Purpose The concepts of sustainability should be implemented in every step of the decision-making process without jeopardizing system functions or performance in steel sector. The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate critical success factors (CSFs) of implementing value management (VM) in steel sector. Design/methodology/approach A literature review was done first to identify VM CSFs, followed by questionnaire survey for data collection – 81 professionals from Australian steel industry responded and then descriptive statistics was performed on the data. The CSFs model was developed through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings The research findings have shown that workshop dynamics has the highest outer loading value (β = 0.478, p = 0.000) followed by standardisation (β = 0.357, p = 0.000), stakeholder and knowledge (β = 0.326, p = 0.000) and then culture and environment (β = 0.165, p = 0.035). Practical implications The research outcome presents several practical implications which can be used to enhance efficiency, cost-effectiveness and environmental friendliness, assist in better decision-making, resource allocation and sustainability, provide benchmarks for industry standards and best practices, and help to be more competitive in the steel industry. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to empirically investigate the success factors of critical value management in sustainable steel projects. Prior literature has focused on VM or sustainability, but not both together. In addition, the present research is one of the first to apply PLS-SEM in a management study and offers both practice and policy implications.
Ali et al. (Tue,) studied this question.