Digital transformation of construction industry under government reward and punishment mechanism based on evolutionary game modeling

Current research on digital transformation in the construction industry requires an in-depth analysis of the behavioral strategy choices of relevant key players. This paper bridges this gap by combining the characteristics of the construction industry and focusing on the key behavioral players in the digital transformation of the construction industry. It constructs an evolutionary game model involving the government, construction units, and construction enterprises, and examines the impact of government incentives and penalties on the strategic choices of each game participant. MATLAB is used to simulate, validate and analyze the effects of various factors on strategic choices to verify the validity of the model. The results suggest that (1) increasing incentives and subsidies for construction units and enterprises will facilitate the advancement of digital transformation in the construction industry. However, they must be kept within a specific range or they may lead to speculative behavior. (2) By setting a loss limit and penalizing local governments, higher-level governments can stimulate the digital transformation of construction enterprises. Through the analysis of the evolutionary results, several countermeasure suggestions are put forward, aiming to promote the digital transformation of the construction industry.