Strategic Engineering Management for Sustainable and Resilient U.S. Industrial Infrastructure

Abstract

As the U.S. industrial system is expected to achieve two objectives at once — sustainability aligned with decarbonisation and resilience in the climate era — it is faced with limited budgets and an aging infrastructure. This study empirically examines a strategic-engineering-management (SEM) model that posits that strategic leadership, sustainable design practices, resilience planning, digital transformation, and stakeholder engagement collectively influence two outcomes: sustainability performance and infrastructure resilience. The cross-sectional survey data was gathered from N = 412 infrastructure managers, chief engineers, sustainability directors, and chief resilience officers from eight infrastructure industries between February and August 2024 in the United States. A seven-construct reflective measurement model was estimated with acceptable reliability (Cronbach's α range 0.85–0.89; CR range 0.79–0.85; AVE range 0.48–0.52) and satisfactory model fit (χ²/df = 1.44; CFI = 0.947; TLI = 0.941; RMSEA = 0.038 [0.032, 0.044]; SRMR = 0.046). There are six hypotheses that were tested. Strategic leadership is a significant predictor of sustainability performance (β = 0.142, p < .01) and infrastructure resilience (β = 0.157, p < .001); sustainable design practices is the dominant predictor of sustainability performance (β = 0.396, p < .001); resilience planning is the dominant predictor of infrastructure resilience (β = 0.388, p < .001); stakeholder engagement partially mediates the strategic leadership → infrastructure resilience path (Sobel z = 6.57, p < .001); digital transformation is a significant predictor, but does not amplify the strategic leadership → sustainability performance path (β_int = 0.023, ns). The final models account for 44.9% of the variance in sustainability performance and 53.2% in resilience. Practical implications are derived on how investments in strategic, technical, and stakeholder-facing infrastructure should be sequenced to support joint sustainability and resilience goals of U.S. infrastructure firms.