How Do Perceived Regulations Influence Environmentally Sustainable Project Management? The Mediating Role of Commitment and Moderating Role of Triple Constraint

Abstract

The notion of achieving environmental sustainability through project management has gradually attracted the attention of scholars in recent years. This study explores the influence mechanism of a project manager’s perception of environmental regulations on their environmentally sustainable project management practice. Employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, this study firstly establishes a conceptual model of interviews with project managers, proposes hypotheses based on the conceptual model, and ultimately carries out hypothesis testing using the questionnaire data. The results show that (i) project managers’ perceptions of environmental regulations can directly promote their environmentally sustainable project management practice; (ii) project managers’ affective commitment to change plays a partial mediating role in the above relationship; and (iii) in the aforementioned mediation relationship, both cost and time constraints have a negative moderating effect. This study provides new evidence for institutional theory at the micro level and expands the theoretical research perspective in the field of project management. We suggest that construction companies incorporate environmental performance into the performance appraisal of project managers and strengthen green construction training for employees.

Keywords

• project management
• environmental regulations
• project managers
• affective commitment to change
• triple constraints
• sustainability