stadium construction workers, its effect on safety emergency response ability is more limited compared to the other dimensions: sports stadium construction workers may have a high level of safety awareness, but safety awareness does not stimulate workers’ willingness to communicate and share safety experiences with other colleagues. However, safety awareness does not stimulate workers’ willingness to communicate and share safety experiences with other coworkers, resulting in insufficient improvement of safety emergency response capability.

Second, safety behavior is directly reflected in the actual operating habits and reaction speed of workers at work. Positive safety behavior enables workers to carry out correct emergency responses faster and significantly improve emergency handling ability. This is because positive safety behavior is not only closely related to personal attitudes, but also directly affects their performance in emergency situations. Thirdly, safety culture emphasizes the safety climate and the degree of rule-following among workers in the work environment; however, as mentioned earlier, safety culture does not directly affect safety emergency response capability, but rather works by enhancing knowledge exchange among workers. The reason for this may be that a good safety culture encourages workers to be more willing to share their experiences and safety information, which improves their collective ability to cope with emergencies. The reason why safety culture cannot directly affect safety emergency response capability can be explained to some extent by the safety culture climate evolved from the safety culture mentioned above: because the work climate as an intangible force involves multiple psychological responses and more high-level dimensional triggers, the enhancement of safety emergency response capability of construction workers needs to be combined with other elements based on the climate [40]. Finally, safety responsibility reflects workers’ sense of responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others, and clear safety responsibility can motivate workers to make the right decisions in emergencies, thus improving their emergency response capabilities. This dimension of safety attitude is closely related to actual emergency behavior because sports stadium construction workers with a stronger sense of safety responsibility are more likely to take the initiative to take responsibility and ensure safety in emergency situations. Therefore, in future practical safety management, more attention should be paid to how to establish an effective knowledge and experience sharing mechanism among workers to further strengthen the indirect role of knowledge sharing.

5.2. Knowledge Sharing Mediates the Role of Safety Attitudes of Sports Stadium Construction Workers in Their Ability to Deal with Safety Emergencies

Stadium construction workers’ safety attitudes have a positive impact on their emergency response capabilities [48,49]; this paper subdivided safety attitudes into four different connotative dimensions, analyzed the influence paths of different dimensions in depth, and explored the companion role of knowledge sharing and different dimensions. The results of this paper indicate that safety culture fails to influence construction workers’ safety incident handling skills significantly and directly, but rather indirectly through the mediating factor of knowledge sharing. This finding echoes that of Cabrera [34] et al. (2002), who emphasized the critical role of knowledge sharing in improving safety attitudes and safety incident handling skills. Although knowledge sharing is widely recognized as an important mechanism for promoting safety behavior, the present study is unique in that it highlights the failure of safety culture to directly enhance safety incident management skills and the lack of influence of safety awareness on knowledge sharing. The study is unique, however, in emphasizing the failure of safety culture itself to directly enhance safety emergency response capability and the insufficient influence of safety awareness on knowledge sharing. Compared with Yang [35] et al.’s (2008) study, which concluded that knowledge sharing can enhance employees’ safety awareness and thus emergency response capability, the findings of this study indicate that safety awareness plays a weaker role among sports stadium construction workers and fails to directly promote emergency response capability. However, the findings of this study point out that safety awareness plays a weaker role in sports stadium construction workers and fails to contribute directly to knowledge sharing.

Further, the results of this paper also contrast with the arguments of Wang [18] et al. (2010), who argued that knowledge sharing is critical to the relationship between safety awareness and behavior and emergency treatment skills. This paper, on the other hand, finds that safety awareness, although important, does not necessarily directly improve knowledge sharing. Therefore, while the existing literature emphasizes the positive effects of knowledge sharing, this paper reveals that there is a deep and ‘subtle’ relationship between safety awareness and safety culture in influencing knowledge sharing and safety emergency response capability among sports stadium construction workers. While safety culture can create an environment that supports safety response, its influence is often limited by knowledge sharing practices within the organization. In the sports stadium construction industry, in the absence of effective knowledge sharing mechanisms, safety culture may not be adequately translated into specific emergency response capabilities. Safety awareness, although fundamental to the enhancement of safety emergency response capability, was found to be a key factor in this paper’s findings. Although safety awareness is the basis for improving safety emergency response capability, the results of this paper show that its effect on knowledge sharing is not significant, and workers may not be able to transform their personal safety awareness into shared knowledge to play a greater role due to the lack of effective communication platforms or an atmosphere of mutual trust. As shown in the study by Li [50] et al. (2019), only 52% of construction workers reported that they had used social media platforms to share construction safety knowledge and awareness. Realistically, another reason may be age. Construction workers are generally older and more physically active, and less educated, so social media is less popular among construction workers, which also reduces the efficiency of safety information and experience transfer.

Safety behavior, as a specific expression of safety attitude, is directly related to knowledge sharing. Safety behavior, as a specific manifestation of safety attitude, is directly related to knowledge sharing. The positive safety behavior of workers can improve the emergency response ability of the construction team through experience sharing, which also means that the effect of knowledge sharing will be limited if the individual behavior of workers cannot be effectively recognized and fed back. Safety responsibility is also closely related to knowledge sharing, so construction workers can enhance each other’s awareness of safety responsibility in the process of sharing safety experience, which further strengthens the safety emergency response capability.

6. Conclusions and Shortcomings

Sports stadium construction workers often work in high altitude, narrow spaces or complex mechanical operation environments and the potential danger of these workplaces is very high. Therefore, the improvement of construction workers’ safety and emergency handling ability is of great importance to reduce casualties, improve work efficiency, and reduce economic losses. Based on this, this paper explores the connection between variables and puts forward hypotheses based on the research data, and analyzes the data using the SEM method. It was found that the four dimensions of safety attitudes, safety awareness, safety behavior, and safety responsibility can directly affect safety emergency response capability; knowledge sharing has a significant influence on safety emergency response capability; and knowledge sharing has a significant influence on safety emergency response capability. Knowledge sharing plays a mediating role in the influence of safety behavior, safety culture and safety responsibility on safety emergency response capability. However, safety culture could not directly or significantly influence the dependent variable, and the mediating effect of knowledge sharing between safety awareness and safety emergency response capability did not hold.

The Work Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China issued by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in September 2021 clearly emphasizes that production and operation units are required by law to educate and train employees in work safety, ensure that employees have the necessary knowledge of work safety, are familiar with the relevant rules and regulations on work safety and safe operation procedures, master the safe operation skills of their positions, and understand the emergency response to accidents. They should know the safety operation skills of their posts, the emergency measures for handling accidents, and their rights and obligations regarding work safety. Therefore, the study of safety attitude and emergency response ability of stadium workers can help to improve their safety psychology and emergency response ability, which is of great practical significance to guarantee the safety of workers, ensure the safety of stadium facilities, and enhance the safety experience of spectators. For theoretical significance, this paper enriches the research on the relationship between safety attitudes and safety emergency response capabilities of sports stadium construction workers. While traditional emergency management research has mostly focused on the overall safety framework, this study focuses on a specific group of people and reveals the correlation between their safety attitudes and emergency response capabilities, providing a unique perspective on the field. In addition, this study provides insights into the mediating role of knowledge sharing between safety attitudes and safety emergency response capabilities, enriching the existing theoretical framework on knowledge management and emergency response. This provides new theoretical paths and directions for future research. The practical significance of this paper is reflected in the provision of effective suggestions for enhancing the safety management practices of sports stadium construction workers. First, companies and managers should emphasize the development of employees’ safety awareness and attitude and improve workers’ emergency response capabilities through safety training and incentives. Second, managers should encourage the sharing of safety experiences and lessons learned among workers to enhance the collective emergency response capability. In practice, enterprises can draw on this finding to optimize their internal safety management systems, comprehensively improve the emergency response level of construction workers in emergency situations and reduce the occurrence of accidents and tragedies.

This paper also has certain limitations and unexplored issues. First, this paper aims to explore the influence of subjective safety attitudes of sports stadium construction workers on safety emergency response capability, and objective measured variables were not included in the study, so it is not possible to control the influence of objectively measured safety-related variables on safety emergency response capability, nor is it possible to explore the contribution of the objective building construction environment to safety emergency response capability. Second, the research data are cross-sectional data, and the variables measured by the self-assessment score scale may have certain bias, which cannot further prove the causal relationship between the core independent variables and the dependent variables and should be combined with long-term tracking and in-depth investigation to analyze the relationship and mechanism of its impact in the future research. Third, although the key characteristics of the samples in this study are relatively consistent with the census data, it is still impossible to avoid the bias brought by non-random sampling, so we should look for suitable databases and combine them with the census data in future research.