A System-of-Systems Framework of Data Analytics to Support Strategic Decision-Making in the Construction Industry

The construction industry is complex and dynamic by nature. Such dynamic nature of the industry requires construction companies to continuously monitor and track a variety of external factors, ranging from economic data to safety-related measures, in order to respond timely to the changing business climate and thus make effective strategic decisions. However, there is a lack of approach to streamline the abundant amount of information derived from multiple factors and to interpret the changing nature for informed policy- and decision-making in the construction industry. To address this gap, this study proposes a system-of-systems (SoS) framework to model the complex construction industry as a hierarchical system and to analyze the evolutionary and emergent phenomena, which significantly contribute to the changing and uncertain nature of the industry. The SoS framework employs a composite index as the means to broadly utilize the information derived from multiple factors and communicate the observed changes to decision-makers. To maximize the benefit of the proposed framework, this study also creates a mock dashboard to guide the use of the index for companies' strategic decision-making.