Evaluation of Success of Superhydrophobic Coatings in the Oil and Gas Construction Industry Using Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

In the oil and gas construction industry, the adoption of superhydrophobic coatings is still in the early adoption phase. Due to the lack of research and the importance of hydrophobic coatings in the oil and gas construction business, this study examined the success determinants of superhydrophobic coatings in Malaysia. This quantitative study included a pilot survey to assess questionnaire validity and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to reduce success variables discovered through a literature review. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to develop a model involving success factors of superhydrophobic coatings in the oil and gas construction industry of Malaysia. Four constructs in total were found in SEM, namely, performance success, sustainability construct, oil spill management, and safety and economic success. In total, five items were excluded from the model because their loading factors were less than 0.6. All Cronbach Alpha reliability constants were greater than 0.7, the composite reliability indicators were greater than 0.8, and the AVE was greater than 0.6 for all of the constructs, confirming acceptable reliability and validity statistics. Both convergent and discriminant validity confirmed the relationships between all constructs and the latent variable. The observed path coefficients between the constructs and the latent variable were 0.476 for performance success, 0.461 for sustainability success, 0.322 for oil spill management, and 0.242 for safety and economic success. The significance value for all of the constructs was less than 0.05, confirming the strong relationship between the constructs and the critical success of superhydrophobic coatings in the oil and gas industry.