A Case Study on Micro Social Network Structure of Building Industrialization: Based on Structural Hole Theory

Abstract

The industrial chain of building industrialization (BI) has been forming in China during the latest three decades development, which gradually presents a trend of networking. However, the enterprises’ implementations of building industrialization are far from satisfactory. Both practitioners and managers hold the same confusions: Who is controlling effective information resources by occupying critical path in BI network? Who decides the flow direction of materials resources in the network? To solve these doubts, this paper makes an analysis of building industrialization micro social network based on the structural hole theory. A typical industrialized construction project in Shenzhen (China) was selected for the empirical study. Firstly, a questionnaire survey is conducted to collect authentic data and Ucinet is used to delve structural holes by four indicators named effective size, efficiency, constraint and hierarchy. Secondly, the roles and function of stakeholders would be re-explained by the theory of brokerage roles. The outcomes of social network analysis indicate that developer is the information hinge of this BI project due to its largest value of effective size as well as lowest constraint. From the perspective of resource control, contractor and component supplier also occupy critical structural holes and play important roles in building industrialization network. But to some extent, the network of BI in China is not optimized. Thus, enterprises should try to adopt some reasonable accretive measures according to the market condition and self-position.