Analysing stakeholder-associated risks in green buildings : a social network analysis method

In the research of risk associated with developing energy and water efficient green buildings, previous studies had mainly focused on "what the risks are and how the risks may impact on project objectives", which were from an inward looking self-perspective and treated the risks in isolation from one another. While intensive research efforts have been dedicated to risk identification, assessment, classification, prioritisation and mitigation, a research gap exists, that is previous studies had ignored the fact that most risks are interrelated and associated with internal or external project stakeholders. To remedy the gap, this current research developed and presented a SNA (Social Network Analysis) based stakeholder-associated risk analysis method to assess risks in green buildings and the interactions between the risks. A case study has been conducted to demonstrate and validate this method. This research contributes to the development of a new theory to model the interdependent and interactive relationships of risks by using SNA as a methodology. This research should broaden project managers' awareness of the influential risks in green building and enhance their ability to perceive, understand, assess, and mitigate the risks in an effective and efficient way, thereby achieving higher performance in strategic risk management and stakeholder communication in green building development.