An Exploratory Study of Relationships between National Culture and Infrastructure Sustainability

摘要

In the field of studying factors that influence infrastructure sustainability (IS), it seems that cultural influences are scarcely mentioned compared with social, economic and environmental influences. So we aim to explore relationships between cultures and IS in this study by analyzing how national culture influences in frastructures' owner attitudes and behaviors when an infrastructure project is implemented. A case study method is adopted including four projects in China, United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka. Data is collected through interviews. Differences on aspects of IS of the four projects are found and discussed on the basis of Hofstede's theory. It was found that among the five dimensions in Hofstede's theory, IDV, UAI and LTO help explain most of the difference. In the end, a framework is formed to reveal the relationship between culture and IS. Gaining information on the relationships is of great importance to help infrastructure owner change their mind to promote IS level.