The effects of construction servitization on carbon emission: evidence from China

The construction industry is China’s core industry and the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. The paper aims to reveal the mechanism of servitization on carbon dioxide emissions in China’s construction industry. It proposes the bilateral influence effect of servitization, integrates the rebound effect and inhibition effect into a unified analysis framework, and summarizes the path of the impact of servitization on carbon dioxide emissions. The study aims to explore a cross-industry innovation approach in business philosophy and management methods for the sustainable development of the construction industry, not limited to building technology and green materials. The paper set two-tier stochastic frontier analysis model based on Kumbhakar and Christopher’s econometric model. It introduces service and carbon emission variables, including panel data for 30 provinces in China. It shows that the inhibitory effect of servitization is 18.13%, the rebound effect is 81.87%, and the actual carbon emission is higher than the frontier level of 27.15%, indicating that the inhibitory effect of servitization on the carbon emission reduction of China’s construction industry has not played a leading role. From 2010 to 2019, the overall net effect showed a decreasing trend, indicating that the rebound effect of servitization is continuously weakening, and the inhibitory effect is continuously strengthening.