*1.2. Background*

A strategy is a set of consistently made business decisions [19]. Business strategies aligned with sustainability reflect the nature and extension of sustainable development opportunities regarding value creation for companies [20]. Sustainable business development considers sustainable practices as the cornerstone of the company's survival; thus, the implementation of sustainable actions within the firm's business strategy can become a source of competitive advantage [21]. A company's competitiveness reflects its long-term relationships both within the industry and with its competitors. A competitive business is constantly informed about the conditions required to add value through a strategy that enables the fulfillment of organizational goals through social responsibility [20]. Thus, corporate social responsibility (CSR) defines companies that integrate social and environmental concerns in both their business operations and their interactions with stakeholders [22]. The construction industry has also incorporated sustainability in its corporate strategies through sustainable construction that targets the responsible and healthy creation and managemen<sup>t</sup> of the built environment [23]. Sustainable construction is an integral process that seeks to maintain harmony between nature and the built environment by creating human settlements [4]. Its purpose is to achieve a balance among the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability [24].

To standardize the concepts discussed in this paper, the authors propose the following definitions:


#### *1.3. Sustainable Construction Strategies*

As corporate sustainability-based decisions are made at the strategic level, the scientific interest has also increased regarding the strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> issue in relation to the integration of corporate sustainability into a company's strategy, vision and culture [25,26]. The same tendency is observed for sustainable construction strategies. There is increasing scientific and academic interest in studying the strategies implemented by construction firms. Although there have been few studies about this issue, Table 1 summarizes the most important ones, grouping them by topic and dimensions. Table 1 shows that sustainable strategies have been mostly studied on the project dimension, and there are no studies

on the marketing dimension, although a wide range of sustainable strategies can be implemented in all dimensions of the sustainable business model.

Moreover, Table 1 shows that the construction industry employs partially sustainable strategies; thus, strategies in other industries that can also be applied to construction companies are not considered. For instance, Table 1 shows that several authors have studied the incorporation of sustainable materials in construction projects but, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no studies regarding a sustainable supply chain and sustainable business models in the construction sector, an issue that has been studied in other industries by many several authors such as Lloret [20], Reefke and Sundaram [27], Sarkis et al. [28], Seuring and Müller [29], Walton et al. [30], Al-Saleh and Taleb [31] and Richardson [32].


**Table 1.** Progression of knowledge in the sustainable construction strategies.

shows that research has been carried out.

A set of strategies—namely, market, organization, project, and process strategies—can be grouped into dimensions that represent the large corporate bodies, thus facilitating their study and understanding. It is key to establish which of these dimensions can add value to the sustainable business model by creating capacities (processes), developing skills (project), providing timely response (market) and establishing the business model (organization). Numerous authors agree on the importance of studying these four dimensions of sustainable business. Baumgartner and Ebner [17] attribute importance to market research. Porter and Kramer [56] note that markets define organizations. Robichaud and Anantatmula [6] consider the study of sustainable projects, and [57] analyze the knowledge of processes aimed at companies' sustainable and competitive development. The four dimensions are briefly described below.


4. Processes: Construction companies should continuously improve their operational processes to differentiate their products or services and achieve sustainable development and competitiveness in the long term [57]. Some examples of the construction process are services, acquisitions, supply chains, and financial aspects (see details in Table 1).

#### *1.4. Adaptation of the Model of Increasing Competitive Advantage*

The dimensions of market, organization, project and processes should contain a set of strategies that contribute to generate the construction company's competitive advantages and better environmental performance. The phases of strategic business development that increase competitive advantage through the dimensions of market, organization, project and processes can be seen in Figure 1. This figure, based on the model proposed by Fergusson and Langford [62], illustrates the relationship among environmental management, business strategy and competitive advantage. The left side of Figure 1 shows four dimensions to achieve leadership in the construction industry through business differentiation, trade opportunities, client requirements and compliance with legislation. In the lower x-axis, the model shows that the development of environmental strategies will allow growth and performance improvement, whereas the curve represents the opportunity to increase competitive advantage. The right side of Figure 1 displays the homologation of the dimensions studied in this paper: market, organization, project and processes. The dimensions of this model are consistent with those proposed in this research, emphasizing the environmental, social and economic sustainability for a better understanding of the relationship between sustainable strategy development and competitive advantages. Therefore, strategies have been replaced with the aim of evolving toward corporate sustainability to achieve not only the construction industry's leadership but also advancement toward medium- and long-term corporate sustainability models. For this reason, it is important to identify and understand strategies that contribute to create competitive advantages and developing a sustainable business model.

**Figure 1.** Increasing competitive advantage. Adaptation of the relationship among environmental strategy development, performance improvement and competitive advantage (Adapted from [62]).

#### **2. Methodology and Data**

Construction companies needs to develop sustainable competitive strategies to respond to new regulations and increasing social and environmental demands, thus they remain in the market. This research is based on the data from Chilean construction companies, which is motivated by the need of exploring the main business strategies that affect their corporate sustainability. This research was exploratory, descriptive and correlational. This research is exploratory because of no evidence about the issues investigated in the local construction industry has been found; descriptive because the behavior of variables is analyzed; and correlational due to the validity and confidence of the measurement instrument. The design of this investigation is based on a quantitative, transversal and non-experimental approach. Its quantitative character corresponds to the empirical measurement of the variables under consideration, thus allowing the use of statistics as a tool for analysis. Furthermore, this quantitative study aims to standardize the results obtained in the sample for the population of construction industries. The transversal aspect is justified because it is a one-time measurement, and the non-experimental condition is attributable to the lack of deliberate manipulation of independent variables.

This research considers the following specific objectives: (1) establishing the state-of-the-art about the implementation of sustainable business strategies in the construction industry; (2) collecting data from Chilean construction companies; (3) estimating the validity and reliability of the collection data instrument and its content validity; (4) determining the relative importance among dimensions; (5) evaluating the impact of companies' socio-demographic data on sustainable business strategies (sub-dimensions); (6) categorizing which sustainable business strategies (sub-dimensions) are more implemented by Chilean construction industry; (7) identifying the main associations among sustainable business strategies (sub-dimensions); and (8) determining the attitudes of Chilean construction firms toward sustainability.

Figure 2 shows the research methodology to accomplish the specific objectives. The methodology consists in three main stages (state-of-the-art review, data collection and data analysis) divided in three main activities: literature review, survey design and application, and statistical tests and analysis, which are explained below.

**Figure 2.** Schematic diagram of the research methodology.
