GREEN BUILDING IMPLEMENTATION AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND THE MODERATING EFFECT OF REGULATORY COMPLIANCE IN URBAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
Keywords:
building energy intensity, emerging-economy construction, institutional pressure, moderated mediation, project capabilityAbstract
Urban construction in emerging economies has adopted green building practices at an accelerating
rate, yet certification counts have outpaced measurable reductions in building energy intensity. This
study asks why installed green capability so often fails to convert into operational energy
performance, and tests two candidate answers: an intra-project translation mechanism (sustainable
design integration) and an institutional contingency (regulatory compliance). Drawing on the
natural-resource-based view and institutional theory, a moderated mediation model was estimated
on survey data from 417 professionals responsible for completed commercial, residential, and
institutional construction projects in five Indonesian metropolitan areas, collected between August
2025 and January 2026. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (SmartPLS 4, 5,000
bootstrap subsamples) shows that green building implementation predicts sustainable design
integration strongly (beta = 0.634, p < 0.001), which in turn predicts energy efficiency performance
(beta = 0.472, p < 0.001). The indirect path accounts for 55.2 per cent of the total effect, indicating
complementary partial mediation. Regulatory compliance significantly moderates the
implementation-performance relationship (beta = 0.187, p < 0.01): the simple slope is non
significant under weak compliance (0.056) and steep under strong compliance (0.430). Compliance
does not, however, moderate the design-performance path (beta = 0.058, p = 0.217), suggesting
that design quality operates independently of regulatory pressure once it is embedded. The model
explains 56.4 per cent of variance in energy efficiency performance. Findings reposition
compliance as an enabling condition rather than a driver, and identify design-stage integration as
the highest-leverage and lowest-performing lever available to project organisations.
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