Extant research confirms the importance of value cocreation through customer participation (CP), but relatively little is known about whether and how it creates an enjoyable experience for customers ...and service employees and the consequential outcomes of this positive affective experience. This study applies the concept of flow as an overarching framework and draws theoretical support from social cognitive theory, particularly its extension (i.e., the conceptual model of relational efficacy beliefs), to examine how customers and employees derive enjoyment from CP conditional on their perceived efficacy of themselves (self-efficacy SE) and their partners (other-efficacy OE) in financial services. Empirical results from 223 client-financial adviser dyads confirm that participation enjoyment, in addition to economic and relational values, mediates the impact of CP on participants' satisfaction evaluations, with SE positively moderating CP's impact on participation enjoyment. The synergistic effect of SE and OE on participation enjoyment also differs for clients versus financial advisers: Even incongruent levels of SE and OE can enhance participation enjoyment as long as they help validate role expectations of the respective participants.
Prefabrication is considered an important solution to tackle the issues of construction waste generation, and the high-risk and labour-intensive activities associated with conventional construction ...methods. This study assesses the key hindrances of adopting prefabrication and provides recommendations for promoting prefabrication in Hong Kong. Twenty-two hindrances were identified in the literature and classified in six groups. A questionnaire survey and face-to-face interviews were conducted to examine the level of importance of the barriers, and to provide comprehensive analyses of each hindrance. The most significant hindrances were “Inflexible for design change”, “Lack storage space on site”, “Long lead-in time”, “Long design time”, “High initial cost” and “High total cost”. Based on the findings of the survey and interviews, six recommendations were proposed to promote the usage of prefabrication in Hong Kong such as “Just-In-Time management”, “BIM technology”, “Legislation for refabrication”, “Potential government measures”, “Encouragement of design and building procure” and “Increase the consumer's confidence”.
•Lack storage space on site is a major hindrance to using prefabrication in dense cities.•Inflexible for late design change is a major hindrance to using prefabrication.•Just-in-time delivery & BIM optimize prefabricated building process in dense cities.•Implementation of legislation for prefabrication can promote its use.•Adoption of design and build procurement method can promote prefabrication use.
While the beneficial impacts of supplier and customer integration are generally acknowledged, very few empirical research studies have examined how an organization can achieve better product ...performance through product innovation enhanced by such integration. This paper thus examines the impact of key supplier and customer integration processes (i.e., information sharing and product codevelopment with supplier and customer, respectively) on product innovation as well as their impact on product performance. It contributes to existing literature by asking how such integration activities affect product innovation and performance in both direct and indirect ways. After surveying 251 manufacturers in Hong Kong, this study tested the relationships among information sharing, product codevelopment, product innovativeness, and performance with three control variables (i.e., company size, type of industry, and market certainty). Structural equation modeling with correlation and t‐tests was used to test the hypothesized research model. The findings indicate a direct, positive relationship between supplier and customer integration and product performance. In particular, this study verifies that sharing information with suppliers and product codevelopment with customers directly improves product performance. In addition, this study empirically examines the indirect effects of supplier and customer integration processes on product performance, mediated by innovation. This has seldom been attempted in previous research. The empirical findings show that product codevelopment with suppliers improves performance, mediated by innovation. However, the sampled firms cannot improve their product innovation by sharing information with their current customers and suppliers as well as codeveloping new products with the customers. If the adoption of supplier and customer integration is not cost free, the findings of this study may suggest firms work on particular supplier and customer integration processes (i.e., product codevelopment with suppliers) to improve their product innovation. The study also suggests that companies codevelop new products only with new customers and lead users instead of current ones for product innovation. For managers, this study has demonstrated that both information sharing and product codevelopment affect performance directly and indirectly. Managers should put more emphasis on these key processes, especially when linked with product innovation. Managers should consider involving their suppliers and customers in the early stages of design. Information sharing with suppliers is also important in product development. As suggested by this study, extensive effort on supplier and customer integration should be made to directly augment current product performance and product innovation at the same time.
Building construction consumes large amount of energy and material. Despite that, not much effort has been directed to examine the environmental impact of the construction phase, and this is ...particularly relevant to Hong Kong where the demand for building construction is ever increasing. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) model namely the Environmental Model of Construction (EMoC) is developed to help decision-makers assess the environmental performance of building construction projects in Hong Kong from cradle to end of construction. The model provides comprehensive analyses of 18 environmental impact categories at the midpoint and endpoint levels. By inputting project specific data to EMoC, it can generate results of over two-hundred detailed processes. A public rental housing (PRH) project is fed into EMoC to examine the environmental performance of this type of projects. The results indicate that material is the major contributor to environmental impacts of the upstream stages of public housing construction. The carbon emissions of the studied project amount to 637 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per square meter of the gross floor area. Sensitivity analysis reveals that the environmental pollution can be significantly reduced by adopting a higher proportion of precast concrete components. The model should help support decision-makers identifying pragmatic solutions to reduce the environmental burden of a building project at the design, procurement and construction stages.
•EMoC is developed to evaluate the environmental impacts of building construction.•Carbon emissions of the PRH project account for 637 kg CO2e per m2 of GFA.•Adoption of precast concrete can significantly reduce the environmental pollution.
As the demand grows for customized services, so too the management of those experiences becomes more important. This study examines the relationship between service environment, customer ...predisposition and service experience evaluation. Based on data derived from 366 visitors to two theme parks in Hong Kong, a link was found between the servicescape and tourist evaluation through the moderating effects of customer predispositions. Consequently, both the substantive and communicative aspects of the servicescape reliably predicted visitors' evaluations. In addition, a visitor's predisposition to fantasize and/or participate was found to influence the ability of servicescape elements to shape a favorable service experience. Theoretical contributions of this research are elucidated. Moreover, managerial implications related to servicescape design, promotion strategies and service experience enhancement are discussed.
► We examine the antecedents and consequences of customer service experience for theme park visitors. ► Theme park visitors' perceptions toward servicescape elements positively predict their service experience evaluation. ► Customer predisposition characteristics moderate the above effects.
Among all construction activities, demolition normally generates the largest proportion of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, to which requires more importance being attached for effective ...management. Previous studies have attempted to understand demolition waste generation (DWG) but the understanding remains relatively insufficient, largely due to the erratic and poor quality data available. This research aims to identify factors impacting DWG by making use of a big dataset which has recently become available as a result of C&D waste management practices in Hong Kong. Using big data analytics, it is confirmed that DWG, demolition cost, and duration of conducting the demolition work are dependent on each other. It is also found that geographical location, building usage, and the public-private nature of a building project also have a significant impact on DWG in the Hong Kong context. Based on the correlations between DWG and these identified factors, stakeholders may introduce proper managerial or policy interventions to effectively minimize DWG. For example, public policy-makers may formulate more tailor-made regulations to attach more importance to the locations, usages and public-private nature, which have more potentials for demolition waste minimization.
•Building location, usage, and developer's public-private nature influence demolition waste generation (DWG).•DWG is related to demolition cost and duration.•Government should focus on managing the most wasteful demolition projects.•The study offers reliable references to improve demolition waste governance.
•Long-term wind measurements at five typical weather stations in Hong Kong are analyzed.•Wind characteristics and wind energy potential over typical terrain conditions are statistically assessed.•The ...measured wind speed data fit well with the Weibull distribution function.•Annual, seasonal and monthly variations of the Weibull parameters are presented.•Hilltops and offshore islands are identified as promising sites for wind energy development in Hong Kong.
The harvesting of renewable energy sources has become increasingly important to take account of the gradual decline of fossil fuel reserves and the environment degradation associated with the use of fossil fuels. Wind energy, as one of the most well-known renewable energy sources, has been extensively harnessed across the world. Nevertheless, the wind energy exploitation in Hong Kong is still rare.
Based on 6-year wind data recorded at five meteorological stations with different terrain conditions, this study presents a statistical analysis of the wind characteristics and wind energy potential at typical sites in Hong Kong by the assistance of Weibull distribution model. The variations of mean wind speed, as well as Weibull parameters, were highlighted on various timescales. Among all the sites, the annual Weibull scale parameter varied from 2.85m/s to 10.19m/s, and the range of the annual shape parameter was 1.65–1.99. The highest Weibull scale parameter was observed at a hilltop, whilst the lowest was found at an urban site. The monthly variation of wind power density was presented and discussed for each site. Hilltops and offshore islands demonstrated prominently greater wind power density than urban areas. It was thus indicated that hilltops and offshore islands are the most promising locations for wind energy exploitation in Hong Kong.
Prefabrication has been developed since the 1970s. The technologies have been further developed and improved for the past thirty years. The successful implementation of quality control and ...construction efficiency has been addressed with support from the public sector. The technologies however did not receive attention from the private sector since prefabrication requires dimensional coordination and standardization in the designs. This situation has changed from 2002 as the Hong Kong government promotes incentives schemes, i.e. gross floor area concessions for private developers to encourage them to adopt prefabrication techniques. This paper discusses and evaluates the best practice of prefabrication implementation in the Hong Kong public and private sectors using two leading case studies. Their adoption of prefabrication, construction methods and cost effectiveness are investigated. Discussions on effective implementation for the sectors have also been explored. The findings provide ameliorated understanding on the best practice of the implementation of prefabrication and provide courage for further improvement and implementation for the industry.
•This paper evaluates and discusses the effectiveness of prefabrication.•Two leading case studies from the Hong Kong public and private sectors are used.•Their adoption of prefabrication, construction methods and cost effectiveness are investigated.•Discussions on effective implementation for the sectors have also been explored.
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