Economic effects of migrant labor on industrialized building system (IBS) adoption in the Malaysian construction industry

The Malaysian government has been encouraging industrialized building system (IBS) adoption as a modern method of construction to improve the precision of material and workmanship. However, the migration of foreign labor to Malaysia from its neighboring countries that offer comparatively lower income has affected IBS adoption in construction projects. In this study, economic perspectives were explored in conjunction with migrant labor, as this is vital to evaluate their influences on IBS adoption. Interview surveys were conducted to gather inputs on the real scenario of IBS implementation in the Malaysian construction industry, with the utilization of a qualitative narrative analysis technique. QSR NVivo Version 12.0 software was used to aid the organization and analysis of the data from the taped and transcribed interviews. Qualitative results show that the most significant economic factor related to migrant labor that influenced IBS adoption is labor cost, followed by project price, labor availability and project competition. These factors can be considered in the development of manpower guidelines which then can be used to assist the construction stakeholders in the decision-making of IBS adoption in construction projects.