The post-contract phase of the construction process remains critical to cost management. Several techniques have been used to facilitate effective cost management in this phase. However, the ...deployment of these techniques has not caused a reduction in the incidence of cost overruns hence casting doubts on their utility. The seeming underwhelming performance posted by these post-contract cost control techniques (PCCTs), has been traced to improper deployment by construction project managers (CPM) and quantity surveyors (QS). Utilizing the perspectives of CPM and QS professionals, as elicited through a survey, produced 135 samples. The instrumentality of the artificial neural networks (ANN) in this study enabled the development of a structured decision-support methodology for analysing the most appropriate PCCTs to be deployed to different construction process phases. Besides showcasing the utility of the emergent ANN-based decision support methodology, the study’s theoretical findings indicate that CPM and QS professionals influence decisions pertaining to PCCTs choice in distinct phases of the construction process. Whereas QS professionals were particularly responsible for the choice of PCCTs during the initial and mid-level phases, CPM professionals assumed responsibility for PCCTs selection during the construction process close-out phase. In construction cost management practice, the crucial PCCTs identifies more with the application of historical data and all cost monitoring approaches.
The transportation sector generates enormous amount of environmental emission. This study aims to assess the environmental impact of the environmental emissions in a transportation infrastructure ...project life cycle. Using the fast track transportation project in China as a case study, the materials used and the energy consumed over the life cycle were converted into environmental emissions. The life cycle of fast track transportation project was divided into three phases including construction, maintenance and repair, and demolition phases. Both qualitative and quantitative method were applied to explore the environmental impact of transportation project. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was used for the development environmental impact assessment (EIA) model to analyze the contribution of each process in the transportation project life cycle. The empirical results show that the construction phase has the highest environmental impact (62.7%) in the fast track transportation project life cycle, followed by the demolition (35.8%) and maintenance phases (1.7%). Among the materials used in the fast track transportation project, steel has the highest proportion of environmental impact in the construction phase (55.5%). This indicates the enormous environmental impact of the construction phase in fast track transportation project life cycle results from the use of steel material. This study contributes to reducing environmental emissions by revealing the greatest phase of environmental impact and material-source of environmental impact over the life cycle in a transportation infrastructure project.
The construction sector (CS) is an economic barometer that mirrors the state of the economy. Therefore, the construction sector is susceptible to economic impacts. This study investigated the impact ...of economic shocks (measured with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) on construction sector performance. The study used econometric methodology which involves several sequential procedure including unit root test, cointegration test, causality and exogeneity tests. The data used was the Annualized time series data about GDP and construction sector. The data were extracted from the United Nations Statistics Division database based on the year 2010 US Dollars price over a forty seven (47) year period (1970- 2016). The study found that the GDP significantly caused the construction sector output in all tests investigated. The study concluded that the construction sector significantly responded to economic shocks in both the short and long run. The study recommended that government should develop a policy framework that supports a concurrent development of the economy and the construction sector in Nigeria.
There is increasing implementation of digital technologies in construction. However, the transformation effects encompassing digital technology implementation are yet to be fully comprehended within ...the context of construction. Therefore, this study was aimed to provide a holistic understanding of digital transformation in construction. The study drew on extant literature by studying 36 journal publications published between 2016 when digital transformation emerged in construction from the information systems field and 2020. This led to the development of an inductive framework using a grounded theory methodology (GTM) to highlight digital transformation in construction as a process where the implementation of digital technologies creates transformation effects that trigger strategic considerations for putting in place the enablers that facilitate transformation effects and for suppressing the barriers to it. Building on the framework, this study described and presented the strategic considerations for facilitating specific enablers and those for suppressing specific barriers as digital transformation guideline in construction. This study demonstrated how the implementation of digital technologies has increased the understanding of and provided the basis for digital transformation in construction.
PurposeThe more contemporary views on managing projects recommend stakeholder engagement as an important part of the process. Challenges have been reported when attempting to involve project ...stakeholders in a construction project due to the complexity of the processes. In projects such as refurbishment projects, the efforts to incorporate end users' needs and preferences into spatial environmental functions increase the complexity of stakeholder engagement during the journey of the project. This paper presents a unique technique used to integrate different tools within the system enquiry methodology in modelling the project stakeholder engagement process for refurbishment projects.Design/methodology/approachAiming to address the problem, system dynamics (SD) has been selected as the most suitable method for modelling the dynamic behaviour of this complex system over time. A tool known as a rich picture diagram (RPD) is proposed as the precursor of the development of a causal loop diagram (CLD) to facilitate a more holistic abstraction for applicable solutions. An example of a single case study involving the refurbishment of a higher education building project is presented to explain the analysis undertaken in the process of developing the CLD that models the dynamic behaviour within end-user stakeholder engagement.FindingsThis paper demonstrates the complementarity capabilities of the soft and hard systems of enquiry in modelling stakeholder's dynamics within the refurbishment construction contexts. The RPD soft system tool was found useful to congregate diverse stakeholder expressions and experiences of a complex system in a holistic manner. Subsequently, the development of the CLD was fully guided by the information and relationship captured and presented in the RPD to yield a representative system model. Furthermore, this paper also reports the dynamics of the actors, situations, events and their inter-relationship found in the presented refurbishment project.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the techniques within the system enquiry methodology by integrating hard and soft system tools for dynamic process modelling purposes. This is particularly achieved by utilizing the RPD as the precursor of SD that provides a useful way for researchers and stakeholders to fully understand the dynamics and develop robust systemic interventions to optimize end-user stakeholder engagement during the journey of refurbishment projects, particularly of higher education buildings.
The refurbishment of building facilities needs to incorporate end-user engagement to ensure refurbished building facilities outcomes that include user-responsive learning spaces and satisfy users’ ...learning needs. However, existing refurbishment design process frameworks neglect to show the engagement process. A new framework for engaging end users in the refurbishment design of building facilities in higher education is presented. A qualitative research methodology was employed to obtain and analyse interview data from twenty-one design team stakeholders involved in two cases of refurbished building facilities in higher education institutions in Australia and New Zealand. The findings revealed four core themes which indicate the context and phases in the refurbishment design process where end-user engagement should be taken seriously. They are the higher education context, early design, user engagement in the design process and post-design phases. In addition, the findings revealed six specific strategies for end-user engagement in the refurbishment design of building facilities in higher education institutions. They are identifying stakeholder value systems, capturing end-user needs, communicating and integrating. Others are the setting of engagement boundaries and surveying of end users. This study modified the project heartbeat originally developed by Stanford University in 2010 for the refurbishment design process in a higher education context. The new framework bridges the gaps in the current literature between stakeholder theory and refurbishment design, and, by incorporating the refurbishment design processes, the framework can be employed in wider education and other project contexts to facilitate the balanced involvement of end users.
Purpose
Banking sector reforms can impact the development of the real sector. However, there is very little known about this impact on the construction sector in a developing country context. This ...study aims to evaluate the impact of the banking sector reform on the construction output (CNS) using the banking sector reform in Nigeria in 2005 (2005 Banking Sector Reform Programme BSRP) as a case.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used econometric methodology comprising unit root test for stationarity, Johansen test for cointegration, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the analysis of covariance. Time series data covering a period from 1981 to 2017 (37 years) about the banking and construction sector performances are analyzed using ten-time series equations.
Findings
The ANOVA estimates reveal that the 2005 BSRP positively impacted the CNS and construction sector growth rate. However, the ANOVA estimates reveal that the gross domestic product (GDP) and bank total loan had a positive impact on CNS in the period (1981–2017) before and after the 2005 BSRP, and consequently removing the effect of the 2005 BSRP on CNS.
Practical implications
This paper concludes that the banking sector reform has a positive impact on CNS in the Nigerian construction industry. The impact is greater and lasting when the reform is directly targeted at improving CNS.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence of the dependence between banking sector reform and construction sector performance in a developing country context. Also, this study demonstrates the relationship between GDP, banking sector reform and construction sector performance in a developing country context.
The aim of this study is to simulate the self-organized evolution mechanism of inner innovation of large-scale construction enterprises (LSCE) under different contexts. Based on NK stochastic ...combinatorial optimization model with two parameters (N, K), this study proposes three modules—ambidexterity, punctuated equilibrium, and automation—to simulate the change behaviors of the inner innovation system. Furthermore, this study analyses the influence of factor correlation on inner innovation performance under discusses nine different combination situations. The research results show that (a) regardless of how the relationship strength changes, fitness increases with an increasing K value; and (b) the comparison of optimization modes show that the punctuated equilibrium mode can guarantee the long- and short-term inner innovation performance LSCE. This study therefore reveals the mutual effects of the factors in the inner innovation system in LSCE and provides an effective model for internal systems analyses in the construction industry and in other sectors.
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