Investigating and Smoothing the Obstacles in the Efficient Operation of China's Prefabricated Building Supply Chain: From the Lens of Transaction Cost Theory

In China, the prefabricated building (PB) supply chain has developed rapidly and made outstanding contributions to expanding the market scale. Meanwhile, there are many obstacles to supply chain development due to a series of complex factors, which bring about high transaction costs (TCs). However, few scholars have focused on governance behaviors that have an essential impact on TCs. This study explores the critical governance behaviors that influence TCs in the PB supply chain. A theoretical framework of TCs has been developed based on an extensive literature study about supply chain obstacles. Then, according to the transaction cost theory, a governance framework that affects TCs has been created. Taking Anhui province as a case, this study conducted BP neural network analysis based on data from the questionnaire survey to identify the most significant governance behaviors. The main findings highlighted that the government and enterprises’ governance is equally important. Governance behaviors mainly affect TCs through the transaction dimension, among which the business years of enterprises to carry out prefabricated projects is the most critical. Another important finding is that the top three governance behaviors of the government that affect TCs all belong to the transaction environment. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the governance behaviors affecting TCs in the supply chain, extending the knowledge of influencing factors at the top-level design level. It offers scientific and reliable recommendations for the government to improve efficiency and the enterprise in reducing TCs.