Evolutionary game study on multi-agent value co-creation of service-oriented digital transformation in the construction industry

The service-oriented digital transformation of the construction industry is a development trend of cross-border industrial integration and transformation and upgrading in the digital economy environment, and collaborative value creation among stakeholders is seen as a strategic imperative to promote this process. This study aims to achieve efficient collaborative value co-creation and accelerate the digital transformation process of the construction industry by exploring the collaborative strategies and evolution laws of value co-creators in the digital service ecosystem of the construction industry. Based on evolutionary game theory and methods, this paper analyzes the evolutionary stability strategies and conditions of each participant in the service-oriented value chain at different stages of the digital transformation of the construction industry. It is found that with the improvement of the level of digitalization, the degree of cooperation among game players continues to increase until a stable state of full cooperation is achieved. The initial willingness of the game players to cooperate accelerates the speed of the system’s evolution to the stable state of full cooperation in the middle stage of digital transformation. Additionally, the improvement of the construction process digitalization level can subvert the evolution result of full non-coordination caused by a low initial willingness to cooperate. The research conclusions and corresponding countermeasures and suggestions can provide a strategic reference for the service-oriented digital transformation of the construction industry.